A Balanced Look at The Impact of Wisconsin's Act 10

 

Have you noticed that FranklinNOW and a number of its sister-suburban NOW publications are running what we consider to be a series of hit pieces on Governor Walker’s Act 10 legislation?  The timing of this series is certainly interesting.

Here is what we found by NOW reporters and one FranklinNOW blogger on this divisive issue, followed by articles with a different perspective from those found in FranklinNOW, etc.:

• Act 10 effects being felt one year in
• Act 10 has little impact in Whitnall so far
• Act 10 not making major classroom waves in Oak Creek-Franklin, Greendale (FranklinNOW)
• Our Educators Deserve Better (Oak CreekNOW blog--Perspectives in Progress)
• Act 10 effects vary in the North Shore
• Act 10 has few immediate effects in classroom
• Act 10's effect is in the eye of the beholder in Muskego, New Berlin
• In Wauwatosa, all's quiet when it comes to Act 10
• On a scale of 1 to Act 10

Opposing Viewpoints:

• THE BAD OLD DAYS OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING (EAG)
• Impact of an act: New report finds big benefits in WI’s Act 10 (WisconsinReporter.com)
• The impact of Act 10 on public sector compensation in Wisconsin (American Enterprise Institute)
• NEA to "Reorganize" Amid Unprecedented Membership Losses, Budget Shortfalls (Education Intelligence Agency)

Three Lies About Gov. Scott Walker's Recall

Nick Gillespie of Reason.tv and Reason.com refutes three lies about Governor Scott Walker’s record after one year in office.

EDITORIAL: Franklin School Board Deserves a "F" From Taxpayers and Students

Please watch the following reminder...

A look at our follow-up file revealed that we are approaching one year since the Franklin School Board initially discussed its employee Health Insurance bidding process, another tax saving tool provided to local governments through Act 10 by Governor Scott Walker and Conservatives in the Wisconsin State Legislature.   The topic appeared on the school board’s July 20, 2012 agenda (See Agenda item 9.a.) .  FIJ attended this meeting and prior to this meeting published this story on July 19, 2012.  Here is a summary of the provision of Act 10.

The Baraboo school board saved an estimated $660,000 per year by dumping WEA Trust insurance and purchasing its employee health insurance from Dean Health Plan.

The Baraboo school board  is now free to put this $660,000 savings into the classroom, putting its students first, which most school districts claim is their priority: “It’s for the students…”

Enough of the rhetoric.  Quit the stalling.   It’s time to walk-the-talk and show Franklin parents, taxpayers and students you are serious about saving taxpayer dollars and actually willing to put Franklin kids first.  NOT WEAC or WEAC TRUST.

Call or email School Board president Janet Evans or other school board members to express your views on this issue and ask the Board to please place the employee Health Insurancetopic on the Board’s next meeting agenda.

It is time to take a stand against this garbage from outsiders brought in by the unions and demand that our elected representatives on the Franklin School Board do their job.

RELATED STORIES

• Franklin School Board to Discuss, Insurance Bidding Process (FIJ)
• Union fights district plan to save $1 million on insurance (EAGNews.org)
• Pro-reform Wisconsin teacher stands her ground, despite union harassment (EAGnews.org)

Useful Idiots

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

—Opening page Dedication, Rules for Radicals By Saul Alinsky

"The MacIver Institute of Wisconsin reported today that the State’s teachers’ union (WEAC) is "being guided by the philosophy of radical leftist Saul Alinsky." In fact, the National Education Association (NEA) the largest teachers union in the United States included Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals on its members’ recommended reading list page. A check of the NEA website today revealed that this page has been scrubbed from NEA’s website.  Fortunately, we were able to locate this pdf copy that the bumblers at NEA evidently overlooked.

The blog BEFORE IT’S NEWS included a snap shot of the NEA’s original page in its July 15, 2010 post.

Saul David Alinsky is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing. The late Conservative author, William F. Buckley said he was "very close to being an organizational genius.”

The Union News blog provides its readers with a stunning summary of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals that we are delighted to share with our readers.

The MacIver Institute of Wisconsin has been closely following the pro-union protests that started in Madison last year has done a great job of bringing to light interesting stories (fake doctor notes).  And it hasn’t disappointed with one of its latest videos, which takes you inside the courtroom as protesters try and mount a defense for why they disobeyed police in August and refused to vacate the capitol.

The following video does a good job of laying out the story, so we won’t bore you by repeating details. But what we will say is this: the protesters were eventually found guilty ($200 fine plus court costs), and just wait until you hear their defense.We're sure their English and history teachers would be proud of them.

Here's the bottom line, the protesters claim that when police told the group to vacate the building because it was closing, the cops never told each one individually. They also believe that police would have been able to do their job (close the capitol) even if the protesters were left to sit in the rotunda.  Our favorite line comes when defendant Damon Terrell claims he would have eventually gotten bored and left. How's that for conviction for "THE CAUSE."

Listen to college student and defendant Damon Terrell and his co-defendants, "colleges," as Terrell refers to them, defend themselves. in court.  This is what our schools and universities are turning out.

 RELATED READING

• Rules for Radicals By Saul Alinsky (Background Information)
• IAF is a leftist community organizing network established in 1940 by Saul Alinsky. Alinsky (MacIver Institute for Public Policy)
• Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”! (RedState blog)

FDR's Ghost Is Smiling on Wisconsin's Governor

A history lesson for the Progressives and the public sector union leaders coordinating Governor Walker’s recall effort

Here is an interesting story regarding government unions published in Real Clear Politics on February 19, 2011.

Somewhere, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is grinning past his cigarette holder at Wisconsin's governor. They are on the same page regarding government unions.

Except that Scott Walker -- Republican cheapskate, his visage Hitlerized on signs waved by beet-faced union crowds besieging the Capitol -- is kind of a liberal squish compared to FDR. He's OK with some collective bargaining.  Walker, you might have heard, wants some changes in how Wisconsin deals with unions. He wants state employees to pay 5.8% of their salaries toward their pensions (they pay almost nothing now) and he wants them to cover 12.6% of their health care premiums (their share would go up from $79 a month to about $200; the average private-sector sap pays about $330).

Unions are enraged. They've been calling such increases unspeakable since Walker was elected handily in November. Then, Feb. 10, Walker went further. He'd allow public-sector unions to negotiate only pay, not benefits, mainly because he wants HSA-style health plans and 401(k)-style retirements for state workers, and unions would fight that, tooth and ragged red claw.

So unions erupted. Teachers faked illness in such numbers as to close school districts for days. Mobs beat on the doors of legislative chambers. And in some heavenly Hyde Park, the great liberal god of the 1930s is saying he saw it all along. 

Roosevelt's reign certainly was the bright dawn of modern unionism. The legal and administrative paths that led to 35% of the nation's workforce eventually unionizing by a mid-1950s peak were laid by Roosevelt.

 But only for the private sector. Roosevelt openly opposed bargaining rights for government unions.

"The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," Roosevelt wrote in 1937 to the National Federation of Federal Employees. Yes, public workers may demand fair treatment, wrote Roosevelt. But, he wrote, "I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place" in the public sector. "A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government."  Read full story…

"Great" Teachers…

Ask Franklin Schools Superintendent Steve Patz or any member of the Franklin school board and they will likely tell you: Franklin public schools have great teachers.  Arguably, “great” is relative, but Merriam-Webster defines great this way: An outstandingly superior or skillful person.  We do not doubt that Franklin Public Schools has some great teachers, but like any organization it more than likely has its share of not –so-great- teachers, as-well.

In researching what makes a great teacher, we came across a number of websites  that attempted to answer the question: What makes a great teacher?  You are welcome to Google that question to satisfy your own curiosity, but we settled for an article entitled: Top 5 (Plus 14) Character Traits Of Superior Teachers at a website named:  So you want to teach.com.

The article concludes that these are the Top 5 (Plus 14) Character Traits Of Superior Teachers and that if you want to be a great teacher, these are the things you should begin to develop first.  How do these traits  measure up to your expectation and definition of a great teacher?  Meet my hair-pulling fourth grade teacher, Miss Martins:

Top 5 Character Traits of Great Teachers

1. Inspired me and never let me settle for anything less than my best.
2. Compassionate, caring, made me feel important and welcomed, made a personal connection with me.
3. Were demanding, pushed me hard.
4. Had a great sense of humor.
5. Knowledge of the subject matter.

Other specifics

1. Wasn’t afraid of what other people thought.
2. Passion for the subject matter.
3. Challenged me to think beyond just the answer in the textbook.
4. Listened to my ideas.
5. Taught me new things.
6. A terrific fund raiser.
7. Kept things interesting.
8. They were interactive.
9. Added personal elements to the classroom.
10. Organized.
11. Wasn’t fake or shallow with comments to students.
12. Discipline.
13. Confidence.
14. They were problem solvers, rather than simply problem identifiers.

THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL is a member of Michelle Rhee’s studentsfirst.

Here is Rhee discussing studentsfirst.org, school reform and great teachers.

RELATED MEDIA

• Studentsfirst.org Facebook link>

Not a “Facebooker”?

• Here is StudentsFirst’s website (videos) link>

Fortunately, we no longer have kids in Franklin Public Schools and feel comfortable writing about this subject without fear of reprisals to our kids from teachers doubling as union reps thug-enforcers.