As Milwaukee Public School teachers left their classrooms to march in Madison Friday, they likely earned more than $3 million to not teach students in Wisconsin’s largest school district. Full Story »
Posted by Jon Mitchell - via Memeorandum
This is pure propaganda, rife with inaccuracies, unsubstantiated sources, unattributed quotes, conditional language, and cop-outs. These shortcomings aren't surprising, as the MacIver Institute is a secretive right-wing organization founded in 2009 by discredited Wisconsin politico Scott Jensen. (see links)
…schools would be shut down yet one more day, at a possible cost of more than $900,000.
POSSIBLE cost… See more quotes
While some have speculated that the absent teachers will see their pay docked,
“Some have speculated…” Which “some,” the writer of the story? or the writer’s boss?
Due to collective bargaining rules currently in place, the absences could be considered excused and the teachers would be paid for their protesting.
“Collective bargaining rules” is a misnomer. The rule in question would be the labor CONTRACT, which defines terms for paid sick leave, as well as leave without pay, vacation, overtime, and other issues related to wages, hours and working conditions. That’s what contracts do.
That possibility took on added significance as the MacIver News Service broke the story Saturday that several doctors in lab coats were handing out medical excuse notes to passers by, without examining the ‘patients.’
MacIver News Service—aka a “story” filmed by Christian Hartstock—who appears as a ’guy-on-the-street claiming he received a medical excuse from a doctor, though he said he was from California. Hartstock is an employee of Andrew Breitbart, and was part of the film team that doctored video to bring down the nonprofit community group ACORN.
Using a figure of $100,005 for average teacher compensation in MPS and an average yearly workload of 195 days, these teachers cost approximately $513 per day in salary and benefits to employ.
MacIver’s “figure of $100,005 for average teacher compensation” is just about double the actual rate. According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction salary scale, the average teacher compensation, while it varies a bit from district to district, is around $47k—$50k , for 12+ years on the job.
The highest pay range I saw on the scale was $65k salary, with $48.4k in benefits. (see link)
Benefit values are not calculated on a daily basis, and cannot be included in daily cost calculations.
The issue extends far beyond Milwaukee and Madison, however. More than two dozen school districts were closed for at least one day last week as teachers called in sick to attend protests over the Budget Repair bill in Madison.
Labor contracts specify the allowable number of paid sick days and vacation days. For whatever reason the employee chooses to use sick leave, they’re entitled to a certain number, and no more. Use of sick leave does not affect the operating budget—it is built in to the wage and benefits compensation schedule.
MNS is examining the total costs associated with those teachers’ salaries and will update this story when those figures are available.
MNS=MacIver News Service, the source of the article. Their “Total cost for one day of missed word district wide” column is entirely of their own creation.
As evidence mounts from journalists' investigations and a more detailed read of the Governor's proposal, the Wisconsin budget is not his concern. If it were, he would accept the union's offer to meet his cuts. He's holding out for nothing short of destroying collective bargaining, destroying health care, and assuming unchecked power. This maneuver threatens to be the first domino in an anti-Labor, anti-poor, anti-middle class assault on democracy. Perhaps the net effect will be to elevate voter interest.