In my home state of Pennsylvania we are facing a tsunami of coming āpublic educationā costs as the teachers who were hired thirty years ago begin to retire and collect their long-promised pensions. And benefits. The cost of the health benefits will be enormous, as they retire many years before becoming eligible for Medicare, and have been promised full coverage at essentially no out-of-pocket costs, with the result that the taxpayers of Pennsylvania will be ponying up a minimum of a thousand dollars per month for each and every one of these long-time public servants until they reach 66 or so, then lesser but still magnanimous amounts until they die.
The new Democrat Governor is pushing to increase āeducationā spending dramatically, while ignoring or hiding the fact that the stateās taxpayers are ALREADY going to be spending a hell of a lot more on āeducation,ā even if spending on school stuff, per se, remains constant (because of the thousands of retirements). Thus, if his proposals are implemented (universal pre-school, cheaper higher ed, etc), the taxpayers will be hit with a double-dip slap in the wallet over the next few years.
In typical Democrat fashion, he promises a reduction in property taxes now, offset by a āslightā increase in personal income tax, but this taxpayer knows how such things work out. The income tax increase comes right away and the property tax reduction comesā¦after I die. After we all die.
What is often overlooked is the BASIC and INITIAL reason for the dramatic increase in the cost of public education: the DEMOCRATSā decision, many years ago, to allow collective bargaining for teachers. In Pennsylvania, as in every other state where government employees are granted collective bargaining rights, the initiative was a Democrat proposal, through and through. They understood early on that by granting this insane right to government employees, they would be guaranteeing the electoral support of those employees in perpetuity. Republicans (and every other sane observer) knew that this was a disastrous initiative which would allow āessentialā government employees to hold a gun to the head of the public at every new contract negotiation, with only the limp-wristed government negotiators (appointed by Democrats, mainly) to fight back. The predictable result was perpetually-escalating salaries, phenomenal benefits, and worst of all, absurdly early retirements. The give-backs and changes that occurred universally in the private sector (shift to 401kās in lieu of defined-benefit pensions, employee contributions to health insurance, wage freezes, etc) NEVER HAPPENED IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, thus guaranteeing that we, the taxpayers ā would continue to pay Democrat bribes to the government employees essentially forever.
And now, the bills are starting to come due, and the Republicans now in power in most states are grasping for ANYTHING they can do to prevent these mountainous expenses from consuming an intolerable share of āeducationā spending and preventing any new initiatives from being initiated.
And the Democrats portray them as āAnti-Education,ā or āmean to government employees.ā
There is nothing wrong with paying public employees a good salary and providing benefits that are comparable with leading private sector employers. But the Democratsā decision to grant collective bargaining in the public sector was a disastrous and stupid initiative ā entirely driven by self-serving political motivation ā and we should never forget who was behind it.
The new Democrat Governor is pushing to increase āeducationā spending dramatically, while ignoring or hiding the fact that the stateās taxpayers are ALREADY going to be spending a hell of a lot more on āeducation,ā even if spending on school stuff, per se, remains constant (because of the thousands of retirements). Thus, if his proposals are implemented (universal pre-school, cheaper higher ed, etc), the taxpayers will be hit with a double-dip slap in the wallet over the next few years.
In typical Democrat fashion, he promises a reduction in property taxes now, offset by a āslightā increase in personal income tax, but this taxpayer knows how such things work out. The income tax increase comes right away and the property tax reduction comesā¦after I die. After we all die.
What is often overlooked is the BASIC and INITIAL reason for the dramatic increase in the cost of public education: the DEMOCRATSā decision, many years ago, to allow collective bargaining for teachers. In Pennsylvania, as in every other state where government employees are granted collective bargaining rights, the initiative was a Democrat proposal, through and through. They understood early on that by granting this insane right to government employees, they would be guaranteeing the electoral support of those employees in perpetuity. Republicans (and every other sane observer) knew that this was a disastrous initiative which would allow āessentialā government employees to hold a gun to the head of the public at every new contract negotiation, with only the limp-wristed government negotiators (appointed by Democrats, mainly) to fight back. The predictable result was perpetually-escalating salaries, phenomenal benefits, and worst of all, absurdly early retirements. The give-backs and changes that occurred universally in the private sector (shift to 401kās in lieu of defined-benefit pensions, employee contributions to health insurance, wage freezes, etc) NEVER HAPPENED IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR, thus guaranteeing that we, the taxpayers ā would continue to pay Democrat bribes to the government employees essentially forever.
And now, the bills are starting to come due, and the Republicans now in power in most states are grasping for ANYTHING they can do to prevent these mountainous expenses from consuming an intolerable share of āeducationā spending and preventing any new initiatives from being initiated.
And the Democrats portray them as āAnti-Education,ā or āmean to government employees.ā
There is nothing wrong with paying public employees a good salary and providing benefits that are comparable with leading private sector employers. But the Democratsā decision to grant collective bargaining in the public sector was a disastrous and stupid initiative ā entirely driven by self-serving political motivation ā and we should never forget who was behind it.
