You have to wonder where the heads were of the previous school board when they caved on the current teacher’s contract.
I have been harping for years on the fact that the teachers are draining the tax base of this district. Recently, (like this morning) I got an email asking what the hell was going on with this idiotic governor and his band of hoods.
The email went on to question how this POS can cut education funding so much. There was a blurb in the local TP about it. Since I don’t subscribe (pay) to yellow journalism, I checked out the article on their wonderful and unbiased site. For those who may have missed it, here’s a brief summary:
Tommy Corbett, Space Cadet, wants to grade schools on merit!
From the VND:
“"We're not just going to give funding without results," Benefield (research director for the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg policy group) said, summarizing his interpretation of the governor's message for education.
The cuts to education come with recommendations to eliminate several mandates that limit school districts' ability to cut costs. Several legislators, most of them Republicans, are working on legislation that would end some state requirements, such as bidding for contracts below $25,000 and additional certification for school nurses.
"We want to help our school districts to be as competitive as they can be while keeping the costs under control," said Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, vice chair of the education committee and sponsor of a bill that would allow school districts to curb costs by furloughing teachers.
Folmer called this year's budget shortfalls "an opportunity to look at how we've been misspending."
"They've had the time, and they've had the money, but how have they done?" Folmer said. "I think, in a sense, we've created an education industrial complex. I'm not going to say it's become only about the people who work in it, but it should be about the children."
Folmer and other supporters of Corbett's proposal stop short of criticizing teachers unions, which are under fire from Republican administrations in Wisconsin and other states. Though Corbett's budget seeks concessions from teachers, such as a one-year pay freeze, it would not change the nature of unions' collective bargaining agreements with school districts.
However, it’s ok to give taxpayer funds to businesses that have consistently shown no interest in creating Pennsylvania jobs. Our Space Cadet has also taken money from the tobacco settlement, which has gone to help education, and is going to redistribute it (sound vaguely familiar all you tea bigots?) to businesses so “they will have an incentive to create jobs.” [Probably more low paying, no benefit jobs.]
And while Tommy Boy wants you to dig deep into your wallets and sacrifice to pay down this debt, while he gives even more tax breaks to businesses, he has magnanimously decided not to tax the (mostly out of state) Marcellus Drillers. That money alone could replace what this Ass-or-not from Mars or Shaler or wherever is making us pay. Guess what? We wouldn't have to have any tax increase! Make sense? Yep! To you and me it does. But not to Tommy's business buddies, the ones who gave him millions of dollars to buy the governorship! Oh, and it seems Tommy didn't cut a penny from his staff, their salaries, benefits or retirement packages. Guess they're more important than you and me...and more privileged
Which brings me to the main point that since the Space Cadet is fulfilling his promise not to raise taxes guess who will have to raise taxes to pay for the taxes Tommy doesn’t raise? Yep. The people of the state. But I’ve already heard from the terrible uneducated Right Wing that at least he’s keeping his promises.
I guess that means it’s ok if our current overall state taxes don’t go up but it’s sure ok if the locals fatten theirs to make up for Tommy Boy's promises.
As for our district, there are a couple of choices:
Layoff and/or fire teachers (The Space Cadet never said anything about cutting the wages or benefits of those in management positions, like superintendents, etc. Kewel!)
Get rid of the unions (They claim they won’t do this but if you believe that you are stupider than I’ve ever imagined)
Increase the local taxes to make up the lost revenue.
If you “listen between the lines” those are the only solutions you’ll hear. BUT…there is another, as Yoda once said. The residents of this district and most other districts are paying the salaries of the teachers. The average salary is around $55,000 and the shills for the teachers, the union reps, claim they are worth it. I don’t doubt they are worth the $55,000. What I doubt is they are worth us paying for their benefits.
In case you have had your head in the sand for the last 5 years, the average health care benefit of a Highlands teacher is over $1200 per month or an extra $14,400 in their(not your) pockets. 220 teachers times $14,400 equals $3,168,000 PER YEAR or just about what Tommy wants to cut from the local district budget.
Now I’m not the math wiz like my colleague on this blog but doesn’t it make sense to make the teachers pay their fair share? Because if they don’t, we’re talking about a huge, and I mean a really huge property tax increase.
Fair is fair. It’s about time the residents woke up and realized the gravy train for the teachers has to end.
Oh and by the way, there’s an interesting article in the TP about the wonderful extra benefits teachers get that most of us didn’t or don’t know. Click here to read it. After reading this I contacted a former board member, who happens to edit this blog, and he confirmed the facts. Teachers who show up for work for 15 years get an automatic “bump” in their salary provided they earn a Masters Degree (usually paid for by the residents, believe it or not!) approaching 80% of their current pay! Yep! A teacher making $40,000 with a Masters Degree in their 14th year (although that amount is so unlikely because they would be making MUCH more than that!) can look forward to a possible $30,000 plus pay increase. And those making $55,000 could go to $100,000. And don't forget what this does to their retirement benefits...that we end up paying for! But they claim they deserve their health care benefits paid by us.
So now this poor soul who was only making 40k per year (with us paying 14k of their benefits), now is making $70,000 for doing no additional work! Nice gig for them. Screwing for us. But the union reps say the teachers deserve it.
Remember all this when Highlands raises your property taxes through the roof.
Remember this when you hear a Tea Bagger or any Republican tell you that liberals are bad because they want to raise taxes.
Remember this when someone tells you we need to cut the budget problem those in Harrisburg (Republican controlled for the last thousand years and who wanted to cut the budget last year by 1 billion when Rendell said no) blame on you.
Remember this when you go to vote; those of you who know how to vote; those of you who care to vote; and those of you who try to learn about issues before you vote rather than listening to partisan hacks like the local newspaper, anyone of the Right or even a number of traitorous Democrats (much like our own Jason Altmire).
You have questions? Contact us here. You’ll get answers. You may not like them but you’ll get facts not bullshit.
