ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.
The latest round of the “Starve the Beast” political game being played by the Michigan Legislature features a new bill proposed in lame duck session that would force new public school teachers into a 401K style retirement system and eliminate long-standing pensions.
Lawmakers have been tinkering with pensions, offered to teachers over decades, in efforts to get rid of such agreements, which made the profession more attractive than in bygone days. Just like with health insurance for public employees, the state has designs on reducing such benefits or eliminating them altogether.
The news was so distressing that the Wayland Union Schools web site, which usually takes great pains to avoid any controversy or unpleasantness, included this in the bottom right-hand corner:
“Senate Bill 102 is a bill that would force new public school teachers into a 401K type system. Proponents of the bill say that it will not impact current educators. This is not true. This bill as presented would cost Wayland Union Schools $7,639,013 over the next 5 years, the loss of these funds would cut into our operational funds.
“Additionally, this type of change would discourage new teachers from entering the profession.
“Urge Gov. Rick Snyder @OneToughNerd to publicly oppose SB102 and threaten a veto.”
It would seem that Hopkins and Martin public schools will face similar economic hardships as a result.
Ever since overwhelming passage of Proposal A in 1994, the State of Michigan has taken control of almost all funding for public schools, and over the last 20 years it has done a terrific job of “Starving the Beast.”
Not only has the state’s financial support of public education not kept pace with expenses, it also has diverted such support to charter schools and even private, religious schools in ways that are unprecedented. Through such wolves in sheep’s clothing policies such as Schools of Choice, it has permitted raiding of economically struggling schools of their best athletes and scholars. All you have to do is look at the dominance of private religious schools in this year’s (and others) finalists in the state championship football playoffs.
Public education has fallen on hard times after being under assault for the last three decades. The United States, in its earliest history, came up with a radical notion that all children should have a right to K-12 public education funded by all of us taxpayers. But since then, private and religious schools have hacked away at the system and have been able to capture public tax dollars, even though they don’t have to follow the same rules. Public schools, for example, cannot turn away special education pupils and children who are disadvantaged.
Our education system is not a level playing field, and it’s about to get even more tilted in favor of private and religious instruction with the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Betsy and hubby Dick in 2000 spearheaded a failed effort to establish a voucher system for all parents statewide, but were rejected by a 70 to 30 percent margin. Now they’re back with a vengeance.
Parents who choose private religious instruction for their children still are permitted to use the public education system, but they choose not to because it doesn’t offer religious training. Indeed, those who want religious instruction should pay for it separately.
What this all boils down to is yet another chapter in the sad saga of the dismemberment of public education, brought to you courtesy of the Michigan Legislature and our new education secretary.
“But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.” — George Carlin
The politicians for the last 20 plus years have been kicking the can down to road and whistling in the dark. Senator Barry Goldwater in 1976 said what is now becoming reality. They know what is happening to school, public employees in government, Social Security, Medicare and all other government retirement and public health programs — they are quickly moving to insolvency. Michigan is actually taking it on the chin with the outcry from teachers, but educators, the educated among us, are usually the most blind to reality.
Folks, we don’t have the money to provide the outstanding retirements those teachers, now retired, receive. In uneducated slang, “We ain’t got the money”! Anyone being hired as teachers not wanting to participate in the 401K program I’m sure can elect to do so. Of course, you will be responsible for your own retirement saving, but usually people who do not save in a regimented way tend not to contribute enough or not at all.
This isn’t a surprise to those of us who have been preaching conservative values (not spending more than you earn and living within your means). The $20 trillion in debt is just the tip of the iceberg… the unfunded or underfunded mandates for retirement overall in government (federal and state) and corporate retiree pension plans together with the U.S. and states debt totals close to $70-80 trillion!
Folks, you have to wake up and smell the coffee, the hangover is looking at reality, and it ain’t look’in good. Do you think the school administration doesn’t know this already? If not, they should be fired for incompetence. The same with all the politicians saying we are good, and keep pouring the money into retiree benefits (think Democrats). The bill will be paid, somehow, some way, and probably not to the satisfaction of all involved. Benefits will be slashed, taxes will raise — cause and effect. Count on it. The misery ahead is starting to sink in.