Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Don’t Bother Them with Facts
Pittsburgh’s new school superintendent has fired off an indignant letter to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board complaining about the recent “fact-finder’s” report on the district’s conflict with the teachers’ unions. In the letter Superintendent Roosevelt points out the failures of the state appointed fact-finder to include important estimates of how much his recommendations would cost the district and failed to take into account the parlous state of the district’s finances. This is a school district that is being forced to close schools because of declining enrollments and outrageous per student spending.
Despite the condition of school finances, the fact-finder concluded that pay raises for teachers are affordable. Perhaps he believes that more money from the state or higher millage rates will do the trick. In any case, he failed to produce a salary schedule with proposed raises as required by his appointment letter. Nonetheless, the spokesperson for the Labor Relations Board backed the fact-finder and his report.
What all of this says again in starkest terms is that Pennsylvania’s public sector bargaining has become completely one-sided in terms of the taxpayers and unions. The unions have every conceivable state granted and enforced advantage.
Even as the extraordinary cost per student, the resultant high local taxes and heavy state funding and inexcusably poor academic achievement of Pittsburgh schools can be traced in large measure to the unions representing employees of the district, as far as the government of Pennsylvania is concerned, so what?
Any doubt as to where the current administration’s allegiance lies with respect to taxpayers and teachers was removed by the announcement that the Governor will recommend another 5 percent increase in state school spending for the next fiscal year. With no appreciable change in the number of students and just three percent inflation, there is no justification for the spending increase unless the money is mandated to be used to roll back property taxes. But, it isn’t.
The claim is that the money is coming from savings the administration has been able to achieve. Yet, when the legislators passed a bill asking for a small business tax cut, the Governor said there was no way to fund it. When it comes time to take care of powerful supporters there is plenty of money, but for businesses the message is clear, “go pound salt.”
Pittsburgh’s new school superintendent has fired off an indignant letter to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board complaining about the recent “fact-finder’s” report on the district’s conflict with the teachers’ unions. In the letter Superintendent Roosevelt points out the failures of the state appointed fact-finder to include important estimates of how much his recommendations would cost the district and failed to take into account the parlous state of the district’s finances. This is a school district that is being forced to close schools because of declining enrollments and outrageous per student spending.
Despite the condition of school finances, the fact-finder concluded that pay raises for teachers are affordable. Perhaps he believes that more money from the state or higher millage rates will do the trick. In any case, he failed to produce a salary schedule with proposed raises as required by his appointment letter. Nonetheless, the spokesperson for the Labor Relations Board backed the fact-finder and his report.
What all of this says again in starkest terms is that Pennsylvania’s public sector bargaining has become completely one-sided in terms of the taxpayers and unions. The unions have every conceivable state granted and enforced advantage.
Even as the extraordinary cost per student, the resultant high local taxes and heavy state funding and inexcusably poor academic achievement of Pittsburgh schools can be traced in large measure to the unions representing employees of the district, as far as the government of Pennsylvania is concerned, so what?
Any doubt as to where the current administration’s allegiance lies with respect to taxpayers and teachers was removed by the announcement that the Governor will recommend another 5 percent increase in state school spending for the next fiscal year. With no appreciable change in the number of students and just three percent inflation, there is no justification for the spending increase unless the money is mandated to be used to roll back property taxes. But, it isn’t.
The claim is that the money is coming from savings the administration has been able to achieve. Yet, when the legislators passed a bill asking for a small business tax cut, the Governor said there was no way to fund it. When it comes time to take care of powerful supporters there is plenty of money, but for businesses the message is clear, “go pound salt.”
