Democrats robbing the poor to bail out free-spending schools

Democrats on Capitol Hill are literally taking food out of the mouths of the most needy to pay back their political cronies. Today, the House will vote on the infamous Bill with No Name, H.R. 1586 (originally the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act), which contains a $26.1 billion bailout for financially strapped state governments. Much of the money will go to public employee unions, in the form of a $10 billion "Education Jobs Fund" to supplement state education costs. This comes on top of a $53.5 billion bailout of unionized teachers in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund -- some of which is still unspent. Worse, the new legislation would impose $9.7 billion in permanent tax increases.

The failing economy is not the only reason school districts are seeing shortfalls. The Wall Street Journal reports that school district spending has been out of control for at least a decade and is far out of sync with enrollment growth. As the Journal notes, "total education spending grew by 32% percent between 1999 and 2009, while K-12 enrollment has grown by less that 1% each year over the same time period."

In some cases, unions have prevented state and local governments from making needed cuts in their budgets. For example, earlier this year the Milwaukee School Board announced that it was laying off 428 teachers due to budget shortfalls. The average Milwaukee teacher receives only $56,000 per year in salary, but also gets a generous $40,000 in benefits, including a health care plan that costs $26,000 per family, compared to $14,500 for private employees. The school board sought to cut costs and to keep the teachers by implementing cuts in benefits. A proposed health care plan would have instituted co-pays expected to yield $47.2 million in savings, more than enough to save every teacher's job. The union refused to bargain, instead opting for layoffs.

New Jersey rallies behind Gov. Christie's budget balancing

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the state’s powerful teachers’ union, have been locked in mortal combat over Christie’s plans to balance New Jersey’s budget.

Christie has rescinded planned state aid to school districts for the remainder of the current fiscal year, sought changes to pension rules, and demanded that teachers contribute 1.5% of their salaries toward the cost of their benefits package and accept for a one-year wage freeze. The union has opposed him at every turn, running ads statewide accusing the governor of attempting to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class and at the expense of students.

Christie has been getting the better of the fight. His pension changes were enacted by the Democratic-controlled legislature earlier this year, and New Jerseyans turned out in record numbers in April to heed the governor’s call to vote down their local school budgets if teachers in their districts did not agree to the wage freeze and benefits contributions. Sixty percent of school budgets went down to defeat, the most ever in the state.

Now, as he attempts to close a gaping $11 billion gap in a total budget of just under $29 billion, Christie has proposed cutting state aid to school districts in fiscal year 2011 by close to $850 million. The NJEA is again calling foul. But after a spring of opposing New Jersey’s brash new governor with little to show for it, the teachers’ union finds its public support eroding.

A new Fairleigh Dickinson University/Public Mind poll released Tuesday found public opinion on the NJEA slipping nine points from the last survey in March. Forty-four percent of New Jersey registered voters now say they have an unfavorable view of the NJEA, compared to 35% two months ago. That number includes 26% who say they have a “very unfavorable” view of the union, up seven points since the last poll. Just one-third of voters now say that the view the NJEA favorably, and only 15% say their view is “very favorable.”

By contrast, the poll found that public support for some of Christie’s education initiatives fares better than the union. A plurality (43%) agreed that one pay scale for all teachers “tends to treat the most valuable teachers unfairly,” a nod toward the governor’s plan to institute merit pay for individual teachers in the state. A slightly larger plurality (46%) favors sending education vouchers to low-income families trapped in failing public schools, even if the money is used to finance private-school tuition. And an overwhelming majority of voters say that school administrators making over $200,000 a year are “overpaid considering what other important public employees make.”

Schools: a bottomless pit that keeps Dems in power

One year after the federal government pumped $100 billion into school districts, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has requested an extra $26 billion to fund teachers’ jobs. Some of you may be asking, “To what end?” And you’re certainly right. However, we should consider another important question: What exactly is your hard-earned cash paying for?

Let’s first revisit Cinco de Mayo, during which five public school students at Live Oak High School in California were asked to turn their American flag T-shirts inside-out or be sent home.

Let’s recall another recent episode involving Taryn Hathaway, the 13-year-old student at Gavilan View Middle School in California who was reprimanded in art class for drawing an American flag with the words God Bless America, because her teacher deemed it “offensive.” The teacher went on to praise another student’s drawing of Barack Obama.

Let’s remember that Sherri Davis, a science teacher at Jamie's House Charter School in Texas, recently beat 13-year-old Isaiah Johnson in a classroom while other students watched. And then there’s the California teacher at Richard B. Haydock Intermediate School that is on paid leave as a result of allegations that two of her middle school students had oral sex in her classroom during class.

And remember the song performed by youngsters at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in New Jersey, in which students praised Barack Obama with such lyrics as “He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama.”

Who could forget North Carolina teacher Diantha Harris, who bullied a child in the classroom for answering “McCain” when asked who she supported for President?

Is this a system you’d like to funnel an extra $26 billion into?