The Wizards of Waukesha are seriously concerned about Madison, WI because of all those libUrals.
From the time that Wiggy was upset with Madison for not locking up all black men for life, to the time he was upset that one of the cutting edge black box theatre's in Madison was performing an independent play about life in Fitzwalkerstan, to the time when he touted how perfect a fit wild bill Kramer was as the rep of Waukesha because "Madison Liberals" did not like him(is he out of prison yet?).
While those are just a few of the examples of Wiggy sitting on his holier than thou wacko throne, while collecting wing nut welfare* and acting superior to everyone in the liberal bastion of Dane County.
His latest word jumble is no exception.
The Madison Metropolitan School District moved closer this week to making its employees, including teachers, contribute to the cost of their health insurance plans for the first time. At the same time, officials are contemplating ways to pay staff more so they won’t feel the change.In typical fashion, it only takes Wiggy one sentence to get his facts wrong(and it goes downhill from there). Currently the members of MTI pay $20 per medical visit and considerably more for an emergency room trip. I know this because my family is insured through MMSD and we have racked up well over $500 so far this year in $20 visits. So to say that we do not "contribute to the cost of health insurance" is blatantly not true. Those pesky facts keep being Jimmy's biggest obstacle.
Until now, Madison school officials have resisted using the authority granted to them under Act 10 to change public employee benefits without going through collective bargaining.
Anyway let's look a little deeper into his blog. Wiggles points out that:
Nationally, employees who receive health care coverage through their employer pay an average 18 percent of the health insurance premium cost for single coverage and 29 percent for family coverage, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey . In Wisconsin, the average employee contribution for single coverage is 21 percent and 22 percent for family coverage.
However the UW-Milwaukee grad in International relations, has obviously never taken an economics class in his career, because he fails to point out that the pay gap between private and public sector workers is anywhere from 12-35%. A quick check using math, says that if you are making 35% less to begin with and then have to pay the exact same for needlessly rising costs of health care, that is a considerably higher percentage for the public worker.
But wait there is more, there is always more.
Meanwhile the democratically elected Madison School Board is debating how they can possibly cover the massive cuts to education that Scott Walker and GOP legislators have slashed well over 1 billion dollars from public education AND then expanded the voucher school system (sucking more dollars from Public education). As part of that solution, they are being forced to make the employees pay for their ever increasing health care benefits. Many on the board understand that the teachers have been the punching bag in WI politics lately and trying to also figure out a way to make them whole.
Which of course did not sit well with the right wing and Jim W addresses that by going to another of his peers on the wing nut welfare* line - Maciver Foundation President Brett Healy (who also has zero education experience) for
Brett Healy, president of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, a Madison-based free-market think tank, called nonsense on Loumos and the entire debate.
“I hope state legislators recognize what a fraud this is,” he said in an interview with Wisconsin Watchdog. “And when the Madison school district goes to the Capitol next year, hopefully the legislators will remember the budget shenanigans that are going on right now and stand up for local taxpayers. The Madison school district does not have a revenue problem. The Madison school district has a spending problem.”
Exhibit A? Even as the board finally gets around to making district employees contribute toward their health care premiums, Healy said, they simultaneously try to figure out how to “give the employees big enough raises to fully cover their benefit contributions.”
“Madison taxpayers should be outraged that the Madison school board is playing these sort of reckless fiscal games,” Healy said.
Mr. Healy, who makes well over $130,000/ yr with Cadillac benefits, in his fake think tank job, while the average teachers pay in Wisconsin is a little over a third of his salary, is outraged that the democratically elected school board does not want to force a pay cut on its valued staff.
If there is a better example of the blind leading the blind than a conversation between Wigderson and Healy, I have yet to see it. It gets worse. Healy, never learned the old axiom of it is better to be quiet and thought a fool then to speak and leave no doubt.
“Act 10 has been an unmitigated success throughout the state of Wisconsin, everywhere except the Madison school board,” Healy said. “Statewide taxpayers have seen over $5 billion in savings thanks to Act 10 and it’s time the Madison school board join everyone else in utilizing these tools in realizing some taxpayer relief.”
Reader of CogDis, know that ACT10 in reality has been an unmitigated failure! It has been well documented through the years how much damage taking $5 billion dollars of demand out of our economy has been.
While I do not expect these two to understand the realities of the Wisconsin economy, as they sit on their ivory throne in Waukesha. As Upton Sinclair pointed out, they are just being good employees.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
― Upton Sinclair
However since the rest of us are not part of the Mike Grebe extremist gravy train, let's break this down a bit more.
Here are the things your friends can do at work:Besides the work place demands that most others do not have, teachers have incredibly low pay for the hours they work and the responsibility they have. Some stats:
1. Pee
2. Get coffee
3. Spend fifteen minutes chatting leisurely with a colleague
4. Go out to lunch
5. Complete paperwork and other job-related tasks during the actual work day
6. Sit down occasionally
At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible.So how do teachers cope? Sixty-two percent work outside the classroom to make ends meet. For Erik Benner, an award-winning history teacher in Keller, Tex., money has been a constant struggle. He has two children, and for 15 years has been unable to support them on his salary. Every weekday, he goes directly from Trinity Springs Middle School to drive a forklift at Floor and Décor. He works until 11 every night, then gets up and starts all over again. Does this look like “A Plan,” either on the state or federal level?
For college graduates who have other options, this kind of pressure, for such low pay, doesn’t make much sense. So every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the United States $7.34 billion yearly. The effect within schools — especially those in urban communities where turnover is highest — is devastating.It is not getting any better as even the higher paying districts are having a hard time filling positions.
With teachers leaving the profession in droves, colleges turning out less teachers every year, even the Wiggy Wizards from Waukesha should be able to see that we are heading for trouble.
Maybe Wiggy is just mad that his kid could not handle the rigor of a public school and had to stay home and play on his computer.
It is sad when someone is given a forum and abuses it so badly just for political purposes. It is even worse that anyone would consider these two reliable and credible sources.
The reality is they should worry about their own backyard before they continue trying to legislate for everyone else. It is hard to take someone serious about how Government should run, when they can barely drink their own water.
* Wing nut welfare: Is when people that would be otherwise unemployable, keeps getting moved from one right wing loony "think tank" to another and get paid to push propaganda bu their bosses. They switch them back and forth amongst these dark money Grebe/Bradley organizations to make it seem like they have relevant and knowledgeable experience(Pssst - they do not).
Exclusive picture of Jimmy Wigderson, from Facebook public profile, at a fact finding briefing.
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