Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part CXXVII (Educator's Edition)

Last month, I shared a story from one of our state's finest members of the education field, who was having problems with filing an unemployment claim even though they had been clearly laid off and told that they would not be returning to their school in the fall. From their story:
She told me that in spite of working for [some time in each of the four quarters for calendar many calendar years, including going into this year], that in spite of a letter from my employer that I no longer had a position at the end of the 2011-2012 year due to what amounts to economic reasons, that in spite of all that, my case and the case of any one working for a school district AUTOMATICALLY goes to adjudication.

What does that mean, AUTOMATICALLY? It means that because of the case load, I can not expect to have an adjudicator start the process for at least 3 weeks. I don't mean have a determination, I mean have them send out a questionaire to start the initial gathering of facts for the adjudication process. That means no sooner than 10 days after June 22 will I be receiving the munificent sum of [less than $200 per week]. In the meantime, according to the harried Maureen, my benefits, if I'm entitled to them, will be piling up and I'll receive a tidy sum, if I am determined to indeed be entitled to them. She explained that " of course you'll have to make 2 contacts a week and file reports by phone or internet on your job search." How pray tell will I be able to do that, Capper? How will I make phone calls if the phone is cut off, go to interviews living in rural Wisconsin without money to put in the tank, let alone make the car payment?
The latest job numbers looks like the state is finally getting around to processing the educators' unemployment claims:
The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits in Wisconsin last week spiked nearly 47 percent from the prior week, according to the latest estimate released today by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance grew to 14,558 in the state last week, up from 9,926 in the previous week and 13,547 in the same week a year ago.
Last week’s total for claims was the highest in Wisconsin since 15,045 filed for claims in the week of Jan. 28.

An economist at the Department of Workforce Development declined to comment on the new data.
That is 4,632 people added to the list of the unemployed! In just one week! Helluva way to stimulate the economy and turn things around.

And Walker couldn't even bring himself to say one word about it?!

 If Walker had been a Democrat, you couldn't have made it ten minutes without someone screaming about it, over and over. But outside of that one article, I haven't seen one mention of it anywhere else. And you know for sure Charlie Sykes, MacIver Institute, Media Trackkkers or any of the other Koch/GOP sockpuppets aren't going to touch it.  They don't want people to know the truth lest there be another uprising.

But that's where I come in.  I write a blog.*

*Bonus points for anyone who can guess where those lines come from.

6 comments:

  1. I was laid off as well. I was denied unemployment insurance. Because I am 62, have a Master's, and made 55K I decided to retire instead, especially when my economically strapped district post my position for a teacher with no experience. Guess I could have swallowed the pay cut, but retirement was more attractive, will miss the kids though.

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  2. Gee, the timing of it all is really suspect. I would hate to think that Scott Walker purposely had those claims "automatically adjudicated" just to make things look good for his recall.

    Oh wait, it wouldn't matter. He just makes shit up as he goes along anyhow.

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  3. Oh cmon. All claims are "automatically adjudicated" before benefits are paid. You want them to make sure you actually had a job, right? And sorry you have to look for work to keep your unemployment, but how else are you going to get a job. You don't want to pay my unemployment if I don't even try, do you?

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    1. Each state works a little differently. Adjudication may not be the initial step in Wisconsin as it is not the initial step in other states.

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  4. Hmmm... so you don't think that the certainty provided by Walker's recall win resulted in job gains?

    Well that 47% spike in unemployment must be due to the the ACA passing. See, there is a direct correlation.

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    1. What certainty? The only thing I'm certain about is that Walker will be indicted and that the sooner this happens, the better we will all be.

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