Reforms allow schools to trim labor costs, preserve academic programs
The new Ohio law curbing collective bargaining privileges for public servants is designed in part to help public schools rein in out-of-control labor costs, which will help them survive impending state budget cuts.
For decades, many of Ohio’s public schools unwisely agreed to collective bargaining agreements with local teacher unions that artificially drove up schools’ labor costs, due to hidden and expensive giveaways.
As a result, 80 percent of a typical school budget is consumed by labor costs, many of which provide no direct benefit for students. The new law puts an end to the expensive practice of annual, automatic salary raises for teachers regardless of performance, and will require educators to help shoulder their health insurance and pension benefits. The potential savings are huge.
If Ohio citizens allow the law to take root, residents of the Buckeye State will be able to judge for themselves over time if the benefits live up to all the hype. Critics charge that the reforms will harm public education, while supporters say the reforms will result in fiscally-sound school districts that can avoid, or greatly minimize, teacher layoffs and cuts to academic programs.
The new approach may be worth a trial run.
These new reforms could yield millions of dollars worth of savings for Ohio schools. Taxpayers have been re-established as the owners of Ohio’s public schools, dethroning the teacher unions after a long and costly reign.
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3 Comments
You said, “These new reforms could yield millions of dollars worth of savings for Ohio schools.” Pretty sad effort you can’t quantify the savings to a very vague “millions.” Fail. Go back to school.
Mike America,
My guess is you never even made it out of high school. If you did, your teachers made a mockery of your true intelligence (albeit not that high). But either way, millions is too vague for you eh? Maybe they should have said a shit ton.
Just look at one of these contracts on this site. I did, and I found that in Wisconsin teachers get paid $4K extra to do lunch duty. Friggin lunch duty all so Johnny eats his peas without flipping them at your dumb arse.
I also found that a teacher can be paid $8K extra for being a department head at a high school. Do you know how much a professor gets to be a dept. head at a community college? Matter of a few hundred dollars.
These are nickel and dimes that add up to MILLIONS of doll hairs jack nutz.
Umm, just what exactly would you be paying for if not the teachers? When you go to see a doctor you go to get a service from a human being. What else are you really paying for????? There is very little overhead because they are not selling tangible goods.
Teachers provide the service of educating students (which is the core business of the school). What the hell else would you spend the money on? What else in a school is there to spend it on? Besides equipment and the building and maintenance itself there are no other necessary costs. Perhaps we should provide the students with massages and nice cushy office chairs. Then we would be spending the money directly on students.