“I’m not an expert on Pennsylvania schools, but I’ll bet there are several hundred administrators or other useful twits that could be sacrificed instead of teachers. It’s fer the chilrun”
Here in NJ many administrators have already been laid off (they had no union to protect them); we’ve laid off new teachers, and have even begun laying off tenured teachers. The fact is that if teachers want 5% raises while we have a 2% property tax cap, either the senior teachers give concessions to save newer ones, or the newer ones get the ax. Because of the strength of the teachers’ unions, cops and firefighters have been sacrificed as well to keep those high annual increases for teachers coming.
The teachers’ unions are the true owners of the Democratic Party; Obama can be talking about raising the Titanic and he still has to throw in something about adding “100,000 new teachers”. FWIW, Governor Christie is vilified by the teachers for a reason; whatever people may say about him, in a state like NJ he has all the right enemies.
Scott Walker fought that fight in Wisconsin. Teachers did NOT want to give up their taxpayer subsidized pension/healthcare to help other teachers remain employed. Walker and the Republican controlled state house showed them the way. But they had to fight union leadership, the roving Democrat Party thuggery machine and the MSM misinformation blitz to do it.