I admit it - I am a glutton for punishment. I just can't seem to stay away from Scott Walker's "Office of the Governor" webpage (but I won't link to it because you, my friend, do not need to subject yourself to the horror). So I could not help but notice that Walker posted a link on his Facebook page (and I do not follow him there - I have my limits - but he shows part of his feed on his website) that links to a story about the Palmyra-Eagle school district in southern Wisconsin.
The article, from the Walworth County Today newspaper website, is titled "Newly ratified Palmyra-Eagle teacher contract eliminates seniority." Walker's link to the article brags that "Another school district enacts our reforms." Walker seems to be proudly making the claim that his budget reforms have allowed a school district to weather this financial storm, and the information he provides implies that the elimination of seniority, "(i)n addition to financial concessions" is a huge victory for all of us Wisconsinites.
The only problem is that the new contract did not just squeeze a few financial concessions out of the teachers and eliminate seniority. The new contract absolutely guts the teachers' salaries, benefits, health insurance, and pensions, in addition to taking away their power to do virtually anything to protect their employment.
As the article itself points out, the teachers will now have to pay 15% of their health insurance premiums (perviously they paid a nominal amount monthly). Whereas out of pocket yearly health insurance deductibles were $200 for a family plan, the deductible will now be $1000 for a family plan. For teachers that opt out of the state's health insurance plans, the reimbursement will be cut in half. After retirement, the amount contributed by the state to the teachers' health insurance will be reduced by 50% for a family plan. And the teachers will no longer have a say in who will provide health care or what health insurance plans will be covered - those decisions will be made unilaterally by the School Board.
Up until now, the state contributed the full amount to the Palmyra-Eagle teachers' Wisconsin Retirement System pension funds. With the new contract, the teachers will have to pay 50% of those contributions.
In addition to the gutting of benefits, which translates directly to a significant reduction in wages, the School Board also voted to eliminate all language in the contract that refers to seniority, bumping, and recalls.
As a final insult, the new contract raises the teachers' salaries by a measly 1% - less than the projected Consumer Price Index. As the Walworth County Today article points out,
"a total of $45,000 will be distributed among all teachers. The bulk of the 1%, or $45,000, goes toward the younger teachers' salaries to better attract and retain the best quality teachers."
The contract was approved for one year only (see the summary of changes here). It almost closes the $1.5 million deficit the school district was facing because of cuts to the Wisconsin public schools contained in Walker's budget repair/anti-union bill.
For those of you not familiar with this area of Wisconsin, Walworth, Waukesha, and Jefferson counties are mostly red. The Palmyra-Eagle School District is large and encompasses the area represented by Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and the district represented by Republican State Senator Neal Kedzie. But even the normally rabid supporters of Walker seem to be concerned about the effects of this teachers' contract. The comments on the article, which in this paper usually denounce "union thugs" and "libtards" and gleefully predict the end of unions and Democrats in general, are all expressing concern that this will cause better, more experienced teachers to retire, and keep the school district from being able to hire quality teachers in the future.
This teachers' contract is an insult to teachers, public education, private and public sector employees, and the students who will be adversely affected. Scott Walker shouldn't be trumpeting this as a victory. He should be ashamed to have forced our public school systems down to this level.