Budget Battle: Local Schools Close, Teachers Calling Out

[MindoverMaster]

By Jay Sorgi and the WTMJ News Team
Story Created: Feb 17, 2011
Story Updated: Feb 17, 2011
MADISON - Some major school districts in southern Wisconsin have closed their doors due to teachers calling out sick.
The Glendale/River Hills, Racine, Beaver Dam and Watertown School District announced that they are following the Madison Metropolitan School District in closing schools' doors on Thursday.
Rick Monroe, the superintendent of the Nicolet Union High School district, clarified that the high school is open, unlike Glendale and River Hills school district.
Port Washington High School also was to close at 9:00 a.m. due to a "sick-out."
Madison schools are now closed for two straight days after a Wednesday closure due to too many teachers calling out sick.

It was believed that many were heading to the State Capitol to protest Governor Scott Walker's budget bill which would remove public worker unions' abilities to negotiate many of their benefits.
The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association asked Milwaukee's school district to close, but MPS chose to stay open and directed teachers to work as usual.
About 420 MPS staff members called out sick on Thursday.
Cudahy's school district is also among many that have chosen to stay open.
The district did a call out to all the teachers, telling them not to call in sick, or they would be risking the safety of their students.
School official say that if they have to cancel school teachers, they will have to make up the day in June.
Still, the biggest teachers' union in the state is pushing for lawmakers not to pass the bill, and is encouraging teachers to speak out.
"This is not about protecting our pay and our benefits, it is about protecting our right to collectively bargain," said Mary Bell of WEAC.
Administrators admit they are keeping a very close eye on what happens in Madison.

Source

Don't see this as news, more like a wake up call... :|

People, they don't have much money to work with, so stop breaking the law and stop ripping money off the government!

No offense to those who are unemployed, I happen to be one of them.

 

[Peter.Cort]

bills that the wisconson senate is trying to pass would cut teachers salary's by 7% teachers as is don't make a lot of money, around here they make around 35k starting which is nothing in southern NH and i bet the same can be said about everywhere in the country. I think politicians should take a paycut rather than cutting salaries of the people who keep our country going...

 

[remixedcat]

Much agreed peter. and what are the expenses like in your city? like mortgage payments, car payments, utilities, etc....?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Aren't University instructors paid well? take a little money from them.

What about all those expensive cell charges?

 

[Peter.Cort]

not really sure as I don't pay for anything cost of living is pretty high in southern New Hampshire. most of the teachers in my area drive $20,000-$30,000 cars (1 per family and generally both are teachers.) houses are around $200,000 - $300,000. Property tax is pretty high cause we have no sales tax.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Aren't University instructors paid well? take a little money from them.

What about all those expensive cell charges?

They aren't payed great compared to the private sector but they do get a lot of job perks, primarily the fact that once they have tenure nothing short of murder will get them fired.

IMO there is clearly a ton of waste somewhere in the public educational system since the amount of money we put into it doesn't seem to match the rather poor results it produces in many cases. I don't see teachers salaries as part of this problem by any means but there are likely other areas that do need to see cuts or improvements in efficiency.

 

[remixedcat]

Some people do live beyond thier means though but still 30,000USD/yr isnt much for a teacher. They go to school for a long time for that and to only make that much is crap. Not worth going for it IMO.

 

[Peter.Cort]

there really isn't a lot of waste. at least in a lot of areas. a lot of schools don't even have money for supplies in the classroom. We had to use goldenrod paper instead of white paper because of budget cuts. Unfortunately many people think that schools are where to turn to make room in budgets. Mainly because not all voters have kids in school so it's easy for them to say they don't want to pay for the schools.

and ask any teacher that isn't a college professor, and they'll say they don't do it for the money. It takes a special kind of person to be a teacher, and it's a shame that they don't make the money that they deserve, but in the same sense it's good that they don't make a lot of money because if they did it would attract all kinds of people who are in it for the money which is the wrong reason to be a teacher.

 

[Slaymate]

Teacher don't want there pay cut. Guess what, nobody wants there pay cut.

The way I see it is, if a state is about to go broke then it's take a pay cut or expect to be laid off. The whole country is going broke because of mismanagement, so they need to realize the fact that everyone is going to end up paying the price. Right now it's their turn, live with it.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Teacher don't want there pay cut. Guess what, nobody wants there pay cut.

You need to go back to school to learn English.