Ok, admittedly I am a bit late to this party since this is my first comment on SB-5 but a few things do bear saying. I am a lisenced teacher with 10 years under my belt in the public schools. While currently not employed full time by any particular district, I feel for the good teachers (and other workers) who are caught up in this mess. Most of those who are going to be affected by this particular issue have had little or nothing to do with creating it except working under the contracts and blindly accepting that those who negotiated them were being, at the very least, responsible to both the taxpayers and the workers. To quote Mel Brooks, "It stinks on ice."
It flat out stinks that over the last several decades we have managed to completely ignore our financial house. It flat out stinks that many of our current workers, especially some of those closest to retirement are going to have to make significant adjustments to their lifestyles, perhaps to the point of readjusting retirement dates (if they survive the rounds of layoffs sure to come). It also flat out stinks that people with families still to raise have to have some tough talks with their kids about what can now be afforded and what can't. Finally, it flat out stinks that many are getting a crash course in responsibility that some managed to avoid.
What? The only ones who escaped this are the big wigs in government who are trying to balance their budgets on the backs of the working class, right? Wrong. Think for a moment about who was sitting on both sides of that negotiating table in your particular area all these years. There were people on both sides of that table. Since I am feeling charitable, let's assume that everyone sitting at that table really thought that these contracts were responsible to not only the workers but also to the public who pays the bills in the end. If that is the case then NO ONE sitting at that table had the foresight to think about economic booms and busts. NO ONE sitting at that table had the economic education to think about what happens when these contracts reach critical mass and all of these bills have to be paid at once.
Now, assuming that we as a public didn't hire fools to teach and run our schools, someone had to know this was coming. How long ago did our negotiating teams know? How long ago did they knowingly begin to pass this buck to future negotiating teams? How many of the current retirees are sitting comforatbly, having raised their kids and purchased their condos in Florida or Arizona while the deals that they cut are coming back to bite the current generations? Frankly, it doesn't really matter, does it? It all still stinks.
Yes, a smelly time indeed, like a fish rotting on the dock. It doesn't change the fact that stinky little Nemo needs to be cleaned up and you and I are holding the scoop and bucket. So what are we to do? Ignore it? Deny it exsists? Scream and yell that it's not fair? Make it worse for our own kids who will be facing perhaps greater unemployment, greater school and essential services shortages, and higher taxes still? We will be sitting at retirement in our little condos or the homes we somehow managed to pay off and our kids will be living with us! What will they be able to afford? Our basements. That's what. I love my children but the time will come when they have to go and if we don't get our governmental house in order, the taxes they will be paying will mean they have to live with me and that is unacceptable!
So what is the answer? As much as we might like to seek vengence on the current office holders for not only having to bear the bad news but also carry out its remedies, we can't. Sure, SB-5 has some parts of it that are difficult to swallow. Tough medicine usually is. Some might even say that this is merely a shot at breaking up unions in general. Maybe it is. Considering the mess the unions helped get us all into, is that necessarily a bad thing? Were the unions the only culprit? Of course not. There were plenty of groups in that line.
The fact of the matter is, no matter who got us into what or why, here we are. In a great big hole. Most of us jumped right in, head first with no 'chute. I hear you, gritting your teeth at me, "So what's your solution then?" First, let's STOP DIGGING THIS HOLE. SB-5 will undoubtedly help in that regard. Asking public unions to pay for some of their healthcare and retirement is simply not avoidable. Remember, I say this as a licensed teacher. Most teachers, and I would imagine other public union members, do not pay what the private sector professions pay into their healthcare. Currently my family pays 35%, most teachers pay in the neighborhood of 10% or under. Asking for 15% under the current circumstances is reasonable.
If those effected by SB-5 don't begin to pay for some of these things, how will they be paid for? Well, most schools and cities will have to ask for more money in the form of taxes. Keeping in mind that most people who work in the private sector get benefits nowhere near those of the public sector, is it reasonable to ask them to pay higher taxes in order to cover those bills? I say no. I also venture to say that 85-90% of the levies put on the ballot statewide in the next year will fail and fail big.
It is also reasonable to ask for pay raises to be based on merit rather than simply hanging on longer than anyone else. If teachers truly care about the education and benefit of their students, then they should not be afraid to ask themselves and others to perform and perform well. We ask our students to perform well, why shouldn't we be held to those standards as well? We would not go to a restaurant where the service was slow, the food only barely edible, with hygeine standards that mimic a teenage boy's room, and then offer to pay more. Why should taxpayers be forced to do that with the people who educate their children?
So public workers, and teachers in particular, it is time to take a long hard look at what you believe about your profession. It is time to take a long look at your performance. It is also time to take a long hard look for yourself at what the unions are telling you. Decide for yourselves, not just out of fear for your wallets. You can overcome financial bumps. I encourage you to take the time to think about all the information that is being thrown at you. Analyze it for yourselves. Now let's go clean up our stinky little fish the best way we can.
No comments:
Post a Comment