Teachers who don’t give students their best effort should be immediately removed from the classroom
Teachers union leaders in the Kaukauna school district are obviously angry because the school board used a new state law to force them to pay a little more toward their health insurance and pension costs.
Now one of the lead negotiators for the Kaukauna union is suggesting that the teachers may openly pout, and give less than their best effort when school resumes in the fall.
Patrick Meyer, a teacher at Kaukauna High School, told the Green Bay Press Gazette that “a negative climate would permeate classrooms.” We assume that “negative climate” would be created by angry teachers and would inhibit classroom activities.
Meyer also said he was concerned about the physical and mental health of teachers.
Any teachers with mental or physical problems that would keep them from adequately performing their duties should receive professional care before returning to the classroom. Any teachers who purposefully drag their feet should be replaced, regardless of their political beliefs or their hurt feelings over changes to state law.
Wisconsin students need the best education they can possibly get, and the teachers are paid to provide that.
There are plenty of young, eager teachers who are just waiting for the opportunity to demonstrate their skills. They would work for less money and presumably try harder to help kids learn.
The ridiculous part is that the teachers are fuming about the best financial news to hit the Kaukauna district in months.
A few weeks ago the district was facing a $400,000 deficit. Then the school board decided to use the budget flexibility offered by the state’s new budget repair law.
The board decided to charge teachers a small amount to help fund their health insurance and retirement pensions. As a result, the district is now estimating that it will have a $1.5 million surplus next year.
That means younger teachers won’t be laid off, class sizes won’t increase and student programs won’t be cancelled. A school that might have been broke next year will now have operating funds to adequately serve its students.
But somehow the Kaukauna teachers union considers this a bad thing.
“The part that gets left out is that Gov.Walker created the crisis by his budget,” Meyer told the Green Bay Press Gazette. “How can you claim that Act 10 saved people when you’re the one who made them need saving?”
The state of Wisconsin is broke, Mr. Meyer. And the economy is still far too weak to crank up taxes on business owners and working people. That means state aid to schools was going to be cut, one way or another.
Luckily, the state gave school boards more control over their budgets by eliminating most union collective bargaining. That will allow school boards to rein in runaway labor costs (like insurance and pensions), balance their budgets and maintain full student services.
School employees will have to pay a little more for their benefits, but that’s only reasonable. Labor costs take up about 80 percent of a typical school budget. If budget cuts are necessary, that’s where they should be aimed.
If teachers unions still had full collective bargaining privileges, you can bet the Kaukauna union would never have agreed to increased contributions for insurance and pensions. That would have left the school district in a deficit situation, and students would have suffered.”
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