Playing Percentages Fails Children

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This past Sunday, the Gazette editorialized about the Janesville teachers union negotiations without adding anything new. But the editors did scold the teachers union for using official accounting figures from the Department Of Public Instruction which erroneously showed the superintendent receiving a 14% raise.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
The union should have known better. Such an exorbitant raise would have been duly reported and criticized here.

Gazette Quote of the Year! But other than getting a good hoot out of their "duly reporting," they do have a point. One thing we learned for certain in Janesville is, when it comes to expanding school buildings during enrollment decline - education is an investment. But when it comes to the people who really matter the most about the future of the children - the teachers - education is all about cost.

By now it should become obvious to Gazette readers how the paper avoids the "healthcare" word in articles regarding the Janesville teachers contract negotiations. The Chamber Of Commerce Gazette editors know that teachers healthcare is the single largest runaway issue crippling education. It is thee hot button buzzword right now, not annuities, not benefits and not pensions.

JG Editorial Excerpt:
A QEO boosts salary and benefits 3.8 percent combined. Because benefits cost so much, a QEO could result in little or no raise for the teachers.

That in itself is the Republican answer to a Republican problem and the best reason why the QEO should be scrapped. Not because healthcare costs so much, which it does, but because Republicans think school districts can afford 20% annual increases in healthcare by cutting teachers and programs to make their 3.8% cap fit. It's time to stop playing the percentages.