As Usual, Teachers Unions Don't Give A Damn About "The Children"

I'll make this one quick and let you decide. I stand with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on this one and I suspect that most Americans do too. Wisconsin taxpayers fund those schools and teachers salaries yet they get to avoid the classrooms and deny much needed education time for "the children" the bleeding heart liberals claim to care so much about. If you cared about the children then you'd accept that you already have a better deal than most workers in Wisconsin and you'd get your whining asses back to class.

Let me give you two different points of view on this one and then you can decide for yourself who deserves your sympathy on this one: the governor or the labor unions. The first point of view comes from Dick Morris and Eileen McGann via DickMorris.com. This is their take on the situation in Wisconsin.

IN WISCONSIN: DEMOCRACY IS ON THE LINE

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Published on DickMorris.com on February 18, 2011

Democracy is on the line in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin. Will the popularly elected state legislature and governor (both now Republican for the first time in forever) get to run the state or will the union thugocracy, now crowding the streets, prevail?

The spectacle of Democratic legislators hiding out in the woods to avoid creating a quorum in their legislatures illustrates, more profoundly than anything else ever could, the extent to which we have lost control of our destiny and government to the public employee unions.

The teachers unions, the Service Employees, and AFSME have hijacked state government and are now holding them for ransom.

We are all citizens of Wisconsin now! Our freedom is on the line.

At last some real leaders are emerging within the Republican Party - the newly elected governors! Governors Chris Christie (NJ), Mitch Daniels (Ind), Scott Walker (Wisc) John Kasich (Ohio), Jim Corbett (Pa), Jan Brewer (Ariz), and Butch Otter (Idaho) are showing America how it is done.

The union mobs have taken to the streets in Wisconsin to protest hotly against having to pay 12.6% of their health insurance (the private sector average is 20%) and 5.8% of their pensions (private sector average is 7.5%). They want us to subsidize them so they can get to be richer than we are! Upward redistribution of income!

Governor Scott Walker, the courageous, young Republican just elected in Wisconsin also wants to limit teachers union bargaining to wages and benefits, but to leave work rules in the hands of school administrators. His ideas are vital to good schools but outrageous to the entrenched defenders of bad education in the teachers unions.

The most innovative governor in America - and also a likely GOP contender for president - is Bush's former OMB director Mitch Daniels. He is pushing forward with an exciting bill for statewide choice in schools, limits on teacher collective bargaining, caps on salary increases, and tenure reform. He has already pioneered using Health Savings Accounts to reduce health insurance costs - voluntarily - for state workers.

In Tennessee, with no noticeable leadership from the Republican governor Bill Haslam, the GOP state legislature is taking matters into its own hands. Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Dolores Gresham and Representative Bill Dunn have taken the lead in pushing legislation to prohibit collective bargaining with teachers unions entirely. They are also planning moves to expand school choice. Their landmark bill has just been reported out of the Senate Committee and, with Republican majorities in both houses, is likely to become law.

In Idaho, a gutsy Education Commissioner (elected) Tom Luna had his car vandalized and his family got death threats for trying to expand the pool of teachers to include all college graduates so as not to be limited to the indoctrinated graduates of education schools.

In Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, bills to advance school choice and reform schools are advancing.

And then there are the cowards - Governor Rick Scott of Florida who electrified the state with his bold proposal for education vouchers for statewide school choice only to shelve the bill and abandon it when the going got tough. He was aided and abetted by State Senator Stephen Wise (R-Jacksonville) who acted like a RINO by surrendering to the unions and letting the voucher proposal die in his education committee.

But there are enough courageous and true conservatives out there to move the cause forward...rapidly!

Now, let's compare that to what left-wing propaganda site MoveOn.org is saying about the situation.

Dear MoveOn member,


Madison, Wisconsin, is electric right now.


Tens of thousands of middle-class Americans—teachers, nurses, firefighters—are demonstrating at the capitol today. They're trying to stop the new, tea-party governor from ramming through one of the worst union-busting bills in recent history. He's using the pretext of a budget crisis, but it's one he created by giving tax breaks to business owners.1


Yesterday afternoon, 14 Democratic state senators walked out of the chamber in defiance to stop the vote on the bill. They're in Illinois now, speaking to the press from undisclosed locations to evade capture.2

Today protesters from all over Wisconsin are holding the biggest rally yet, with tens of thousands of people expected to come. But the national media is not giving the story the coverage it deserves, and without more attention, the Republicans may push the bill through.

We need to show that millions of Americans are standing with the protesters and help draw the nation's eyes to Madison today. Can you take a moment right now to change your Facebook status to this:

"Today I stand with the teachers, nurses, and all public employees of Wisconsin who are fighting for their rights. If you do too, change this to your status for the rest of the day."

Click here to go to your Facebook profile and change your status.
For Wisconsin's schools and kids, the stakes today couldn't be higher. Kim Hoffman, a middle school music teacher, spoke for hundreds of great teachers across the state when she said: "I love teaching, but [if these cuts go through] I'd have to start looking for another job, period."3

Gov. Walker's budget represents one of the boldest assaults on workers and the middle class in memory, and it comes at the worst possible time for Wisconsin's weakened middle class.
Today is the critical moment. With the bill temporarily stalled after Democratic Senators fled the state to deny the Republicans the ability to vote on the bill, there is a chance to kill the bill for good.4 Organizers expect their largest crowd yet, but they need to know that we have their back.

Can you help draw national attention to Wisconsin by changing your status on Facebook for the rest of the day?

Click here to go to your Facebook profile and change your status.

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Laura, Lenore, Duncan, and the rest of the team

P.S.—If you don't have Facebook, that's fine—to spread the word, just forward this email along to five (or more!) friends, and ask them to do the same.

The Tea Party is back in action rallying in support of the governor and that's the side I'm taking.

At a time when those of us who still have jobs feel lucky just to be able to keep our jobs it's a disgrace to see these unions rising up claiming they are getting an unfair deal. What's unfair is tenure for a bad teacher. What's unfair is a pension that most workers don't get and no states seem to be able to afford.

WHAT'S UNFAIR IS THE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS UNIONS GIVE TO POLITICIANS LIKE PRESIDENT OBAMA WHILE AT THE SAME TIME THEY ASK FOR A BAILOUT.

We do care about the children and we don't want the unions to continuing to bankrupt the futures of our children so we stand with Governor Walker. As for the rest of you union thugs out there protesting in Wisconsin.....round up the student's you brought with you as propaganda props and GET YOUR ASSES BACK TO THE CLASSES. That's how you can show that you really care about "the children".