The Reality: What Wisconsin Teachers Are Willing To 'Give Back' Is Still Disconnected From The State's Education Record And Is NO Budget Fix

Wisconsin teachers said they're willing to pay more for their benefits. There are several reasons why this is not much of a compromise, at least nowhere near what's needed to balance a broken state budget. Check out the facts of what's going on there at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/260629/wisconsin-myths-and-facts-matthew-shaffer

The FACT is that they currently put into savings during 30 years of work about TWO YEAR'S worth of retirement pay. They've said they'd be willing to contribute 17% more as long as they can keep collective bargaining. If they paid 20% more into their retirement plan, instead of paying only two year's worth of their own retirement they'd be paying two and a half years of it. Taxpayers would STILL BE FOOTING THE COST OF MOST OF THEIR RETIREMENT.

They're also 'willing' to increase to 6% the amount they pay into their health care. Well, at least that's approximately the national average. Nevertheless, do employees in a system that's failing at it's primary responsibility deserve that? I won't belabor this point since it would at least be in line with the national average but, based on performance, it's not irrational to wonder whether they've earned that.

Bottom line REALITY: a SMALL give-back on what they pay into their pension fund will do VERY LITTLE to make their retirement affordable for the citizens of Wisconsin because teachers would still be receiving about $40,000 per year in retirement pay that the citizens of Wisconsin would be on the hook for after three years of a teacher's retirement. And many of these teachers can retire in their 50's.

Figure it out for yourself (if, as a product of America's education system, you can). If someone is to receive somewhere near $40,000 per year in retirement and had put a total of two and a half year's worth of it into their pension fund then, if they retire at age 57, that means the CITIZENS of Wisconsin pay them $40,000 per year out of THEIR POCKETS for THE REST OF THE RETIRED TEACHER'S LIFE BEYOND AGE 60. That's RIDICULOUS! Even if Wisconsin's citizens were willing to do that it should only be because their kids were getting a good education and AT LEAST keeping up with the rest of the world in test scores.

Problem is, on average, America's children, including Wisconsin's, are scoring near the bottom of ALL developed countries. To me that means those in our education system haven't (for at least 30 years!) performed at a level anywhere close to deserving the kind of retirement that far exceeds what most Americans get for doing their jobs well their whole lives.

Only in the government could it make sense to pay someone more than what average citizens make and provide retirement pay and benefits FAR exceeding what average citizens get when the system in which they're working produces such awful results.