The Great Teacher Exodus From Wisconsin Has Begun

[Trench]

From the Washington Post:

APNewsBreak: Wis. teacher retirements double over last year, after collective bargaining fight

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 31, 11:01 AM

MADISON, Wis. ? When students return Thursday for the first day of school across Wisconsin, many familiar faces will be gone, as teachers chose retirement over coming back in the wake of a new law that forces them to pay more for benefits while taking away most of their collective bargaining rights.

In the first six months of 2011, overall public employee retirements were double that in all of either 2009 or 2010, according to data provided to the AP by the Wisconsin Retirement System. That includes 4,935 Wisconsin school district employees who started receiving retirement benefits, up from 2,527 teacher retirements in all of 2010 and 2,417 in 2009.

Teachers weren?t the only ones heading for the exits. State agency retirements were particularly dramatic, nearly tripling from 747 in all of 2010 to 1,966 through June. Retirements from the University of Wisconsin System more than doubled, up from 480 last year to 1,091 this year. All told, 9,933 public workers had retired by the end of June, a 93 percent increase from 5,133 in 2010. The year before, there were 4,876 retirements.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...aining-fight/2011/08/31/gIQARwy4rJ_story.html

I can think of at least one poster here who's probably ecstatic over this news. :0003

 

[Skulnik]

Who cares?

Get a JOB where you're accountable.

TIA.

:shrug:

 

[Trench]

Who cares?

Get a JOB where you're accountable.

TIA.

:shrug:

Teachers aren't accountable?

Wisconsin already has more than 750,000 signature commitments on the recall election of Scott Walker in January. You're going to find out "who cares".

 

[marine]

So they've reached the end of their career and are retiring, and probably retiring early and snagging a severance/retirement bonus and making room for more younger, newer teachers to come in to the pipeline. sounds pretty good.

 

[Skulnik]

Teachers aren't accountable?

Wisconsin already has more than 750,000 signature commitments on the recall election of Scott Walker in January. You're going to find out "who cares".

I don't live there, screw your DUMB Unions.

TIA

:nono:

 

[Mags]

Teachers aren't accountable?

Wisconsin already has more than 750,000 signature commitments on the recall election of Scott Walker in January. You're going to find out "who cares".

Trench - you gotta get out of the People's Republic of Madison once in a while. It warps your mind, and is unlike anywhere else in the state.

Very little chance Walker gets recalled. Sure, teachers are upset the gravy train has ended, but there are more people that are satisfied to have them paid, and have benefits, that are more equitable to what is available in the private sector.

There is a lot of strange folks in Madison - as the rest of the state already knows.....

 

[bleedingpurple]

Trench - you gotta get out of the People's Republic of Madison once in a while. It warps your mind, and is unlike anywhere else in the state.

Very little chance Walker gets recalled. Sure, teachers are upset the gravy train has ended, but there are more people that are satisfied to have them paid, and have benefits, that are more equitable to what is available in the private sector.

There is a lot of strange folks in Madison - as the rest of the state already knows.....

You can count northwest wi that will not be voting walker. Strong union ties up here. People are pist!! Self supporting agencies taking pay cuts. Not too many people I talk to are saying good things except for those few staunch conservatives

 

[Trench]

Very little chance Walker gets recalled. Sure, teachers are upset the gravy train has ended, but there are more people that are satisfied to have them paid, and have benefits, that are more equitable to what is available in the private sector.

There WILL be a recall election and I do believe Walker's in serious trouble in Wisconsin. He's overreached and his day of reckoning is coming.

 

[Trampled Underfoot]

Tick tock.

 

[Trench]

So they've reached the end of their career and are retiring, and probably retiring early and snagging a severance/retirement bonus and making room for more younger, newer teachers to come in to the pipeline. sounds pretty good.

They may be getting payed out for banked benefits that they've earned but I serioiusly doubt public employees are snagging severance pay and retirement bonuses.

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

Lost most of the June job gains as well. . . didn't hear as much about Wisconsin's July report as their June. . . . :sadwave:




http://wisconsinbudgetproject.blogspot.com/2011/08/live-by-jobs-report-die-by-jobs-report.html

 

[bleedingpurple]

Lost most of the June job gains as well. . . didn't hear as much about Wisconsin's July report as their June. . . . :sadwave:




http://wisconsinbudgetproject.blogspot.com/2011/08/live-by-jobs-report-die-by-jobs-report.html

How could that be? Walker gave business including the Koch's all the tax breaks they wanted. WI jumped from the 40s to the teens in potential business growth and job creation. I don't know what happened? You don't suppose those businesses including Koch Industries took the tax break money and pocketed it?

 

[Mags]

You can count northwest wi that will not be voting walker. Strong union ties up here. People are pist!! Self supporting agencies taking pay cuts. Not too many people I talk to are saying good things except for those few staunch conservatives

BP:

Here is why the teacher's complaints don't resonate with the average WI worker:

They are complaining, and some retiring, because they have to pay 5.8% of their penson. A vast majority of WI workers don't have pensions. Most that have any retirement benefit at all have a 401K - and most don't even have a company match. So, most people are funding their own retirement. Unfortunately, most folks are also paying for the 94.2% of the teachers retirement too. That doesn't play well to the average voter.

Teachers are complaining about paying 11-12% of their health care premium. Teachers have a much more generous health care plan to begin with (some have no deductible, for example). The average WI worker does not have a rich plan - in fact, many do not. The ones that do have been paying a portion of the health care premium for years. This is just yet another complaint that does not resonate with the average worker. The teachers have had the golden spoon in their mouth for too long.

To top it off, many districts are now requiring their teachers to work 7-8 hours a day, from their previous 6 hours a day. And teachers are bitching. Yea, that plays well with the average worker - who has been working 40 hours a week for years and doesn't get the benefit of 3 months off in the summer.

See, the teacher's complaints fall on deaf ears. The public pays their salaries and benefits, yet their receive overall packages that are much better than the average worker.

In many areas, there is not a lot of sympathy for these changes. And yes, taking collective bargaining away was a must. If we didn't, in 2-3 years we'd be right back where we were - with a very unbalanced environment between teachers and the average worker in WI.

Yes, a lot of teachers are retiring - big deal. You will know when teachers are getting a bad deal when there are no people applying for openings. Just saw an article in the paper last week - in our area, they had 1 opening and received 1100 resumes for that one opening.

I think there are plenty of people who still think the teaching professional is a great "deal".

Cry me a river about teachers - they still have a much better situation than 90% of WI workers.......

 

[Mags]

They may be getting payed out for banked benefits that they've earned but I serioiusly doubt public employees are snagging severance pay and retirement bonuses.

Benefits they've earned? You mean "unused sick days" mainly?

Just try to find a private sector company that lets you bank sick days. In Wisconsin. Good Luck.

Many teachers get over 10 sick days a year - and talking to a few of them, most of those folks use as many days as they are allowed (unless their district lets them bank them - not all do).

Sheesh - in the private sector, unless you had a major illness or injury, if you take more than 3-4 sick days - well, we know what kind of employee you are.

Another union bargained benefit that is well above what the private sector gets. And one that is abused significantly - so much that everyone just assumes each teacher will use their maximum every year.

That is not what sick days are for - quasi vacation. Isn't 3 months vacation a year enough?

 

[The Sponge]

The teachers have had the golden spoon in their mouth for too long.

.

:mj07: Chad is gonna love this statement

 

[StevieD]

Benefits they've earned? You mean "unused sick days" mainly?

Just try to find a private sector company that lets you bank sick days. In Wisconsin. Good Luck.

Many teachers get over 10 sick days a year - and talking to a few of them, most of those folks use as many days as they are allowed (unless their district lets them bank them - not all do).

Sheesh - in the private sector, unless you had a major illness or injury, if you take more than 3-4 sick days - well, we know what kind of employee you are.

Another union bargained benefit that is well above what the private sector gets. And one that is abused significantly - so much that everyone just assumes each teacher will use their maximum every year.

That is not what sick days are for - quasi vacation. Isn't 3 months vacation a year enough?

10 sick days seems about the norm for America. Now in the third world I dunno. But I think they get their health care for free.

 

[The Sponge]

Sure, teachers are upset the gravy train has ended, .....

This one also :mj07:

 

[The Sponge]

With families breaking up at an alarming rate i can't think of a worse job then being a teacher. Lots of these kids lazy parents would rather fight each other than worry about what their kid is doing. Gangs in schools now and kids who refuse to listen to anyone. Gravy job :142smilie

 

[Mags]

10 sick days seems about the norm for America. Now in the third world I dunno. But I think they get their health care for free.

Maybe in the blue collar world. But not in the white collar professions - which teachers would be.

I can't remember any of my employees taking more than 3-4 sick days a year. But I guess if you are professional, and enjoy what you do, you are more apt to come into work instead of falsely calling in sick.

 

[Mags]

With families breaking up at an alarming rate i can't think of a worse job then being a teacher. Lots of these kids lazy parents would rather fight each other than worry about what their kid is doing. Gangs in schools now and kids who refuse to listen to anyone. Gravy job :142smilie

Tell that to the farmer in WI (which we have a lot of).

How many paid sick days do you think they get??? :mj07:

Do you think they get 3 months off, and have the taxpayers give them a pension? Do you think they only work 6 hour days? :mj07:

I'm saying that teachers have had silver (or gold) laden benefits, well above what the vast majority of working folks get - which would be fine if they worked in private industry and the company could afford it.

But when you are asking the average taxpayer to pay for these egregious union negotatiated benefits, and finally the pendulum swings back to bring public benefits a BIT closer to private world benefits - there just isn't any sympathy for the constant whining about this.

Suck it up, just like everyone else in the state does.

There's no crying in teaching (or is that baseball?)