Smells like victory
Posted on 07/12/2011 6:17:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
"This is a disaster," Mark Miller, the Wisconsin Senate Democratic leader, said in February after Republican Gov. Scott Walker proposed a budget bill that would curtail the collective-bargaining powers of some public employees. Miller predicted catastrophe if the bill were to become law -- a charge repeated thousands of times by his fellow Democrats, union officials and protesters in the streets.
Now the bill is law, and we have some early evidence of how it is working. And for one beleaguered Wisconsin school district, it's a godsend, not a disaster.
The Kaukauna Area School District, in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin near Appleton, has about 4,200 students and about 400 employees. It has struggled in recent times and this year faced a deficit of $400,000. But after the law went into effect at 12:01 a.m. June 29, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous.
In the past, teachers and other staff at Kaukauna were required to pay 10 percent of the cost of their health-insurance coverage and none of their pension costs. Now they'll pay 12.6 percent of the cost of their coverage (still well below rates in much of the private sector) and contribute 5.8 percent of salary to their pensions. The changes will save the school board an estimated $1.2 million this year, according to board president Todd Arnoldussen.
Of course, Wisconsin unions had offered to make benefit concessions during the budget fight. Wouldn't Kaukauna's money problems have been solved if Walker had just accepted those concessions and not demanded cutbacks in collective-bargaining powers?
"The monetary part of it is not the entire issue," says Arnoldussen, a political independent who won a spot on the board in a nonpartisan election. Indeed, some of the most important improvements in Kaukauna's outlook are because of the new limits on collective bargaining.
In the past, Kaukauna's agreement with the teachers union required the school district to purchase health-insurance coverage from something called WEA Trust -- a company created by the Wisconsin teachers union. "It was in the collective-bargaining agreement that we could negotiate only with them," says Arnoldussen. "Well, you know what happens when you can negotiate with only one vendor." This year, WEA Trust told Kaukauna that it would face a significant increase in premiums.
Now the collective-bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and, lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes. At least for the moment, Kaukauna is staying with WEA Trust but saving substantial amounts of money.
Then there are work rules. "In the collective-bargaining agreement, high-school teachers had to teach only five periods a day out of seven," says Arnoldussen. "Now they're going to teach six." In addition, the collective-bargaining agreement specified that teachers had to be in the school 37-1/2 hours a week. Now it will be 40 hours.
The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes -- from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining.
Teachers' salaries will stay "relatively the same," Arnoldussen says, except for higher pension and health care payments. (The top salary is about $80,000 per year, with about $35,000 in additional benefits, for 184 days of work per year -- summers off.) Finally, the money saved will be used to hire a few more teachers and institute merit pay.
It is impossible to overstate how bitter and ugly the Wisconsin fight has been, and that bitterness and ugliness continues to this day with efforts to recall senators and an unseemly battle inside the state Supreme Court. But the new law is now a reality, and Gov. Walker recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the measure would gain acceptance "with every day, week and month that goes by that the world doesn't fall apart."
In the Kaukauna schools, the world is definitely not falling apart -- it's getting better.
Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Unexpected??
No surprise to Republicans, only the Gomer Pyle Dems.
The democrats will never acknowledge the law’s success. For them, its not about prosperity, its about power.
Smells like victory
Does anyone in WI know what is going to happen in these recall elections?
These elections are massively important!
Required to use a teacher's union wholly owned insurance shop?
And how is this not illegal?
The recall elections sound like a train wreck to me. Sounds similar to the California ballot that elected Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Instead of Gov. Walker I would like “X” followed by a list of names. There are no rules apparently for how many names or for party designation. The GOP has cleverly gummed up the works by loading up these ballots with phony candidates.
At the end of the day I think it is pretty much going to be a wash.
This is the best read of the day. There is always a back story and this needs to come out.
This shouldn't be hidden in the middle of the article. It needs to be front and center in headlines, especially considering the recall elections.
Elected representatives who vote against racketeering should be lauded not recalled.
Elimination of budget deficit Projected budget surplus (lower taxes anyone?) Smaller class sizes
Sounds like A Big Win for the good people of Wisconsin.
I ‘m happy about the crackdown on spending in my home state, but I’m always amused by the “experts” who believe cutting class sizes means better students. How cutting classes from 31 to 26 is going to dramatically improve students outputs has not been explained to me. These people always postulate learning as being only something the school/admin is responsible for. They always omit the student/home environment half.
Do the people who voted in droves for Prosser have enough guidance/know how to vote for the GOP Senators who were good, and against the Democrat Senators who fled? Do the Prosser voters appear motivated?
Right on Kaslin. I formerly lived in the Peoples Republic of Oak Park, IL and the local liberal rag blamed all the poor test scores for minorities on the “achievement gap,” always implying some evil racist motivations were keeping these students down. Of course, when someone would write a letter to the editor asking if the “achievement gap” was caused by a crappy 1 parent home life, that person would be vilified for being a “racist” to imply that. It never ends.
Bkmk.
“In the Kaukauna schools, the world is definitely not falling apart — it’s getting better.”
I like this last sentence. The Left has practically driven the USA into moral/ethical, social, and economic collapse. The only way we stop and reverse course it to pull a Wisconsin in the District of Criminals.
I am in Alberta Darling’s district and she will likely be running against Sandy Pasch. The Dem primary elections are today and in a number of them “fake” Dems are running.
Reports in the JS Online have voting locations dead as a doornail today in Pasch’s home base of Shorewood. I will likely go and vote in it today and throw a vote to the nice little 80ish old lady running against her.
There has been a crapload of money thrown into these recalls by outside WI political action groups. Upwards of close to 10 million!
I really think Alberta will win handily even though others think she’s vulnerable, but we’ll see.
Things have died down so the question becomes is this the lull before the union supporters show up in droves or has the last batch of fight been taken out of the left everywhere but Dane County?
One plus is that the Voter ID law is somewhat in effect for these elections. You will be asked to show ID, but can still vote if you do not have ID. Don’t know if that will tamp down attempt to pack polling places with non eligibles.
I expect when all is said and done that the R’s still hold the Senate.
We’ll see in August!
I forgot to add that in many of the recalls a far majority of districts the voters came out strongly for Prosser against Kloppenberg.
It’ll come down to who shows!
Thanks, but I’m Driftless not Kaslin.
Yep. And one of the Union’s arguments during the “brouhaha” was that classes would be increased to 60 students.
[Cue Nelson - Ha, Ha!]
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