Monday, February 21, 2011

American’s Aren’t Buying Teacher Union Thuggery Anymore…

The Teacher’s unions in Wisconsin are showing the union agenda again to the American people and the American people are not buying. Public School Teachers are well paid in this country. People talk about how they are underpaid but when you compare wages with the people that pay the teachers through taxes, the benefit packages, and the number of hours worked in a year, teachers are well paid. It is not a job for everyone but neither is being a computer programmer.

The reality is that the way education is structured, teachers work for the taxpayers and parents. They don’t work for “greedy corporations” that are trying to “screw” them while management takes home hefty profits on the backs of those teachers. That argument doesn’t work because the people have only one agenda for their kid’s education; they want the best they can get for a fair price. The reality is the teachers in Wisconsin as well as many other teachers across the country don’t pay into health care or pension funds. Those tend to be outside the salary cost. Some areas have started to implement small changes but overall the public sector is way out of balance from the people that pay the bills in the private sector.

There is a financial reality with most public careers; an inherent salary cap based on what taxpayers are willing to pay. If you think you are going to get rich working in the public sector you will not. Most public sector employees have moved beyond what most taxpayers believe to be fair wages and benefits. Public employees in most sectors make more than their private sector counterparts and that causes resentment. It is especially concerning when teachers complain and strike based on the very small concessions they are being asked to make. Teachers aren’t the most important people in a kid’s education, parents and family is. Teachers come in a close second but if we lost every teacher in the country tomorrow there are millions of well qualified individuals that could pick up and make sure our kids learn what they need to know to be productive citizens in society. To act as if public education is the Holy Grail is to be utopian. Just look at any inner city public school system and tell me that we need those schools?

There are great teachers in many schools around the country but the system is broken and we need to address the systemic problems. And one of the biggest problems is teacher unions. Teacher unions could care less about the kids. Unions are political arms that buy politicians to get more money for teachers and unions. The kids are just an excuse to take your money. Teachers unions take our hard earned tax money that is supposed to go to hard working teachers to pay Union bosses huge wages to distribute money to politicians to maintain mediocrity. Every dollar that goes to unions is a dollar that could have gone toward our kid’s education. Parents are done paying into this antiquated and failing system.

As the teachers and union members walk the streets of Wisconsin when they should be in school teaching, parents are taking it all in and are coming to the same conclusion; get back to work and get rid of these unions. Unions are political organizations that have no place in our classrooms. Good teachers will be rewarded and bad teachers fired fairly without unions. The taxpayer is tired of paying for useless political thugs that impede great education and creativity. The taxpayer wants to pay a fair wage and benefit package to good teachers. The taxpayers also want results for their investment.

The taxpayers aren’t greedy corporate executives. We are parents making sure our kids get the best education for the money we are investing. We are on to the Union thuggery and we are done paying for it…

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more...

Anonymous said...

Love the Irony of Union bashing just before the 100 yr. anniv. of the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire!