Governor Kasich got bored one day and decided to cut local budgets just for fun, and that’s why school districts around Ohio can’t make ends meet!
So say the Ohio Education Association (OEA) and Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE – also known as AFSCME Local 11). Coincidentally, OEA and OAPSE bargain for unsustainable pay, benefits, and automatic increases with local politicians they helped elect… then turn around and spend millions in member dues demanding more from the rest of us.
Now mean King Kasich – who sneaked Senate Bill 5 through with no opportunity for Democrat amendments – is seeking input on merit pay, allegedly to ensure it’s a well-designed cost saving tool for local governments. The unions are not enthused:
“I don’t think you have to look too deep underneath the surface to say when is somebody genuinely interested in talking to us when is somebody kind of paying lip service, said Scott DiMauro, president of the Central OEA.
“Unfortunately, what the governor has talked about doing and what other people talk about with merit pay, you’ve got to question is it really about improving student achievement or is it about trying to save money,” he asked.
Kasich requests suggestions for an obvious need that will be a challenge to implement, and the OEA simply pouts that cost savings and quality are mutually exclusive.
Anyone who’s ever had more than one teacher knows some teachers are better than others. If the OEA and OAPSE cared about effective, affordable public education, they would jump at the chance to incorporate merit into salary formulas. Even a cynic would expect the unions to realize schools can’t be effective for long if they aren’t affordable… and can’t be either if bad teachers are paid big bucks.
But the unions can’t admit bad teachers exist, because the union business model says all members are beautiful, unique snowflakes who deserve raises just for hanging around. Pay your dues, and you’re subject to the same condescending treatment and byzantine rules as everyone else. Last in, first out screws young teachers but works great for the unions. Step increases suck for taxpayers but work great for the unions. Who do you think the unions are looking out for?
Though it would be unprecedented, there’s a possibility I’m wrong! Maybe a forever-increasing flow of taxpayer dollars is what school districts and local governments need to excel. After all, that’s worked wonders at the Department of Education...
Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
Cross-posted from that hero.
I can hardly wait for "modern" to arrive here with a vain attempt at changing the subject
ReplyDeleteWho needs to change the subject when J. Hart continues to use the same faulty data to support the same tired, worn out, and disproven talking points to suggest that a teacher with a masters degree makes more than a private sector worker (most of whom don't have a college education, and if so, mostly an associates)
ReplyDeleteMost people in the private sector get raises that at least factor in COLA and experience. Unions are so evil, so anti-taxpayer that they've... forgone STEP increases for the past two years already showing that SB 5 isn't necessary because unions and governments can work out their differences and make adjustments to balance our budgets. (Why doesn't Bytor or J. Hart talk about those evil unions in Central Ohio that won't cut their pay to stop job losses anymore? Because that's what they actually did.)
Seriously, why bother responding to a site that is nothing more than an used astroturf operation for the Ohio Republican Party, was on their payroll last year, is read by virtually nobody, and cares so little about its credibility it refuses to stop making disproven claims?
Aww...
ReplyDeleteModern is pouty because not everyone hearts unions like he does.
:-(
Modern is correct that a number of Columbus area unions have taken pay freezes over the past couple of years. But this is a short-term fix in response to a down economy rather than the systemic change that is needed. In addition to much needed pension reform, unless we want to end up like Illinois, the rationale for the traditional teacher pay scale doesn't work anymore. I know a number of teachers that support SB5 and, not surprisingly, most of them are excellent young teachers. I'm not saying that all older/experienced teachers are bad, but the pay incentives don't make sense, especially since this won't be the last recession we ever have.
ReplyDeleteModern complains of tired, worn out talking points based on faulty data.
ReplyDeleteThen he goes back to his blog and says SB5 is an "attack on the middle class" when, in fact, public employees comprise a tiny fraction of Ohio's actual middle class.
The average salary numbers are still, as ever, precisely as labeled: average salary numbers. Directly from the Ohio Department of Education, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the unions' own annual reports.
ReplyDeleteReaders, note how Modern always glosses over the top line - the employees of the union, paid from member dues - although that's been the focus of my "disproven claims" for months.
Modern, why is it that you never provide anything like proof of your assertions?
ReplyDeleteFor example, can you prove your assertion that "most people in the private sector..."? The American left continues to test the frontiers of discourse. They surpassed "disingenuous" during the Bush years and are now flat out lying.
So prove that you're not a liar Modern. Support your claim.
Next, as revoltaire correctly points out, the unions did little more than throw the taxpayers a bone.
The leadership of the unions is no doubt smart enough to realize that their main hope for staying on the gravy train is voter indifference.
so they do the pay freeze for show while the fundamental problem, which is the corrupt relationship between the government and the politicians, remains in place. In a while the voters' attention will be focused on something else and the union leaders can go back to sticking it to us.
I hardly think so.
And when I consider pay, I mean all the fundage necessary to be in compliance with the CBA. Therefore the outrageous cost of that teacher with the master degree is not only salary, but benefits and retirement as well.
Modern never discusses the benefits issue. Gosh I wonder why. I wonder how much of the taxpayer's hard earned money is spent making sure that the teachers in Ohio have viagara on their benefit plan's formulary.
And may we assume, based on the expressions of contempt stated in your last paragraph, that we will hear no more of you?
And may we assume, based on the expressions of contempt stated in your last paragraph, that we will hear no more of you?
ReplyDeleteROFL!!! HAHAHA!!!
Not likely! Modern spends his time spewing his venom at every conservative blog in the state, as well as the comments sections of several newspapers.
Its his life.