{"id":2725,"date":"2011-04-20T10:46:31","date_gmt":"2011-04-20T14:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2725"},"modified":"2011-04-20T10:46:31","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T14:46:31","slug":"column-when-good-people-make-bad-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2725","title":{"rendered":"Column: When good people make bad decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

School board, teachers failing to make coherent public case in labor talks<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m sure, somewhere, there\u2019s a self-help book called \u201cWhen good people make bad decisions.\u201d If so, I\u2019d kind of appreciate it if someone would send a crate here to Unionville.<\/p>\n

The latest wrangling by the school board and the teachers\u2019 union is a case in point \u2014 and neither side is really covering themselves in glory in recent days, after weeks of what seemed like productive talks. As a former political operative, I can suggest of late, both sides have given a virtual clinic on how not<\/em> to frame their message.<\/p>\n

The ticky-tacky complaints by some of the union negotiators \u2014 granted, they were made months ago \u2014 built up animosity in what is generally a \u201cno autopsy, no foul\u201d labor negotiation process. The choice not to participate in some optional activities, such as elementary school talent shows, generated anger among parents and reduced public sympathy for their side, a pool already dwindled by the perception that their salary demands are out of whack with financial realities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On the other side, I get that the teachers\u2019 pension thing is kind of a mess. But…the wailing is a little out of perspective to the problem and quite frankly, the cause.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about the cause, which has been spun and spun and spun to an extent that it appears that somehow the teachers are the bad guys here.<\/p>\n

Way back in 2001, just as the boom was ending, and stock prices peaked, the state legislature opted to pass a bill to both increase its own pensions, and change the vesting rules for teachers and other public employees while cutting local and state pension contributions, which, in theory would lead to lower property taxes. Like the vast, vast majority of Pennsylvania\u2019s school boards, Unionville\u2019s neither lowered property taxes, nor put money away against future pension liabilities.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, which is always 20-20, it was a bit like finding your credit card company had lowered your minimum payment and celebrating it by buying a new, pricey flat screen TV. Meanwhile, as the district only had to put in 1% or 2% of salaries, teachers kept paying generally more than 7%. Over the next decade, the district\u2019s rate increased slowly, but even now, after three years of financial crisis, the district has not had to fully match the teachers\u2019 payments.<\/p>\n

That seems likely to change, as has happened with so many overstuffed credit cards and balloon mortgages, and now the bill is due. Somehow, in all this as the Public School Employees Pension System boogieman keeps getting trotted out, the teachers are somehow being portrayed as the villains. Yes, PSERS is a problem, but one created by the state legislature, aided and abetted by schools districts and school boards.<\/p>\n

Instead of the teachers, our two local state representatives, Steve Barrar and Chris Ross, both of whom voted to change the pension rules and both of whom admit things did not work out they way their expected, ought to be getting the heat over pensions, not the teachers, who to my mind, are the only innocent party here, at least when it comes to their pensions. They played by the rules \u2014 not rules they made, mind you \u2014 and paid their share all along. The state and the school district could have been more responsible and weren\u2019t. Pointing fingers at the only innocent party does the board no credit.<\/p>\n

And maybe worse, the PSERS hysteria is totally outstripping the really scary issue: health care costs. While the PSERS mess amounts to a couple Starbucks lattes a year for the average property owner in tax difference between the current district and teachers contract proposals (and yes, in theory, the rate is expected to increase — but as the cash-strapped state has to pay half and has repeatedly shown a gift for stalling and keeping the rates down, you have to taker those projections with a grain of salt), the difference on health care is a mile wide, as in more than $1 million over the next two school years.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that the Personal Choice health plan is better than the Keystone Direct plan. I know, I have it. It also costs my family just under $2,000 a month to have it \u2014 a choice we made and we pay for. It\u2019s a BMW, if you will, and when times were good, a nice perk. But these times aren\u2019t good and the district is offering a solid Ford plan with the option for the teachers to upgrade to the better plan out of pocket.<\/p>\n

And to be honest, back in the boom times, when I was working for a Fortune 500 publishing mega-corporation as executive editor of a national magazine, even then, I had to pay to upgrade for the best health care insurance and paid a higher percentage than the teachers are being asked to foot now. In the private sector, it\u2019s been that way for a while, and it\u2019s fair to ask public employees to carry the same burden.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m on the same page on compensation. Even though both sides have narrowed their differences, the district\u2019s offer is closer to financial reality, now that the step issue \u2014 trying a radical half-step seniority plan \u2014 has wisely been set aside. The governor\u2019s call for a teacher wage freeze doesn\u2019t give the union much wiggle room \u2014 especially as the administrators have taken a wage freeze for the second straight year (yes, I know the administrators make a lot more money, and in truth can better afford it).<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, I think, we\u2019d give the teachers all they ask for in terms of compensation. But this world is far from perfect \u2014 and while PSERS is a bit of a boogieman, real estate tax revenue fall offs, health care and looming debt service on capital projects (the 800-pound gorilla no one seems to want to talk about) could prove to be the iceberg to this Titanic of a district. As it\u2019s a cinch that legislation will pass in Harrisburg allowing districts to lay off teachers for fiscal cause, a 3% pay hike now might lead to a 100% cut for some teachers in a couple of years \u2014 a hit that will hurt not just them, but students who will see larger class sizes and less options.<\/p>\n

Yet, if I\u2019m a teacher, I might take pause to buy that argument after the Board of Education\u2019s seeming inclination not to raise taxes to the Act 1 limit. Surely, if there\u2019s a $1.1 Million deficit, courtesy Gov. Corbett, the board seems to have decided not to ask for $213,000 in additional property tax revenue \u2014 about $20 bucks in taxes for the average property owner. If things are so financially desperate, why give cover to the governor on his pass-through tax hike?<\/p>\n

At best, it\u2019s a mixed message, but one that muddies the water, much as the PSERS issue and begs the question of whether this truly about money or…wait for it…politics. I\u2019d really like to think it\u2019s about money and some exceptionally poor messaging (a Unionville-Chadds Ford School District tradition), but you have to wonder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School board, teachers failing to make coherent public case in labor talks By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com I\u2019m sure, somewhere, there\u2019s a self-help book called \u201cWhen good people make bad decisions.\u201d If so, I\u2019d kind of appreciate it if someone would send a crate here to Unionville. The latest wrangling by the school board and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,7],"tags":[113,69,45,43,42,24],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-featured","tag-2011-budget","tag-legislature","tag-negotiations","tag-schools-2","tag-teachers-contract","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}