Wisconsin’s Reforms are Working

From Christian Schneider at NRO’s Corner

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s critics are…loath to put numbers on stats — numbers that show his public-sector collective-bargaining reforms are benefiting the state. Wisconsin is replete with examples of cities and school districts that are reforming their finances to finally balance their books — and doing it without significant cuts to services…under Walker’s plan to require greater health-care and pension contributions from government employees, the City of Milwaukee actually comes out $11 million ahead…the Brown Deer school district is implementing a plan to allow performance pay for its best teachers…In Appleton, the collective-bargaining reforms allowed the school district there to save $3 million by bidding for health care on the open market…In Manitowoc, County Executive Bob Ziegelbauer altered overtime procedures for county employees, saving taxpayers $100,000…all over the state, teacher jobs are being spared due to the increased benefit requirements in Walker’s plan. The Wauwatosa School District, facing a $6.5 million shortfall, anticipated needing to cut 100 teacher jobs — yet they were able to spare those teachers through shared sacrifice.

Read the rest here: Reforms Working

DJH

Playing the “Kid Card” in Wisconsin

When teachers or their unions (the distinction has become blurred) decide to make demands or take a stand, they always tell us that it isn’t about money, advancement, or personal issues – it’s all about the kids. Playing the “kid card” has worked many times over the years, but the “kid card” cannot not trump the facts in Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently. Wisconsin spends more money per pupil than any other Midwest state, yet the kids don’t seem to be getting the better education promised by spending more money.

From 1998 to 2008, Wisconsin increased its per-pupil expenditure by $4,245. During that same period, 8^th grade students’ average scores on the NAEP reading test remained exactly the same. More money “for the kids” has not increased test scores or other measures of education received.

Teachers in Wisconsin taking students to protests is just another “kid card”. It has not brought sympathy for teachers’ plight; it has brought disgust. Teachers doing this are abusing the respect and trust their students have in them as much as they are abusing paid sick days (with doctors illegally handing out excuses for them at protests). Teachers are not helping their cause with this type of behavior and it will not give them immunity from the hard decisions bad economic times demand.

One has to wonder how forcing the schools to close is for “the kids”, or what lesson the kids will learn from their teachers’ comparison of Governor Walker to Hitler and Wisconsin to Egypt. Musician Tom Morello, former member of Rage Against The Machine, visited Wisconsin with another lesson “for the kids”, issuing a resurrected 60’s Hippie warning: “The Whole World Is Watching”.

A more appropriate warning would be: “The Kids are Watching”. Sadly, that card doesn’t seem to be in their kid-stacked deck.

David J. Hentosh

Where There are Cameras, There is Jesse

When two or more people pull out cell phones to take pictures, there is a risk that Jesse Jackson will show up. If there is a news camera around, the odds of a Jesse appearance increase significantly. If there is a news camera and people allowing him speak, it’s a certainty that Jesse will be there.

Wisconsin’s protests attracted Jesse like honey attracts flies. He never met a protest by the “people” against the “man” he didn’t like. That includes the Tea Party protests because he never really “met” them; he just disparages them from afar. Perhaps that’s only because they never invited him to speak, or because he’s convinced they are a bunch of racists. Anyone who doesn’t like Jesse is automatically considered a racist – by Jesse.

Jesse never fails to equate whatever event he speaks at with the civil rights movement of the 60’s. It is his “race card”, his free pass to all events he attends. This allows him to mention Dr. Martin Luther King, the man Jesse brushed shoulders with and came away believing that Dr. King’s greatness was passed onto his own shoulders. That is not the case. Jesse couldn’t make a pimple on Dr. King’s…well, you know what.

Jesse Jackson has become a tired cliché and, as such, should retire from public appearances. The black community never elected him as a spokesman so, unfortunately, he can’t be impeached or fired. He will have to make the personal decision to remove himself, but having an ego as big as the Goodyear blimp assures that will not happen. His ability as an articulate speaker is his only forte, and it is getting tiring.

Perhaps Jesse’s appearance at the Wisconsin protests will spare us all from a visit by Al Sharpton, another camera-happy, never-elected, stuck-in-the-60’s cliché. That would make Jesse’s appearance much like a bitter, but necessary, pill. It would sure be hard to swallow both.

David J. Hentosh

Nanny State Reaction in Wisconsin

The reaction in Wisconsin to Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to keep the state financially viable is familiar. We have witnessed the same reaction in Greece, England, and France when the economic reality of an unsustainable Nanny State bursts the fantasy bubble of belief in those receiving entitlements that cradle-to-grave care is a “right”.

It is a consistent and predictable reaction when “assistance”, either from the government or unions, is taken away. Recipients become dependent and take it for granted that the status quo will not only remain, but get better. They become very indignant when you take away what they feel is rightly theirs. It is an inherent attitude in the Nanny State.

Last year in London, there were serious student riots over government tuition hikes for universities when students felt their “right” to a highly subsidized college education was being threatened. In France, union-backed protests “spontaneously” erupted when President Sarkozy embraced the cost-cutting measure of increasing retirement age from 60 to 62. In Greece, labor unions were outraged over the sinking government’s dire need to cut salaries and pensions, producing very violent protests.

Wisconsin is now emulating European Nanny States by trying to stop the flow of increasing expenditures it can no longer afford, causing the teachers’ union, along with teachers, to indignantly cry “foul”. Using standard fact-skirting liberal tactics of name-calling, demonizing, self-righteousness, and distortion, teachers and their unions are demanding to remain immune from the economical crisis Wisconsin is facing.

Deliberately twisting the issue, protesters are spinning wildly to redefine this as an attack against teachers instead of an economical necessity. Carrying signs comparing Walker to Hitler, some protesters are ignorantly and hypocritically inflaming the situation. Even the abhorrent tactic of dragging school kids to protests is being used by teachers to squeeze sympathy for their “plight”.

And what, exactly, is their plight? It isn’t the request for a contribution to the cost of their benefits or a limiting of pay raises. It is the effort to eliminate the union’s right to collective bargaining which would be a curtailment of the union’s power to bring school districts to their knees with excessive demands. I’m sure the school kids being dragged to protests understand this fully.

David J. Hentosh