Sunday, January 07, 2007

Arbitration Did NOT Work "Back Then"

The Teachers' Union wants you to forget history.

That is, if you learned any in the public schools in the first place.

"QEO isn't working," Doyle said in his 2003 budget message.

Democrats who took control of the Senate in the fall stand with Doyle on repealing the law.

Ending it would mean "each school board would be able to negotiate" and use the binding arbitration system that worked before 1993, said Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson (D-Beloit).

Robson lies, of course. The old system was guaran-friggin'-teed to produce generous increases in wages and bennies for WEAC members.

Their negotiators would find one school board which was 'friendly' (or weak) in a given geographical area, get large increases, and then leverage that against other area boards.

Most often WEAC didn't really make an effort to "bargain" with the other Boards. They knew that the arbitrator would base his award on 'other comparable districts'--and guess what--they already had that 'other comparable district' in the bag.

So if Mayville had increased teacher compensation by 6.0%, you could rest assured that Allenton, Slinger, West Bend, (etc., etc.) were going to be forced to cough up 6.0% as well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arbitration did not work just as you state. The present system is still wrong and (in reality) forces us metro/suburban taxpayers to subsidize schools in outlying areas. The school funding formula (complete with the unfunded promise of 2/3rds funding) is what has created the state structural deficit. Thank Tommy T. for that big stuff up!!

Dad29 said...

Actually, the 'burbs support MPS, through income taxes.

And since a former WEAC negotiator told me the story, I accept it as true...