The farmer is almost broke, he has had to take on a second job. His wife now works in town at Wal-Mart, his kids are almost shoeless, the bank is about to foreclose and the pigs are complaining that they might loose their say in the quantity and quality of the slop.
On Wisconsin!
Yesterday in Wisconsin, we saw the near-future; Wisconsin citizens protesting at their capital, demanding a halt to uncontrolled public employee spending.
Like so many in the country, taxpayers in Wisconsin are hurting. Good private-sector jobs have been in decline. Good hard working men and women are loosing their homes. Wisconsin’s tax base is shrinking.
I took this graph off the Wisconsin Department of Workplace Development. This is not a pretty sight.
School Systems are going broke!
Recently retired Superintendent Williams, as you will recall, led EMSD#63 through a 22% tax increase referendum in 2004. It took two tries but the Superintendent/Board won by 1% of the vote.
Unfortunately, for us, it’s 2004 again. Last time the unemployment was low. The Real-estate market was booming. Inflation was under control. That’s not the case today.
Education is a shared responsibility.
For years US Citizens have been told by the teachers, their unions and school leadership and other “experts” that education is a shared responsibility. The “It Takes a Village” approach to allocating responsibility is conveniently used when discussing the industry's poor job performance, but this approach is quickly forgotten when discussing ever-increasing job costs.
Wisconsin is not alone.
Those Wisconsin teachers who went to Madison to protest, have yet to come to grips with reality. They still have jobs – many of them, really good paying jobs.
But what about their neighbors?
We have uncontrolled pension problems too.
We are in this together or we are not!
Should we be upset with good public servants wanting to make as much money as they can? Of course not, that’s what we’re doing. It’s human nature.
What we (Wisconsin & Illinois) taxpayers should be upset about, is public union leadership’s continued lack of empathy, their lack of Village Spirit and their unwillingness to share the burden with us.
Teachers and other public employees tell me that “they are taxpayers too”. Indeed they are. However, they don’t seem to understand that their jobs do not create or expand the pool of money that sustains them! It’s the private sector that does.
Of course, teachers and other public employees are not pigs. But they’re not farmers either. The symbiotic relationship is out of balance.
I suspect, in the end, the ultimate question will be; who will run the farm?
I hope the people in Wisconsin fare better then their neighbors in Illinois.
7 comments:
Mr. B:
This topic is way to complicated for us to completely discuss it on a blog. There are a few comments I need to make.
1. If these workers are not pigs why did you choose such an analogy??? I think you showed your hand.
2. I take it from some of your posts that you are retired. What you have earned and saved is none of my damn business so rather go there let me talk about my family (in general terms). My wife and I both work and through hard work and the grace of God have done very well. We are not millionaires but let's just say that the extensions of those over 250K had a positive affect on our budget (or rather avoided a negative affect). I got a break that I did not even ask for. Guess what?? I have not paid what my supposed tax rate is in years....YEARS!!!! It is all perfectly legal. I would bet that my taxes paid as a percentage of my income are less than some of the public workers we have. I think many of tghose screaming the loudest about this issue fit into the same catagory. Beyond that, we have corporations GE is one example) who paid ZERO taxes last year.
Meanwhile, we have public workers who have a pension valued at about 25K per year with no social security (of course my odds of collecting any SS are zero but I digress.
So to sum it all up.....I ask you...who are the pigs?!?!?!?!
February 18, 2011 3:50 PM,
You’re wasting my time.
I’ll tell you what. You obviously haven’t spent a great deal of time reviewing prior posts on this blog site. If you’re taking in 250k+ as you purport, then I suspect you have more than a modicum of intelligence. Spend some time. Look at those posts that show teacher administrator pay history – including your own. Look at those posts that discuss profligate spending by boards and administrations.
When you’re done, then come back and we’ll have an intelligent discussion on pay!
Anon: February 18, 2011 3:50PM,
Let me respond to your comments.
Note: To make the dialogue easier to follow, and, to make it more instructive to others reading the blog, of which there are now 50 to over 80 per day, I’ve decided to discuss your comments piece-meal. In other words, we will discuss each comment and then move on to the next.
FIRST TOPIC
You said: “This topic is way to complicated for us to completely discuss it on a blog. There are a few comments I need to make.”
What subject was complicated?
Were you confused by the idea that “Taxpayers in Wisconsin are hurting” or that in Wisconsin, “Good private-sector jobs have been in decline” or that the “Wisconsin’s tax base is shrinking” or was it that in Wisconsin as well as Illinois, “School Districts across the state are feeling the pinch due to increased expenses and fewer available dollars”?
Can you elaborate?
CONTINUING ON….
You said: “1. If these workers are not pigs why did you choose such an analogy??? I think you showed your hand.”
First, I used the analogy because public-employees are currently acting like pigs at the trough. Maybe you don’t see priggishness for what it is because they are “workers”? Wall Street “big shots” are “workers” too. When they act like pigs at the trough they also deserve to be called out.
Second, I’m not sure what you mean by “I think you showed your hand”. Please elaborate.
Now, it’s your turn to respond, and then we’ll move on.
I understand your entire idea is that teachers make way too much money for the work that they do. They are glorified babysitters. Let's pay them babysitters salary then shall we.
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - baby sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM
with 45 min. off for lunch and plan — that equals 6 1/2 hours).
So each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
Now how many do they teach in day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE…. That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 peryear. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children
X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!)
WHAT A DEAL!!!!
February 22, 2011 2:24 PM,
I have never suggested that teachers are “babysitters”. That is not to say that substitutes have not been put in a position of acting as “babysitter”.
The public is constantly reminded by educators, that one of their goals when educating children is the development of “critical thinking”.
So that you might understand the remainder of my answer to your comment, I’ve chosen to quote directly from criticalthinking.org.
“… Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness.
It entails the examination of those structures or elements of thought implicit in all reasoning: purpose, problem, or question-at-issue; assumptions; concepts; empirical grounding; reasoning leading to conclusions; implications and consequences; objections from alternative viewpoints; and frame of reference. Critical thinking — in being responsive to variable subject matter, issues, and purposes — is incorporated in a family of interwoven modes of thinking, among them: scientific thinking, mathematical thinking, historical thinking, anthropological thinking, economic thinking, moral thinking, and philosophical thinking.”
Your answer not only lacked critical thinking, it lacked originality. This “babysitter” argument has been unsuccessfully used for years.
I am willing to discuss any and all aspects of my post. I would like to believe that you have the intellectual curiosity and capacity to argue your position on points I’ve made. Of course, I could be wrong.
Yes part of the role of teachers is to teach the children "critical thinking" as you say, but the additional reality is that teachers are more and more playing the role of mother, father, brother, sister etc.. The teachers are not getting the reinforcement that they should be from the student's home, because mommy or daddy is not home, or does not speak the language.
Having posts about teacher and administrators pay is saying "that teachers and administrators make too much money" and they are not doing their job to your satisfaction. This has all been a load of you know what. Yes, some teachers are not as good as they could or should be, however the most of us work really hard, and don't make a lot of money. Teachers have to work with you the parent to make things work. For the most part, parents are not doing their part and raising the students with common sense, or in your words "critical thinking." Maybe you can't understand that as a parent, I presume?
Anon: February 23, 2011 2:25 PM,
Your statement: “Yes part of the role of teachers is to teach the children "critical thinking" as you say, but the additional reality is that teachers are more and more playing the role of mother, father, brother, sister etc.. The teachers are not getting the reinforcement that they should be from the student's home, because mommy or daddy is not home, or does not speak the language.”
My answer: You speak as if the situation were something new. 50 years ago when I was a grade school student, it was not unusual for one or both parents to work. After World War II, the US was inundated with displaced people from war-torn Europe and Asia. Yet, in spite of the numerous languages spoken at home, and in spite of having to teach students with no English-speaking experience what so ever, teachers were able to educate those children. I grew up with kids who did not speak a word of English on their first day of school, yet, by the end of the year they were able to communicate well enough to succeed and move to the next level.
Your statement: “Having posts about teacher and administrators pay is saying ‘that teachers and administrators make too much money’ and they are not doing their job to your satisfaction. This has all been a load of you know what.”
My answer: Why is expecting educational success, a “load owed you know what”? You are succeeding or you are not. That’s the way things work out here in the real world. I believe the reason you have such discomfort with my position is that you are not seeing success yourself or from others at your school.
Are teachers and administrators making too much money? Quite a few are! Tell me the name of the district you work for in Illinois and I will present a multiyear pay report to prove my point.
Now, I don’t know you. I don’t know how successful you are with your students. I don’t know what you personally bring to the table. So I don’t know if you are worth the money you are being paid.
Your statement: “Teachers have to work with you the parent to make things work. For the most part, parents are not doing their part and raising the students with common sense, or in your words "critical thinking." Maybe you”
My answer: Common sense (sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts) and critical thinking (the application of logical principles, rigorous standards of evidence, and careful reasoning to the analysis and discussion of claims, beliefs, and issues), are not the same thing.
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