Highly qualified and decent workers are being passed over for younger workers lacking business skills

The two articles were on the WSJ website and they are the symptoms of a larger problem that is being made worse by business leaders -

The first article was a well written piece on how difficult it has been for workers who are between 40 - 60 years old to find work after the recession.  Having been in that situation, I understand the issue fully.

Take a look at this link

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303506404577448751320412974.html

Here is a quote from that article -

" More than 3.5 million Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 were unemployed as of May, 39% of them for a year or more—a rate of long-term unemployment that is unprecedented in modern U.S. history, and far higher than among younger workers.

The struggles of the middle-aged unemployed point to a larger economic problem: The labor market can't fully heal until people like Ms. Adams and Messrs. Daniel and Schoolfield can get back to work. The longer it takes, the deeper and more permanent the scars of the recession become—not just for the workers themselves, but for the broader economy.
The net-net of this article - Highly qualified and decent workers are being passed over due to being unemployed.  They have a lifetime worth of skills and knowledge but have been rendered unusable by companies who treat them as disposable."


Then we get this info, also from the Wall Street Journal -

This Embarrasses You and I*

Grammar Gaffes Invade the Office in an Age of Informal Email, Texting and Twitter by Sue Shellenbarger

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577466662919275448.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

Here is a key part of that article -

" A majority of the younger workers hired by companies have a complete lack of grammar and understanding of how to properly handle business communications.

Managers are fighting an epidemic of grammar gaffes in the workplace. Many of them attribute slipping skills to the informality of email, texting and Twitter where slang and shortcuts are common. Such looseness with language can create bad impressions with clients, ruin marketing materials and cause communications errors, many managers say.

There's no easy fix. Some bosses and co-workers step in to correct mistakes, while others consult business-grammar guides for help. In a survey conducted earlier this year, about 45% of 430 employers said they were increasing employee-training programs to improve employees' grammar and other skills, according to the Society for Human Resource Management and AARP

Most participants in the Society for Human Resource Management-AARP survey blame younger workers for the skills gap. Tamara Erickson, an author and consultant on generational issues, says the problem isn't a lack of skill among 20- and 30-somethings. Accustomed to texting and social networking, "they've developed a new norm," Ms. Erickson says."


Colleges found this out when they had to start instituting courses to assist incoming freshmen with writing, English and math literacy.  The colleges needed to do this to ensure that the students could maintain the required standards.  This is a symptom of a failing education system that has been going downhill due to unions, ineffective teachers who are not rated on performance and a bloated system that demands more and more money while producing students unable to handle the basic skills needed to be a part of the workforce.

In Algebra, they taught us the basic equation " If A = B, and B = C then A must = C."
SO if we look at these issues I can draw the following conclusions -

A - Companies have purposely decided to take older workers off their books in an effort to save money on wages and benefits - thereby depriving themselves of highly qualified workers.  In their stead, they have and will hire cheaper, younger workers.

B - Based on the skill set of the younger workers hired, companies are getting less performance and having more difficulties with the cheaper, less experienced help they are bringing on to the job.  They will see the cost of this short sighted decision in spending more on training, lost business due to ineffective workers and lower profits.

And then we come to C - Due to the actions of Educators, Business Leaders, Teacher's Unions and the ineffective Politicians, we have created a multi-layer problem of wasted tax dollars spent in an under performing education system, ruined career opportunities for older workers and under-educated younger workers. It's a mess that will effect our country for decades until we change how we educate our students and how older workers are treated by businesses ignoring the best qualified applicants  simply because they are older than 45.

This issue is multifaceted and there's plenty of blame to go around - We have known for the past decade that teaching has mainly been about  teacher's tenure and not about excellence.  Unions thugs gamed the education system and POLS gave them the tax dollars to do so.....Businesses decided to take advantage of the recession to force out older workers and reduce overhead.

In the end, this tragedy means wasted tax dollars, lower wages, ruined careers for good workers and an education system that has failed for years while rewarding those who engineered the failure......Did I miss anything ???

Schools put themselves into a "financial vise" and expect us to pay for unreasonable pay increases when they can't deliver quality education

If you read the story in yesterday's Boston Globe, you would have come away with a sympathetic angle regarding that the schools need more support...who doesn't want to support better schools?

The issue here is not "better" schools but more $$$. If $$$ alone made better schools, we would have the best in the world as we spend more $$$ per student than anywhere in the world....and in the end, Johnny still places about 25th in education compared to his peers in other countries....wonderful. We pay top $$$ but get a poor return....it would be like paying for a Camaro and getting back a Yugo....

Let's delve into the story....The schools are losing " Stimulus Funds" they had last year....Funny money that was given out by POTUS and is not something you should count on as it doesn't exist in the real world....You can't expect that kind of money to appear year after year... Then if you read the whole article, you find the meat of the story at the end...

" In Everett, School Superintendent Frederick Foresteire said his district will get a $4.9 million state aid increase next year. But he said his budget will be tight in light of other factors, including the loss of $1.3 million in stimulus money; a nearly $1 million drop in city spending on schools; a $650,000 increase in charges for health insurance and other costs; and the $700,000 needed to cover step increases and other union contractual obligations."

Health insurance and Union obligations added $1.35 million in cost to their budget - WELL, no wonder why you can't pay the bills - The Unions helped themselves to a nice pay increase and the Health Insurance is increasing (without the employees paying a larger cut, like in the private sector ) The media wonders why there is outrage against the schools?? Easy - Poor performance by teachers and students, unreasonable $$$ and benefits expectations by school employees and a poor return on the investment made....Did I miss anything?

Schools caught in a vise Loss of stimulus funds worsens budget outlook Area school districts are worried the Legislature will reduce the amount of state aid for education proposed by Governor Deval Patrick

By John Laidler Globe Correspondent / March 27, 2011

In Danvers, the School Committee has approved a budget proposal that would cut 21 positions during the next fiscal year. In Revere, however, school officials are struggling to close a projected $5 million fiscal 2012 budget gap without layoffs. Across the region, school districts are facing difficult choices as they struggle to balance their fiscal 2012 books in the face of a bleak confluence of factors, including rising costs and the end of federal stimulus dollars.

“It is very challenging,’’ said Danvers School Superintendent Lisa Dana, whose district’s proposed cuts include the equivalent positions of 11 teachers and nine aides. The budget also calls for a 20 percent increase in fees. Officials said the district must absorb cost increases in areas such as special education and contractual obligations, and a loss in federal stimulus money, while keeping to an overall 2.07 percent spending increase. “There’s definitely an impact when you are cutting the equivalent of 21 positions,’’ Dana said.

But the budget keeps core services to students intact through such means as restructuring or doing without services that support that core, she said. Revere School Superintendent Paul Dakin called the fiscal 2012 budget “certainly the most difficult in recent years, because we are losing stimulus money that we had over the last couple of years.’’ Dakin said about half the district’s projected $5 million budget shortfall is the result of the loss of those federal dollars. The remainder is owed to rising costs in areas such as fuel, health insurance, contracted salary increases, and transportation.

He said state school aid is up $2.8 million, but that is not enough to make up for the other budget pressures. The district is pursuing potential ways to eliminate the shortfall, including saving money in this fiscal year to carry into the next one; and seeking through negotiations to have unions agree to health care concessions, one to two furlough days, and deferring part of a 2 percent salary increase owed to them next year, he said. Dakin cautioned that even if the district manages all those changes, “we’d be in real trouble’’ if the Legislature allots less for state aid than Governor Deval Patrick has proposed.


Tom Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said districts have seen job and service cuts the last few years, but federal stimulus money has helped moderate those reductions. “We have now arrived at the perfect storm where we have lost all the federal money and we are probably at the bottom of where our resources are,’’ he said. “The costs of education continue to be significant. So this is going to be a tough year for most of the school districts.’’ Scott said most districts face the need to make cuts that “are going to increase class size or reduce direct programs and services for kids.’’ But he agreed with Dakin that the severity of those cuts will be determined in part by whether the Legislature adopts school aid figures below those proposed by the governor.


In Everett, School Superintendent Frederick Foresteire said his district will get a $4.9 million state aid increase next year. But he said his budget will be tight in light of other factors, including the loss of $1.3 million in stimulus money; a nearly $1 million drop in city spending on schools; a $650,000 increase in charges for health insurance and other costs; and the $700,000 needed to cover step increases and other union contractual obligations. Foresteire said balancing the budget will require job cuts, including layoffs, but the extent is still to be determined. “Everything is on the table,’’ he said.


Peabody School Superintendent C. Milton Burnett said his district will be able to replace some stimulus money with funds it received last year from the federal Education Jobs Fund program. But he said fiscal 2012 is still shaping up as difficult due to rising health costs and the need to carry out deferred maintenance to HVAC systems. He said it was premature to say if job cuts will be needed. In Salem, School Superintendent William J. Cameron Jr. predicts a “tough budget year’’ in which “the best I can plausibly expect is to maintain level services.’’ Cameron said that over the past several years, Mayor Kimberley L. Driscoll and the City Council have provided the schools with enough funds to weather the decline in state aid. It remains to be seen, he said, “whether that level of commitment to the schools will still be possible.’’ © Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.

Providence Mayor, " we have a responsibility to balance our budget. We have a very difficult situation. It’s unprecedented."

Next door in Rhode Island, they have been hit pretty hard by the Recession....When Massachusetts had an unemployment rate of about 10% (with real unemployment at about 17% when you included underemployed), Rhode Island has an unemployment rate of 14% (real unemployment being about 22% for them), 2nd highest in the land except for Michigan.....Ouch!

The Mayor of Providence has had to move to much more drastic measures to get costs under control....The seniority system and how we employ Teachers does not allow us to keep the BEST Teachers, only those who have the highest seniority...That said, we also spend more per capita on students in the USA than any other country in the world and we only rate "Average" in the world for education.

The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

25th in MATH ?!?? Are you kidding me?? We need higher Math scores if we are to keep up with the other countries and continue to innovate.

So when people get irate at the idea of what the Providence Mayor is doing, I look at it and say it can't be that bad as the present system only reinforces lower performance for education....In this manner, the Providence Schools system will be able to keep the BEST teachers, not just the ones who have been there the longest.....

How long would you be employed at your job if year after year you were only rated as " average "....likely you would be out except in a public sector union where " average ' get reinforced.

NOW, we need to do the same for the ADMINISTRATORS as they are just as responsible for the low rating of our education system.....Send them packing too.


Providence teacher dismissals seen as blow to seniority system
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 26, 2011
By Linda Borg - Providence Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — No matter how you slice it, school experts say, the decision Thursday by the city School Board to notify teachers that they might be terminated at the end of the school year strikes at the heart of their union contract’s seniority system.

Mayor Angel Taveras says that the decision he recommended to the board is strictly about balancing the city and the School Department budgets. He says that termination will save money because teachers who are dismissed and not rehired will not end up in a substitute teaching pool.

But David V. Abbott, the state’s deputy education commissioner, said the difference between layoffs and dismissals is this: When a teacher is laid off under state statute, he or she is put on a recall list. Although that teacher is no longer working and no longer paid, that person exists in an employment “limbo.” The teacher hasn’t been actually dismissed.

If a job becomes available for which that teacher is qualified, that person must be rehired based on seniority.

“If you are laid off, you have the right of recall,” Abbott said Friday. “You still have one stick in your bundle. If I’m dismissed, I’m out of work and I need to be rehired.”

In effect, every teacher who is terminated has to reapply for his or her job as would any new teacher entering the system.

“It is a way to get around seniority,” said Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees. “In order to give the administration the flexibility to recall the teachers they need, they had to give out dismissal notices.”

But Duffy also says that the shift from layoffs to dismissal notices moves Providence — and Rhode Island — into “uncharted territory.”

Will the dismissed teachers be entitled to a hearing before losing their jobs? What will an appeals process look like? Will the district have to state why each teacher is being dismissed?

“Termination for fiscal reasons,” he said, “is different from termination for ‘we don’t like you’ reasons.”

Duffy says that the mayor, whose schools face a $40-million budget shortfall next year, doesn’t have a lot of choices.

“The mayor is looking into the abyss,” he says. “He doesn’t have any options. The biggest driver in the city’s budget is education. You have to take a look at personnel costs.”

The termination process, Duffy says, gives Taveras a chance to consolidate schools and match teachers to the needs in each school.

But Taveras dismisses the common perception among teachers that his decision was motivated by a desire to eliminate seniority-based hiring.

“Why did I do this?” he said. “Because we have a responsibility to balance our budget. We have a very difficult situation. It’s unprecedented. That’s why we have taken an unprecedented step, even though it has caused turmoil.”

Taveras says that the city will let teachers know whether they’ll be able to keep their jobs as soon as possible. He also says that the city will do everything it can to make sure that the terminations do not damage teachers’ careers.

“This is not about ruining anyone’s future prospects,” he says. “It’s about getting our budget under control.”

Further complicating matters, Providence recently changed the way it fills vacancies. Starting last fall, teachers are no longer chosen for openings based solely on seniority. They have to submit to an interview process, held by the school principal and a team of colleagues. In addition, they have to submit a model lesson plan and a writing sample.

The goal is to select the best person for each position, not simply hire the most senior person for the job.

And statewide, the situation gets still more complicated in the months to come. Many other school districts may be altering the use of seniority in assigning teachers.

State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist, in an October 2009 memo, informed districts that they can no longer base teacher assignments solely on seniority.

In a memo sent to school districts this week, Gist wrote that the state’s Basic Education Plan, which took effect July 1, 2010, “requires districts to recruit, hire and retain highly effective personnel based on student and district needs.”

“As I noted in my memo,” Gist wrote, “teacher assignments based solely on seniority cannot comply with this requirement. Under Rhode Island law, these are personnel-related considerations that must be used in the planning and implementation of a reduction in the teaching force for budgetary or program reasons.”

As teacher contracts come up for negotiation, districts will have to include new language that limits the role of seniority in hiring.

In the real world, unlike for Wisconsin Teachers & Legislators, people who lie about missing work get a pink slip....

Thoughtful analysis on the Wisconsin issue....

It comes down to this - Agree or disagree, teachers skipping school and legislators leaving the state to avoid doing their jobs is ethically wrong. If you want to debate an issue, do so in the legislature. If you want to protest, do so on your own time, not when you should be teaching in the schools or doing your state job. Any private employee who acted this way would likely be fired and/or replaced. But because they work for the state/municipal system, they are allowed to acted insubordinate to the taxpayers.

Teachers & Legislators, get back to the work you are being paid for and stop the acting out. It is embarrassing that these "public employees" are not taking care of their customers, only themselves....and it has been going on for far too long.

An “Assault on Unions?” It’s About Time
By Susan Brown February 22nd, 2011

Thuggish, “community organizing” politics showed up in Wisconsin after Commander-in-Chief, President Obama, deployed his Organizing for America (OFA) troops to inject protestors into the Wisconsin budget debate Obama describes as an “assault on unions.” Obama is a smart man, so why would he choose to federalize a state issue and define Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to reduce the state’s deficit, preserve jobs and prevent dramatic pay cuts as an “assault?”

After all, Gov. Walker simply asked union members to chip in a moderate percentage of their above average salary to contribute to their very generous and above the average pension and healthcare plans. The proposed increase could be partially recouped by another part of the proposal to make union participation and dues – optional – saving teachers upwards of $1100 annually.

Rather than intelligently considering the facts and having an intelligent debate, those charged with the honor of teaching our children responded like high school freshmen by calling in “sick” and closing down the Madison school system to join in a protest instigated by political arm of the Grande Community Organizer himself – President Obama. In the real world, where the parents of the Wisconsin public school system children live, people who lie about missing work only to show up on their bosses doorstep to protest get a pink slip, not a pat on the back.

In the meantime, Wisconsin Democrat legislators revealed their lack of intestinal fortitude when they left the state. They bailed to prevent the three-fifths quorum requirement necessary for continuance of Walker’s proposed legislation.

The sad part about all this is the “to hell with the children” attitude displayed by the Wisconsin educators, union members and the Obama administration. The children are the ones who pay the price for this ridiculously mindless political power stunt.

It really boils down to money and power. Former American Federation of Teachers president, the late Albert Shanker, said it best when he said, “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”

Recently, Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell reiterated the same self-serving attitude when she said, “This is not about protecting our pay and our benefits. It is about protecting our right to collectively bargain.”

Walker’s proposal would effectively make union membership optional, and as such, would slowly act as a way to dissolve some of the power teachers unions have collected for themselves over the years. No longer would taxpayer money be funneled directly into union boss pockets – leading to less political clout and less manipulation of the American electoral process.

America needs to be about the business of creating jobs. The traditional need for unions has long since passed and the longer they linger the more unions will be like a cancer on the workers in this country and the businesses they support.

The Bush administration understood that danger and demanded accountability by forcing unions to be more transparent by itemizing expenditures on an LM-2 report form. This accountability led to the indictment of 1004 union officials and the conviction of a little over 900 – for crimes including fraud, embezzlement of members’ dues and $93 million in court-ordered restitutions leading to the resignation of some of Service Employees International Union top employees.

Any level of transparency the Bush administration achieved was reversed when, in 2009, the Purveyor of Transparency himself rescinded the Bush LM-2 form rules and ostensibly padded union fat cat wallets.

This move away from transparency served to peel back layers of hope and change to reveal a very union-friendly core. And federalizing the Wisconsin budget debate made Obama look like a national union boss rather than an American president.

You say Governor Walker’s proposed legislation is an “assault on unions,” Mr. President? Many Americans say, “It’s about time.”

—–

©2011 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan is a motivational speaker and military advocate and can be reached at susan@susanstamperbrown.com her website www.susanstamperbrown.com

Arrogant Teachers & FLA Legislator want to grade Parents - "They will have no choice ....they are going to be graded as well as the children"

Wacky news stories come out of Florida...it is the center of all crazy news stories.


In Florida, the arrogance of petty bureaucrats, politicians and administrators in the public sector has just hit a new watermark.....A legislator from the state of Florida wants to require Teachers to grade parents.....Who died and left her in charge??? This woman is the next "Pelosi-in-Training".

I left public education quite a while ago and the days of having a public school teacher hold sway over me ended then & there. From that day on, all education I got came out of my $$$ and I paid for the Bachelor's Degree, allowing the Professors to school me in professional business.

These arrogant, petty idiots want the ability to rule not only your child's life, but yours as well.

The failure of schools is not all on the educators but the system of tenure-for-life, no-performance ratings school systems has only insulated Educators from reality and made them arrogant. They are the epicenter of entitlement and have no regard or care for what you think. I had to chew a few of these idiots out in my time of raising children and had to remind them they work for us, not the other way around.


Schools serve our children and we as Parents will always have the final say on our children's lives. PARENTS are responsible for their children and Teachers can advise but no Teacher will ever grade parents.....that would be the height of an arrogant and out-of-control bureaucracy that is the hallmark of the failing eduction system, run by out-of-touch elite liberal idjits who haven't got a clue.

Lakeland lawmaker proposes grading parents along with students, schools
By: Matt Collins - ABC News

LAKELAND, Fla. - Students get grades and schools get grades.

Now one state lawmaker is sponsoring a bill that would require teachers to give parents in Florida a grade for how involved they are with their child's education.

Rep. Kelli Stargel (R-Lakeland) said on Wednesday that teachers and schools can only do so much.

"We hold teachers accountable, we're holding students accountable, we're holding administrators accountable," explained Stargel. "Frequently, I was hearing from teachers saying I can't educate a child who's not there."

Parents of students in kindergarten through grade 12 would be assessed, but only parents of kindergarten through third grade students would actually see a grade on their child's report card. Stargel is proposing giving parents a satisfactory, unsatisfactory or needs improvement grade.

"You need to have your child at school, you need to have them fed with some rest and you need to talk to the teacher," she said.

Jessica Podany, who was shopping with her young children a block from Stargel's Lakeland office, had mixed feelings about the idea. But she agreed giving parents a grade would get them more involved.

"They will have no choice to be involved if they are going to be graded as well as the children," Podany said.

Stargel said one of the complaints she heard from teachers during the debate over Senate Bill 6 last year was that parents, along with teachers, needed to be held accountable for a child's education. SB6 called for an end to teacher tenure and tied teacher pay to students' performances on tests. It was vetoed by then-Governor Charlie Crist.

Stargel is a mother of five. She's also chairman of one of the Florida House's education subcommittees. The lawmaker said the legislation is a start the conversation on parent accountability.

"I don't believe this bill is going to be the finished product," Stargel said. "We're going to get input from all of the people and figure out what we can do to hold the parents more accountable."

Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

The “New Tammany Hall,” - Jury Rigged Public Pensions and the incestuous alliance between public officials and labor...

New Jersey has become famous for more than a bunch of 20-something MTV idiots in a beach house and the home of Bruce Springsteen. New Jersey has become the "battleground" for the fight regarding public employee pension costs and how much they are crippling the budgets of our states & towns. Governor Chris Christie is a central figure in this fight....I wrote a bit about this subject earlier -- see enclosed link

http://usnavyjeep.blogspot.com/2010/11/our-man-in-nj-keeps-up-efforts-to-bring.html

New Jersey may be the frontlines of this fight presently but my home state of Massachusetts is not far behind.

The anger is due to the fact that private sector employees saw pensions evaporate more than a decade ago, but public employees have an incestuous relationship with politicians which has insulated them from the same experience of seeing pensions disappear or be capped.

I agree that we have an obligation to those, public & private employees who paid into a pension. They took money from their checks and that should be theirs. I highly disagree with those who act like a promise of "money & benefits for life" with no investment of their own are owed what someone promised them 20-30 years ago as that promise was made on "projections" and like a New England weather forecast, those projections have proven to be wrong. Even more unacceptable are those who double dipped and jury rigged the system because of loopholes...These criminals should be held accountable as they are "stealing" by any reasonable person's definition of the word ":theft" and have no remorse about doing so or who it hurts.

" In California, pension costs now crowd out spending for parks, public schools and state universities; in Illinois, spiraling pension costs threaten the state with insolvency. " - When the needs of a minority of connected insiders is placed ahead of the needs of ALL OTHER CITIZENS, you can expect some serious anger.

Reform of a jury-rigged system that rewards insiders and greedy union officials is as much of a threat to the security of our state and local governments as any made by the bastards on Wall Street.....The only difference is that one set of greedy bastards works in Finance and the other group were supposed to be working for the citizens....both groups are greedy and don't care who else must be neglected as long as they get what they want.

Well I feel hopeful because both sides are facing the reality that the majority (the rest of us) will make sure that the best interest of the citizens is the focus of changes that will be made in these jury rigged systems in the very near future. Here's hoping that I am right as if I am, things can only get better. If I am wrong, then things will only get worse. And that is not something we can tolerate.


Public Workers Face Outrage as Budget Crises Grow
By MICHAEL POWELL
Published: January 1, 2011

FLEMINGTON, N.J. — Ever since Marie Corfield’s confrontation with Gov. Chris Christie this fall over the state’s education cuts became a YouTube classic, she has received a stream of vituperative e-mails and Facebook postings.

Marie Corfield, a teacher in Flemington, N.J., challenged Gov. Chris Christie over state education cuts at a town hall meeting in September. Their tense exchange was posted on YouTube.

“People I don’t even know are calling me horrible names,” said Ms. Corfield, an art teacher who had pleaded the case of struggling teachers. “The mantra is that the problem is the unions, the unions, the unions.”

Across the nation, a rising irritation with public employee unions is palpable, as a wounded economy has blown gaping holes in state, city and town budgets, and revealed that some public pension funds dangle perilously close to bankruptcy. In California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey, states where public unions wield much power and the culture historically tends to be pro-labor, even longtime liberal political leaders have demanded concessions — wage freezes, benefit cuts and tougher work rules.

It is an angry conversation. Union chiefs, who sometimes persuaded members to take pension sweeteners in lieu of raises, are loath to surrender ground. Taxpayers are split between those who want cuts and those who hope that rising tax receipts might bring easier choices.

And a growing cadre of political leaders and municipal finance experts argue that much of the edifice of municipal and state finance is jury-rigged and, without new revenue, perhaps unsustainable. Too many political leaders, they argue, acted too irresponsibly, failing to either raise taxes or cut spending.

A brutal reckoning awaits, they say.

These battles play out in many corners, but few are more passionate than in New Jersey, where politics tend toward the moderately liberal and nearly 20 percent of the work force is unionized (compared with less than 14 percent nationally). From tony horse-country towns to middle-class suburbs to hard-edged cities, property tax and unemployment rates are high, and budgets are pools of red ink.

A new regime in state politics is venting frustration less at Goldman Sachs executives (Governor Christie vetoed a proposed “millionaire’s tax” this year) than at unions. Newark recently laid off police officers after they refused to accept cuts, and Camden has threatened to lay off half of its officers in January.

Fred Siegel, a historian at the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute, has written of the “New Tammany Hall,” which he describes as the incestuous alliance between public officials and labor.

“Public unions have had no natural adversary; they give politicians political support and get good contracts back,” Mr. Siegel said. “It’s uniquely dysfunctional.”

Even if that is so, this battle comes woven with complications. Across the nation in the last two years, public workers have experienced furloughs and pay cuts. Local governments shed 212,000 jobs last year.

A raft of recent studies found that public salaries, even with benefits included, are equivalent to or lag slightly behind those of private sector workers. The Manhattan Institute, which is not terribly sympathetic to unions, studied New Jersey and concluded that teachers earned wages roughly comparable to people in the private sector with a similar education.

Benefits tend to be the sorest point. From Illinois to New Jersey, politicians have refused to pay into pension funds, creating deeper and deeper shortfalls.

In California, pension costs now crowd out spending for parks, public schools and state universities; in Illinois, spiraling pension costs threaten the state with insolvency.

And taxpayer resentment simmers.

Trouble in New Jersey

To venture into Washington Township in southern New Jersey is to walk the frayed line between taxpayer and public employees, and to hear anger and ambivalence. So many Philadelphians have flocked here over the years that locals call it “South Philly with grass.”

These expatriates tend to be Democrats and union members, or sons and daughters of the same. But property taxes are rising fast, and voters favored Governor Christie, a Republican. Bill Rahl, a graying plug of a retiree, squints and holds his hand against his throat. “I’m up to here with taxes, I can’t breathe, O.K.?” he says. “I don’t know about asking anyone to give up a pension. Just don’t ask for no more.”

Governor Christie faced a vast deficit when he took office last January, and much of the federal stimulus aid for schools was exhausted by June. So he cut deeply into state aid for education; Washington Township lost $900,000. That forced the town to rely principally on property taxes. (Few states lean as heavily on property taxes to finance education; New Jersey ranks 45th in state aid to education.) The town turned its construction office over to a private contractor and shed a few employees.

Assemblyman Paul D. Moriarty, a liberal Democrat, served four years as mayor of Washington Township. As the bill for pension and health benefits for town employees soared, he struggled to explain this to constituents.

“We really should not receive benefits any better than the people we serve,” he says. “It leads to a lot of resentment against public employees.”

All of which sounds logical, except that, as Mr. Moriarty also acknowledges, such thinking also “leads to a race to the bottom.” That is, as businesses cut private sector benefits, pressure grows on government to cut pay and benefits for its employees.

Robert Master, political director for the Communication Workers of America District 1, which represents 40,000 state workers, speaks to that difficulty.

“The subtext of Christie’s message to a lot of people is that ‘you’re paying for benefits you’ll never have,’ ” he says. “Our challenge is how to defend middle-class health and retirement security, not just for our members but for all working families, when over the past 30 years retirement and health care in the private sector have been essentially demolished.”

This said, some union officials privately say that the teachers’ union, in its battle against cuts to salaries and benefits, misread Mr. Christie and the public temperament. Better to endorse a wage freeze, they say, than to argue that teachers should be held harmless against the economic storm.

In the past, union leaders, too, have proven adept at winning gains not just at the bargaining table. In 2000, union lobbyists persuaded legislators to cut five years off the retirement age for police and firefighters — a move criticized as a budget-buster by a state pension commission. The next year, the budget still was flush and union leaders persuaded the Republican dominated legislature to approve a 9 percent increase in pension benefits. (The legislators added a sweetener for their own pensions.)

Those labor leaders, however, proved less successful in persuading their legislative allies to pay for such benefits. For much of the last two decades, New Jersey has shortchanged its pension contribution.

Governor Christie talked about tough choices this past year — then skipped the state’s required $3.1 billion payment. Now New Jersey has a $53.9 billion unfunded pension liability.

A recent Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll found a narrow plurality of respondents in the state in favor of ditching the pensions for a 401(k)-type program. Public pensions, however, run the gamut, from modest (the average local government pensioner makes less than $20,000 a year while teachers draw about $46,000) to the gilded variety for police and firefighters, some of whom collect six figures. And then there’s the political class, which has made an art form of pension collection.

Some politicians draw multiple pensions as county legislators, called freeholders, and as prosecutors or union leaders. Back in Washington Township, people tend to talk of state government as a casino with fixed craps tables.

A white-haired retired undercover police officer, whose wrap-around shades match his black Harley-Davidson jacket, pauses outside the Washington Township municipal building to consider the many targets. He did not want to give his name.

“Christie has all the good intentions in the world but has he hit the right people?” he says. “I understand pulling in belts, but you talking about janitors and cops, or the free-loading freeholder?”

Good Jobs, at What Cost?

So how much is too much? On their face, New Jersey’s public salaries are not exorbitant. The state has one of the highest per-capita incomes in the country, and the average teacher makes $66,597, which even with benefits is on par with or slightly behind similarly educated private sector workers, according to Jeffrey H. Keefe, a Rutgers professor who studied the issue for the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Mr. Keefe, however, uncovered some intriguing class splits. Blue-collar public workers make more money than their private sector counterparts. For such jobs, public unions have established a higher wage floor.

The sense that public workers enjoy certain advantages is not a mirage. Public employees pay into their pension funds, but health benefits often come at a fraction of the cost of most private sector packages.

Government employment also tends to be more secure. When the economy crashed, federal stimulus dollars safeguarded many public jobs. The alternative, many economists point out, was to force towns and cities into extensive layoffs, even as unemployment hovered around 10 percent and millions of Americans sought help from public agencies.

But it accentuated the perception that public workers, however tenuously, inhabited a protected class. That’s a tough sell in Washington Township.

Ask Michael Tini, 54, who works as a card dealer in Atlantic City, about teacher salaries and benefits and he taps his head, not unsympathetically.

“Look, I understand that teachers are the brains of the operation, O.K.? But my hours are cut, and my taxes are killing me.”

He taps his head again. “They have got to take it in the ear, too.”

Buffalo NY Teachers Spent $9M On Cosmetic Surgery in 2009

This type of situtation if encountered elswhere I've been in the world would ellicit one response:

Whiskey - Tango - Foxtrot ???? Followed by a " Are you Kidding me?" - How can this expense be justified in this day & age when we don't have the fudns for school books, computers, facilities BUT we can supply teachers with COSMETIC SURGERY???

Buffalo was Buffaloed.


Teachers Spent $9M On Cosmetic Surgery in 2009
Published : Thursday, 28 Oct 2010, 12:19 PM EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The state-appointed authority overseeing Buffalo public school finances says taxpayer-covered cosmetic surgery rung up by the city's teachers totaled nearly $9 million in 2009.

The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority reports that last year's costs for such elective procedures as chemical peels and other skin treatments are up $8 million over the 2004 tab for cosmetic surgery provided under the teachers' union contract.

School district officials say teachers or their dependents accounted for 90 percent of the approximately 500 people who received cosmetic surgery last year. About 10,000 district employees are eligible for the benefit.

The president of the teachers' union says the union has agreed to give up the benefit in the next contract.

Copyright Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"The Teachers Union have set up 2 classes of citizens in NJ: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them....

I really don't understand how Public Employee Unions can say the things they do with a straight face.

They KNOW they are taking the taxpayers for a ride - They KNOW they are using the contractual obligations to make sure they get a lifetime ride on the taxpayers - They KNOW that they are acting like they have some "Divine Right" to be insulated from the downturn in our economy even though every other citizen has had to take a serious hit to their lifestyle...

IT IS GALLING to think just because you decided to be a Teacher, or a Fireman, or a Police Officer, you are somehow have an "entitlement" to a lifetime ride from the taxes of others who work hard, contribute to society and do work that is just as worthy of tribute....The obnoxious attitude of Teachers and their Unions are the issue here....I support having good Teachers but NOT handing them a "Blank Check" for their greedy unions.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the voice of reason that is needed....He has taken on the NJ Teacher's Union and I hope he is successful because we need to wrest control of the Schools away from the Unions who don't want accountability or excellence in education, only MORE of your $$$$$.

YOU GO Governor Christie - Our Futures will be determined by your success in breaking the stranglehold on our tax dollars that the Unions have enjoyed for far too long.

Governor Christie's Ultimate Test
By MONICA LANGLEY

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, shown holding a town hall meeting in Scotch Plains, N.J., on Thursday, has seen his star rise nationally.

TRENTON, N.J.—He says she's a "greedy thug" who uses children as "drug mules." She says he's a "bully" and a "liar" who's "obsessed with a vendetta."

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, and Barbara Keshishian, president of the state's teachers union, say they want to improve public schools. That's where agreement ends. In speeches, mailings and multi-million dollar TV ads, they've battled over teacher salaries, property taxes and federal education grants. They have met once, an encounter that ended when Mr. Christie threw Ms. Keshishian out of his office.

For Mr. Christie, 48 years old, the fight is part policy, part personality. He quickly has positioned himself as a politician in tune with an angry and impatient electorate, and he's already mentioned as a 2012 presidential candidate. He's well aware that the fate of his fight with the teachers union could determine his own. "If I wanted to be sure I'd be re-elected, I'd cozy up with the teachers union," he says in his ornate state office, decorated with Mets memorabilia and a signed guitar from Bruce Springsteen. "But I want far-reaching, not incremental, change."

The governor already has persuaded many voters on a fundamental point: New Jersey pays way too much for education. Mr. Christie's poll numbers dipped earlier after the teachers union began running TV commercials critical of him. But his numbers have rebounded in recent polls. Frederick Hess, education-policy director at the American Enterprise Institute, a think thank that pushes for market-oriented solutions, says a likely new crop of Republican governors who have promised to slash budgets and reform schools will be watching to see how Mr. Christie fares. "New Jersey is the canary in the coal mine," he says.

Ms. Keshishian, the New Jersey Education Association boss, 60, says "change for the sake of change" isn't necessary because, she argues, the state's public-school system is among the best in the nation. "Every single day the governor gives new meaning to the term bully pulpit by attacking me or NJEA—all to raise his political profile," she said.

She's the one "playing personal political assassination by using the dues money of teachers to attack me," said Mr. Christie.

The governor called the state legislature into an emergency session and pushed through a 2% cap in annual increases of property-taxes, which have risen 70% in the past decade in New Jersey. He halted popular projects, including a multibillion-dollar train tunnel to Manhattan.

"Chris will either be the most stunningly effective governor ever in New Jersey, or he will alienate so many constituencies that he can't build the consensus to tackle these grave problems," said Cory Booker, Newark's mayor. The Republican governor recently gave the Democratic mayor a big role in running the Newark public schools, which the state took over in 1995 after declaring them a failure.

Various factors drive education costs especially high in New Jersey. A state supreme court decision years ago found that children in poor communities got inadequate educations and mandated increased funding for their schools. New Jersey is heavily unionized with relatively high salaries for public workers of all stripes, teachers included.

For years, the teachers union has argued that New Jersey pays more but gets more. The state's high-school graduation rate is 82%, the highest in the nation, and New Jersey ranks among the top five states in key subject areas, according to the Education Law Center in Newark, which pushes for better funding for public schools. Its graduation rate for black males is 69%, the highest for a state with a large African-American population, according to a recent report from the Schott Foundation, which advocates "fully resourced, high-quality" public education.

The state is home to elite suburban school districts, including some with racially diverse student bodies. But students in urban school districts fare far worse, prompting Mr. Christie to hammer away at the "achievement gap" between low- and high-income students. Camden's graduation rate is 41% and Trenton's is 43%, according to the Education Law Center.

"Chris Christie isn't the most convenient messenger for the education-reform movement, because of his take-no-prisoners style," says Andrew Rotherham, a co-founder of Bellwether Education Partners, which seeks to accelerate achievement of low-income students. "But he's on to something big—that the huge cost for public schools is no longer sustainable."

New Jersey spends $17,794 a year per pupil, highest in the nation after Washington, D.C. New York isn't far behind at $16,981. California, Florida and Illinois all spend about $11,000; Mississippi, Utah, Tennessee and Idaho spend only about $8,000.

The average New Jersey teacher makes $61,277 a year, well above the U.S. average of $52,800, according to the National Education Association. New Jersey teachers get medical and other benefits costing $19,140 a year, according to the teachers union. The New Jersey Treasurer estimates its unfunded liabilities relating to lifetime health benefits for current and retired teachers is $36.32 billion.

To foot that and other bills, New Jersey residents pay an average of 11.8% of their income in state and local taxes, the highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The average property tax bill for owner-occupied residences in New Jersey is $6,579, also a U.S. high.

Ms. Keshishian began organizing in college, where she led a sit-in for her women's basketball team, which wanted uniforms and practice time comparable to the men's team. Last year, the former high-school math teacher took the helm of the state's most powerful union.

Mr. Christie was appointed New Jersey's U.S. Attorney in 2002 and successfully prosecuted a number of corruption cases. He quit for what seemed a long-shot bid for governor.

Mr. Christie and Ms. Keshishian first crossed each other in June 2009, when the NJEA invited gubernatorial candidates to audition for its endorsement. Mr. Christie refused to attend. In a letter, he said he wasn't seeking the endorsement because it would "require promises…that will not be kept." The NJEA endorsed then-Gov. Jon Corzine, ran ads against Mr. Christie and worked phone banks on Election Day for the Democrat.


.After the Republican's victory, Ms. Keshishian sent a letter congratulating Mr. Christie and requested a meeting to "work together on our commonly shared goals." He didn't respond.

At his January inauguration, Mr. Christie called New Jersey schools "broken" and said they "have failed despite massive spending." The next month, he called for pension and benefits changes.

In his budget address March 16, Gov. Christie proposed $820 million in education budget cuts after $1 billion in federal stimulus money dried up. He then took direct aim at NJEA.

"The leaders of the union who represent teachers have used their political muscle to set up two classes of citizens in New Jersey: those who enjoy rich public benefits and those who pay for them." He said it was "unfair" for teachers to receive "4% to 5% salary increases every year, even when inflation is zero, paid for by citizens struggling to survive."

The union website disagrees, saying "the average salary increase over the past year has been approximately 2%."

Ms. Keshishian ordered up a series of counter-punches to the governor's charges. The NJEA shifted money from "Pride in Public Education" spots to 30-second ads critical of Mr. Christie. New Jersey's teacher of the year appeared in one. "Stop attacking teachers and education, and start funding our schools," she said.

On March 23, Gov. Christie, under pressure to make up an $11 billion budget shortfall, called on teachers to accept a pay freeze, and urged taxpayers to "vote down" school budgets that didn't include one. More than half did. He proposed teachers help pay for their lifetime health benefits by contributing 1.5% of their salary in premiums, and pushed through a law mandating that for all new teachers.

NJEA led its members and other community and labor groups in a rally, dubbed "Standing Up, Standing Together." About 35,000 members gathered at the state capitol in Trenton.

Gov. Christie spent the day at the Monmouth Park racetrack for a bill-signing. When asked about the gathering, he told reporters: "I'm here. They're there. Have a nice day."

New Jersey Senate president Stephen Sweeney, a Democrat who heads the state ironworkers' unions, said the rally backfired for the teachers union. "It may have made them feel better about themselves, but many of my constituents saw it as a message that the NJEA isn't going to change even if taxpayers have to suffer."

In April, Joe Coppola, president of the Bergen County Education Association, a county union chapter, emailed a memo to members with a closing prayer: "Dear Lord, this year you have taken away my favorite actor Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer Michael Jackson and my favorite salesman Billy Mays." He concluded: "I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor." The private memo became public.


Mr. Coppola didn't return a call for comment for this story.

Ms. Keshishian went to the Governor's office across the street April 13 to apologize in their first face-to-face meeting, she and the governor recall.

He demanded she fire Mr. Coppola. Ms. Keshishian said she couldn't, because he was elected locally, adding, "It's just a joke, albeit in poor taste, but not meant seriously."

Gov. Christie threw her out of the office. "But we have important issues to discuss," she countered.

"Not with you, I don't," he replied.

This summer, New Jersey prepared to apply for "Race to the Top" funds, a series of grants from the U.S. Department of Education made available through a competition between states. The NJEA worked with the governor's education commissioner Bret Schundler. When Mr. Christie found out that the application changed his priorities, he pulled the draft application and his education staff re-wrote several provisions without NJEA's endorsement. Because of an error in the revised form, New Jersey lost its bid for the funds, a $400 million mistake.

In recent legislative testimony, Mr. Schundler, whom the governor had fired, blamed Mr. Christie for forcing a last-minute change. "It was intolerable for him to be perceived as giving in to NJEA," Mr. Schundler said.

The teachers union rushed out close to $1 million in TV commercials to highlight the debacle. "Stop putting politics ahead of the children," the ads pronounced.

Mr. Christie in an interview said that Mr. Schundler is "simply making things up," but added, "I hired him so ultimately I'm responsible."

Mr. Christie moved on, snagging an appearance on Oprah Winfrey's television show to unveil a bipartisan plan to improve public schools in Newark. Along with Newark Mayor Mr. Booker and Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, who donated $100 million to the effort, Mr. Christie got a glowing report from the talk-show diva.

His administration recently sounded out outgoing Washington, D.C., schools chief Michelle Rhee, who has shaken up the school system there, about becoming New Jersey education commissioner, according to knowledgeable people. She signalled she had other plans.

On Sept. 28, nine months after taking office, Mr. Christie unveiled his plan to revamp schools. He pushed for linking teachers' raises and job security to "teacher effectiveness and student performance," instead of the current system of rewarding seniority and advanced training. He called for an end to New Jersey's practice of awarding tenure after only three years.

Afterward, Ms. Keshishian, who slipped into a back row to watch, appeared on nine television newscasts, two radio shows and in several newspapers, to pan the governor's plan. She said he continues "defunding public schools and demonizing the people who work in them."

Ms. Keshishian noted Mr. Christie's appearances around the nation for GOP candidates and the buzz about him as a possible presidential candidate. "He wants to be the poster boy for the Republican agenda," she said.

Mr. Christie said he's not running for president in 2012, but didn't rule out a bid in 2016. "I may not get re-elected governor."

Write to Monica Langley at monica.langley@wsj.com

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