Fire All Striking Teachers And Send Their Paychecks To Students’ Parents

[mountaineer]

Fire All Striking Teachers And Send Their Paychecks To Students’ Parents
The striking teachers -- and politicians caving to them -- lack a rudimentary knowledge of the real reasons teacher salaries aren't as high as they want and their school books and materials are old and scant.
By Joy Pullmann   
April 11, 2018

Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arizona public-school teachers have stuck children in the middle of a game of chicken, and that’s why they think the taxpayers who pay their salaries are going to blink. All four states are experiencing mass teacher strikes this spring leaving hundreds of thousands (not a typo) of students and their families in the lurch. Their Republican-dominated state legislatures are largely capitulating rather than using unions’ exploitation of teachers and children as an opportunity to finally make long-overdue reforms to U.S. education.

Arizona teachers are planning pre-school “walk-ins” on April 11 as a potential precursor to strikes. They want a 20 percent hike in base pay, among other things. Oklahoma teachers just entered their second week of strikes that have suspended school indefinitely for some 500,000 kids. Oklahoma’s state legislature already raised the average teacher salary $6,000 this year, but the strikers say it wasn’t enough. They want a $10,000 salary increase.

The strikers say it’s all about the kids, but it’s really all about the money. If they cared about the kids, they wouldn’t use them as a bargaining chip by abandoning or threatening to abandon classrooms. Many states and localities are facing massive debt and unfunded pension crises created largely by decades of unrealistic financial demands from government employees, the largest category of which is usually teachers. More self-delusion will only make things worse.  ...

Rest of article at The Federalist, which argues a lack of money is not the problem.

[mountaineer]

I was arguing this point throughout the recent teacher strike in W.Va. It costs a heck of a lot less to live in W.Va. than in many other states.

PolitiFact’s Double Standard Makes Oklahoma Teachers Look Poorer Than They Really Are
So-called fact-checking outfit PolitiFact is fine with considering cost-of-living differences in California or New York, just not in Oklahoma.
By Trent England   
April 11, 2018

When I moved to Oklahoma, I got a raise simply because things cost less here than in the Seattle area where I grew up. Housing, especially, is cheaper in Oklahoma City than in anywhere else I’ve lived. According to RentCafe.com, average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Seattle is $2,254; in Oklahoma City it’s $790.

So it only seems fair to me to evaluate state-by-state rankings using some calculation that factors in such diversity. It does not, however, seem fair to PolitiFact. Actually, PolitiFact is fine with considering cost-of-living differences in California or New York, just not in Oklahoma.

This is a common trick of those who want government to get bigger: ignore the cost of living in low-cost, mostly red states, but emphasize the cost of living in higher-cost, blue states. This makes it easier to argue for higher taxes and more spending in both places.

Along with several other states, Oklahoma is embroiled in a controversy over education funding and teacher pay. In a debate like this, people want to know: Where does my state rank compared to other states?

Considering the raw numbers, Oklahoma was near the bottom (last week our governor signed legislation to raise taxes and increase teacher pay, on average, $6,100 per year). In March, PolitiFact rated the claim that Oklahoma teachers “are the poorest paid” in the country as “mostly true.” In a subsequent meeting, I chided PolitiFact’s Jon Greenberg for leaving out any mention of cost-of-living differences in that analysis.  ...

More at The Federalist

[Polly Ticks]

Rest of article at The Federalist, which argues a lack of money is not the problem.

Interesting article.

On a personal level, I'm not too happy with the shifting graduation date for my senior because of these off days. And the teachers here are talking about walking out again on Friday.
 

[Polly Ticks]

And again ...