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2/16/2009
Yes, every kid deserves a great education
Last week I reviewed important facts voters may want to review prior to casting their vote, Yes or No, for the February 17 Appleton Area School District referendum.
If the referendum doesn’t pass, AASD says they must eliminate 30 – 40 positions, “25 to 30 of which will be classroom teachers, resulting in class size increases and reduced course offerings.”
Let’s agree that class size is important. What if the referendum offered a choice (well, statutorily it really can’t, but what if it did?)? In order to hire say, 30 more teachers:Taxpayers will, after 3 years, pay $10.9M more every year forever (i.e., essentially Question 1 of the referendum).
OR
Taxpayers will support a salary freeze for employees and decreased taxpayer-paid health care premiums. (Start by bidding out the plan, increasing employee portion of premium paid, and continuing policy reforms that will decrease utilization.) Ok. Easy to say. Not so easy to do because all that stuff in the 2nd choice requires negotiation. It might be said that the referendum will be the arbiter of what voters believe is a fair compensation settlement for the last two years and as importantly, what might be a fair settlement for 2009-2010, the first year impacted by the referendum.
One way to look at it: If you believe taxes should be increased so next year’s contract can be settled at 4% or more and 30 new teachers hired, vote yes on the referendum; if you believe union members could voluntarily come to the table with a no-increase position, so 30 new teachers can be hired, vote No on the referendum.
I asked AASD Superintendent Lee Allinger if, given that taxpayers appreciate and respect our teachers, he believed voters will think that an assumption of a 4 or 4.5% wage/benefit increase for 2009-2010 is acceptable. Allinger replied that “Contract negotiations have not yet begun for the 2009-10 school year. The economic downturn will have a significant impact on contract negotiations with all groups. Our community will expect that all educator settlements (including administration) will reflect what is happening in our local economy.“
So, what will those settlements be? Is it possibly time for district salaries to not increase?
These are serious times. Time when all must come to the table and do their part. When thousands and thousands have lost jobs in the private sector, is this the time to ask district employees to help with the solution? Perhaps so.
I’ll say once again that I appreciate AASD. I appreciate AASD’s great staff and administrators. I appreciate and respect AASD’s teachers – and am very concerned about our kids. However…this is not the time to ask taxpayers to pay more. Because of that, I will be voting no on Question #1 of the AASD Referendum February 17.
(Do you wonder why the school district spends your tax dollars to campaign to pass their referendum that you may or may not agree with? It’s the law… and it’s explained here.) http://www.foxpolitics.net/politics.iml?mdl=issues.mdl&issue_id=12580
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
My husband works for Sheboygan Schools, and they are facing pay cuts next year. At least, they're not losing their jobs, like some teachers in other parts of the state.
With the Federal obligations that now exceed the WORLD'S GDP, now is not the time for ANYONE who's paid by taxpayers, to ask for more. By and large, most teachers truly are not living in the real world (all I have to do to prove this is point to some of my husband's co-workers).
emily matthews (Mon Feb 16 08:04:10 2009)
Emily, yes teachers are living in the real world...a world in which business leaders take home huge bonuses while bankrupting their firms, public officials eat hearty at the public trough after running up enormous deficits, GED educated steel workers cry for protectionism because they have to cut back on $87,000 a year (plus benefits) jobs. We may not like teachers looking out for their own welfare, but who else will? Until society starts ostracizing the lazy, the cheaters, and the over-indulgent executives running the show, everyone else has to struggle to keep their heads above the water.
Dennis (Mon Feb 16 19:40:35 2009)
From personal experience, I don't know that class size is that important. And second, let's not let the educational bureaucrats get away with rampant inflation in the superlatives department anymore.
It's a disease. Nobody says, "Have a good day" anymore. Now "good" isn't good enough. It's an even more insincere "Have a great day."
Well, I got a reasonably decent education in the Chicago Public Schools in the days when desks were bolted to the floor, every classroom had a pendulum clock and kids were stacked into the room like cord wood.
Of course, I came to learn. That and look up girls' dresses. Remember when girls wore dresses to school?
Rich Eggleston (Tue Feb 17 10:28:47 2009)
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