Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is reversing a century of employment reform to reduce the state’s debt. As a result, Wisconsin has turned into a ‘Nam protest’. Actually bigger, according to crowd estimates mentioned in The Christian Science Monitor. New is news. Gov. Walker hasn’t hired Pinkerton goons to strong arm the unions yet, but probably just because he doesn’t want to escalate matters. For those not in the know, a Pinkerton is the protagonist of “Bioshock: Infinite.”
The issue is the governor wants to reduce the pay and benefits of state employees, teachers among them, while also revoking their right to collective bargaining. So basically, whatever contract is churned out, the union has to accept. The Republican philosophy of ticking off the people who will never vote Republican to get stuff done is in full effect. You have to admire their willingness to fulfill their disturbed, archaic view of America. The things they are willing to do to make this country a perpetual episode of “Leave it to Beaver” is a testament to their perseverance, balls and insanity. But, I digress.
Teachers get a raw deal. The classes are overcrowded because budget cuts keep closing schools. It’s a struggle to get the needed supplies because of budget cuts, too. Stress probably ages them terribly, and to top it all off, they have to deal with a generation of lazy, near brain-dead hooligans who either don’t want to learn or can’t. And when the student does terribly, who do the parents blame? The teacher, instead of the broken system that produced the kid.
Now, I will admit that is the worst-case scenario. Some teacher’s don’t care, some students do, and most of the problems I listed are mainly urban-area issues. Still, the media keeps talking about their wages and their benefits like it’s some sort of undeserved silver platter. Those health benefits are vital to a teacher’s survival. For crying out loud, college professors get sick all the time. Schools and the students are a breeding ground for chemical weaponry. It’s a wonder the teachers stay alive.
Now, I am not defending the unions, here. Teachers unions struggle tooth and nail to keep bad teachers working, and most unions have outlived their usefulness. Or at least I thought so, until Gov. Carnegie, I mean Walker, proved me wrong. Good job, he proved how vital the thing he is trying to remove is to the stability of employment. He also undermined his own legislation. At least he’s being a predictable governor.
Blaming government employees is pretty easy to do. They have a decent amount of job security, okay benefits, a good salary and guaranteed hours. Teachers, however, also have hordes of psychotic brats running around indifferent to morality, justice and proper decency whose minds have been numbed from indifferent parents and too much media absorption – again, speaking generally here. The future of America lies in the classrooms of the nation. Do we really want to screw over the people in charge of overseeing that future?
