So far the angry teachers of Wisconsin have not yet won over the public. They have not convinced the majority that, in an age of staggering budget deficits, they — or, indeed, public employees in general — must as a veritable birthright enjoy salary, benefits, and pensions on average far more generous than those of their private-sector counterparts, who make up the majority of taxpayers.
Teachers are right that the crisis transcends compensation. Yet why, others might ask, would teachers’ unions oppose merit pay? Why should someone who did not join the union still have to pay its dues? Why should the state have to collect the dues from employee paychecks on behalf of the union? Moreover, when these questions are posed amid a landscape of teachers skipping classes to protest, urging students to join them, and soliciting fraudulent doctors’ notes to cover their cancellations of classes — while their supporters in the legislature hide out to prevent a quorum and thereby subvert the democratic process reaffirmed last November — the public becomes further estranged from their cause.
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All of this evoked my own memories of a teaching life juxtaposed with farming in the private sector. After receiving a Ph.D. in 1980 I returned home to work the trees and vines for five years in hopes of helping to restore a run-down farm. I then was employed first as a part-time teacher and then as a professor at California State University, Fresno, for 21 years (1984–2004). Some of that time I continued to farm on weekends and in the summers.
The experience was schizophrenic. In farming, almost everyone I met was constantly hustling — welders, independent truckers, contractors. There was no guaranteed income, no pension other than Social Security, and no health benefits of any kind. I bought a Farm Bureau–sponsored private health plan with a $1,000 deductible — catastrophic coverage that I never found occasion to use — and paid cash for doctor’s office visits. My first two children’s deliveries maxed out my Visa card.
There was no sick leave for the self-employed. A day with the flu meant the amount of work to do the next day doubled. Weekly compensation was not compensation at all, but rather an advance on an operating loan from the bank: If the crop came in and sold, and if at the end of the year such income exceeded expenses (I remember my first year, in 1980, we borrowed at 17 percent, and prices for everything from sulfur to fertilizer went up 10 to 15 percent in mere months), then one earned something for the year’s aggregate labor. If not (as in 1983, when, without explanation, the price of raisins crashed from $1,200 to $450 a ton), then one not merely earned nothing, but in effect paid for the privilege of working — a common, humiliating fate for the strapped pizza-parlor owner, the independent window-cleaner, or the car dealer. I figured that the 1983–84 operating losses meant that I owed the bank about $12 an hour for each hour I had driven the tractor, pruned, or irrigated, the entire time unknowingly paying for the privilege of hard physical labor. Again, all that is too familiar for legions of realtors, insurance salesmen, contractors, and the variously self-employed.
Teaching was the antithesis of everything brutal in the private sector. In my first full year, I used to write down in amazement — after prorating my annual salary on a per-diem basis — what I made on Saturdays, on the day after Christmas, on the Fourth of July, and on all the other days when I was not working. Yes, there were hours spent in the evenings correcting papers, staying long after class to advise students, endless committee work, class planning well beyond the eight-to-five grind, and research over the summer. Angry parents, administrators, and students could all at times be abusive. A pile of blue-books, totaling some 2,000 pages of poorly written essays, was no fun to go through on weekends. My colleagues sometimes bought books for their students, and often purchased their own materials. For a decade I shared a cramped office in a trailer with acoustical tiles falling on us like bombs from the ceiling.
You have hit the nail on the head with regard to so many workers in the public sector. They lack the experience in truly difficult, sweaty, dangerous work and the risk of no compensation. Employment and excellent compensation has become an entitlement for them, a right. They fail to recognize that they are riding on the backs of those in the private sector, and particularly the farmer, ranchers, oil field workers, welders, electricians, construction workers, etc.
I also love to hear an "educator" complain about the high taxes they have to pay. Apparently basic economics is not something required in the education curriculum. The grown-up version of "where do babies come from".
Well said. I believe teaching is a very noble profession that has many challenges. I also know my father installed and serviced boilers for 40 years. Hard, dirty work that he did without a tax payer backed health care plan or pension. So before we elevate how hard certain "public sector" jobs are....take a look at the hard jobs that exist in the private sector that receive none of the entitlements.
My parents were both California Public Teachers, both solid union Democrats of the first order. Both were over-educated middle-school librarians, and neither made $20k/yr at any time in their career. Both began their teaching careers in 1955 and both left employment by 1976. Now, thirty five years later, my father is still collecting almost $30k/yr in retirement checks from the state of California. My dad does not have a medical co-pay, he has dental, vision and all medications paid in full.
Neither of my parents took call, neither had to work swing shifts, holidays or weekends. Both were home by 4pm every day. Both had every federal holiday and three months off every summer. Neither had to lift anything heavier than a 30# box of books.
The best yet of all the good Hanson articles. I can vouch for the veracity of Mr. Hanson's notions for I live a parallel life of University teacher (private school) and farmer/orchardist. I have seen both good and abysmal years of returns from farming. The lessons it teaches of personal responsibility in the face of constant uncertainty is anathema to academia and the utopian visions of it's progressive narrative. Nothing is more "imperfect" and contingent than wresting a living from the land. A required year or two of working a real farm, hammering nails, hauling trash should be a requirement of any degree program at a college or university. The good folk who make a full living from farming, fixing cars, working the rigs, etc. have my full and deepest respect.
I assume you have declined to receive your own pension from the state of California so that the farmers, etc. won't have to suffer higher taxes. Yeah, I didn't think so.
Teachers teach the children of the almond farmer, roofer, and welder in order to provide them a better life. Their work improves our country by providing an educated citizenry.
Your essay exemplifies the thinking behind what I believe to be a war on the middle class. The only people who need to sacrifice are teachers, farmers, construction workers, middle managers, etc. In the meantime, we give tax breaks to millionaires, who apparently don't have to sacrifice anything. Nicely done.
I'd buy your argument a little more if you didn't suck from the teat of the government cow for 20 years.
BTW, I assume that health plan you purchased from the Farm Bureau was subsidized by the government...
Excellent article. People forget how fortunate they are just to be here in the United States, to have a job, to have opportunity. Some don't see it ever, some take it for granted and think it has to improve. Maybe "success" is like a drug for which you need to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect. So unions keep trying to improve the lot of their members. Maybe it's because if they accept relative stasis, members will wonder why they should pay $500 or so per year for dues.
Many people have the idea that wages should always increase because things should always get better. I think wages should increase if the worker provides more value, which can be done through experience in some jobs. But how much experience does one need to become an adequate teacher? I doubt they can all be brilliant at teaching, even if they were hypothetically brilliant in their field.
I have heard some people defend high wages/benefits for union members and government employees as necessary to attract the best talent and then retain it. I think this may be the wrong operations model. We need adequate teachers, but brilliant physicists and English experts may be more useful in other jobs. Teaching is a different skill altogether. I went to public school and had fine teachers, but I was also highly motivated to learn. Much of learning is memorization, and I'm not sure teachers cover that, or should. The rest (e.g. math) seems to be learning mindset and practices. Perhaps those who actually are brilliant at teaching could develop study guides showing how to do differential calculus, for example.
One thing we do expect of teachers is to supervise children during a large part of the day. I'm sure there are many WI parents wishing for even lousy teachers to go to the classroom and babysit the kids. Could save a lot of money hiring babysitters, too, and computer-aided learning would help make up for the deficiencies in their teaching skills. I wonder if babysitters have a union.
As you all break out the pitch forks and torches please allow me, a veteran teacher, life long Conservative and current Tea Party supporter, to address some of the hysterical inaccuracy’s abound not only in the article but in most if mot all of the conversations about this topic. I DO NOT earn as much or more than someone with a comparable level of education who works in the private sector nor will I ever. I became a teacher because I loved the subject that I teach, I enjoy teaching children, and gladly gave up the 9 to 5 six figure salary (which most if not all of my peers working in the private sector make) for job security and yes great health benefits. I despise the Union even though I am forced to join so I can Pay some goon in a suit protection money to protect me from the six figure salaried administrator who doesn’t like my politics and could build a case against me so as to get rid of me and put in one of his own little leftist sycophants.
Buy all means fight the Unions they will destroy this country as they have done to others from Greece to Iceland, but please do not consider all teachers as Union toadies and stooges and do not think that a public school teacher who has taught for fifteen years and is making a whopping $39,000 after taxes is the same someone who DID NOT spend $80,000 in college education and who still carries student loans at forty four years of age with all of the usual debt and a lovely child of my own (currently going to private school, but that’s another topic) as some how magically equal because they most certainly are NOT. I have friends who work in the private sector, namely construction, and when business is good they are making money hand over fist, oh but when business is slow they are the first to complain about teachers, firemen and cops. During the fat years shouldn’t they have saved for the lean, I chose a lower flat rate with benefits and stability should I be penalized, NO. Go after the Unions by all means but remember the teachers that didn’t go to the protest and stayed to do their jobs are not the problem.
Having lived on a cattle farm for 7 years, and now working as a teaching assistant, I'll say I don't take what I have for granted, and have no complaints about my job, other than mandatory union dues which pay for candidates I vote against. I'm going into teaching because I want to teach, if I want more money, I'll get another job during the summer months, besides, I can't stand not doing something. My job is more stressful than the farm years, but also more stable, a good trade off. If I had my choice, my retirement would be entirely in my control, not something subject to union negotiation and payments. being a home owner, I also pay the property taxes that fund education, putting me in the odd position of paying myself. I'll never complain about my pay or benefits, I know I'm in pretty good shape, of course, I learned the satisfaction of hard work on the farm, which separates me from others around me, I know how good I have it, whereas they complain, if my pay flatlines, I'll still be OK, and, once I become a teacher, I'll be in good shape, though hopefully by then, I'll be in the driver seat, not some union
The ruling class with its month long vacations in August, air cooled offices and perks galore have no idea of what it is to get bitten in the ass by a dog while trying to collect an overdue bill. They have no clue and live in a parallel universe that most of us can only dream about.
Well sorry to interupt the amen chorus here , but teachers should make far more than the averege taxpayer . What is expected of our best teachers is that they develop the minds and characters of the next generation . What is intolerable is that very mediocre teachers hide behind union power, allied with political self dealing , to feather their own nest at the expense of their students . If there were meaningful performance pay for teachers ,where the best teacher could make twice or more what the averege teacher made , much of the animus might evaporate . I come at this from 10 years teaching , preceded by 15 years in investment banking . At the school I taught ( ranked in the top ten by the WSJ),the spread between teachers of equivalent experience was about 5% . Moreover the school actually thought that treating everyone the same was fair and thus the only option , not withstanding the " better" results achieved by the better teachers . Yes me . In investment banking , the spread between compensation was 10-20 times ,and no one complained , they just worked harder . What the averege worker/taxpayer is outraged by is that seniority/union power protects the unengaged and incompetent, who in the real world would have been fired for cause years ago . Eighty percent of Wisconsin students do not read at a "proficient" level . Pay for performance , not attendence . Oh BTW , yes , Wisconsin is in fact broke .
Your post exemplifies the thinking behind what I believe to be a war against America, private sector workers, and common sense. Your post REEKS of the same arrogance we see in the Wisconsin protestors.
So teachers "improve the country" by providing an "educated citizenry" do they? What about the very ROOF over your HEAD that was provided by ROOFERS? Have you eaten any ALMONDS lately? Let's see you try to exist without using products that contain WELDING performed by WELDERS.
How unbelieveably ignorant, naive, and arrogant of you to claim the moral high ground over the people who provide the very products and services necessary to make your life possible. Thank God the public is finally starting to see the public sector employees and their unions for the arrogant, selfish, I'm-more-important-than-you parasitites they have become.
Anthony, I have been reading Mr. Hanson's articles and books for years and know first hand why is considered one of the nations finest historians.
To refer to this article, which is written from Mr. Hanson's DIRECT life experience, as filled with "hysterical inaccuracies" is beyond absurd and demonstrates your own untethering from reality.
Anthony - Thanks for being an independent thinker. We are well aware that there are teachers like you out there who are conservatives and are against public unions. We simply can't mention such a disclaimer every time teachers are discussed. That falls into the same line as political correctness. And it's a pain in the neck.
Jen - Cut the sassiness. 1) Teachers do teach our children, our children do not necessarily learn that much from their teachers they already don't learn at home or on their own. Reading, Righting, Rithmetic are about all I can remember learning growing up in public school and I essentially taught everything I know to myself or learned from people I know. I now have an advanced doctorate degree, no thanks to my public school upbringing (in a top rated public school district nonetheless). In the private sector you get paid according to your worth. Teachers get raises for the amount of time they spend alive, reagardless of whether they have impoved their skills, got worse, or stayed the same. The teacher's unions' primary adversary is the taxpayer - they will always seek to take more and provide less, that is their incentive structure. The executive is supposed to represent the taxpayer's interests, but does not since he is corrupted, in most cases, by the same union he is supposed to oppose.
2) Regarding you comment on "taxbreaks for millionaires." Oh the agony! Millionaires, the wealthy, the rich, whatever your taste, are the backbone of credit in this country. Our economy is leading the world because of our ability to extend credit. See, if I do work for you and get paid $10, we both gain. To you the $10 is worth equal to or less than the work performed and the opposite for me. Then I use that $10 to buy a burger because the burger is worth more to me than $10 and the opposite for the burger joint. Now, the more hands that dollar changes in a given amount of time, (say a year), the more people have benefitted from that $10. That $10 was able to get many people things worth at least $10 to them. When money goes from the private sector to the public sector, this phenomenon doesn't happen the same way in the public sector since they value returned is so much smaller, (and the value returned to those who didn't pay less than the value taken in, primarily due to waste, fraud, inefficiencies, etc.).
Credit speeds up the velocity of money in the economy. Credit comes from rich people - the same evil people we don't want to raise taxes on at a time we need their loans the most. You must have more wealth than you need in order to lend some of it out at interest. These loans are given for houses, clothes, business capital, education, cars, Christmas gifts, beer, concert tickets, copies of the Marx-Engel Reader, and Hope & Change posters. Not to mention it is the wealthy that have enough wealth to hire someone else for compensation.
Cut the class warfare garbage, it has already been proven wrong. If you don't like getting paid a wage that better fits your 180 days per year workload and associated skill set, then go get a job in the private sector!!! The public sector is not in the business of making profits and letting its employees share in the benefits of a "good year," thus unless our test scores become the highest in the world (fat chance!) you get nada raisa.
Do I have to even ask: Whadda think, that money grows on trees!?
I hope your not a math teacher. If so, case in point.
If we were to privatize all schools and universities, it would break the unions, and wages for teachers and professors would then be set by supply and demand. If teachers demand reduced risk, they should accept reduced pay. For now, we can only hope that the taxpayers revolt, sending a clear message to politicians to get our fiscal house in order.
Fine article. It’s a little off base, but I’d also add that schools of education (at least in my experience and the experiences of others I know) are incubators for PC foolishness and mediocrity. After graduating with a BA in History/Economics, I decided to give teaching a go and enrolled in a MS teaching program. What I experienced was sad. The coursework required to obtain my BA was much more rigorous and challenging than the inane course requirements for the MS teaching program. The teachers and students I encountered were, for the most part, uninspired and unremarkable. The environment I found myself in fostered both apathy and groupthink – pro union, pro public school, pro tenure, pro values clarification, pro multiculturalism, etc. The experience effectively ended my quest to teach. And this was 20 years ago! I always find it humorous when liberals and liberal politicians lament the poor state of our public schools and make calls for “bipartisan” support of new education measures to “save” the children. It’s as if they haven’t been running the public school systems, teachers unions, college universities, etc. for the last 50 years.
What I find most interesting in this entire debate is that private sector workers don’t ask the obvious question: What happened to my benefits and retirement security? Instead, what we see is anger and resentment towards those in the public sector for having any security. Do retirees need to pay more of their cost of heal insurance? Yes. Should they contribute more to their pensions? Yes. Is it acceptable that an individual in the private sector can give 30 years of good service to a company and end up bankrupted by healthcare costs because they do not have adequate insurance coverage or income due to a lack of pension, or in many cases ANY contribution from the employer towards their retirement? NO. What is loss in this bickering is a much needed conversation on what we, as Americans, feels is morally owed to those who serve us, whether in the public or private sector. Let’s stop the histrionics and finger pointing and ask the question: What do we deserve? Whatever the answer, at least everyone will have thought about the issue and we, as Americans, would reach a consensus and move forward.
We always hear about "cronyism" as it applies to the predictable suspects; the "rich", "corporations", ad nauseum, and there's always some mysterious republican (didn't I say predictable) nemesis at the root of all things. Remember, according to many liberals and union apologist's like we see here on this very forum, the governor of Wisconsin is "waging war on the middle-class."
Oh really?
Well surprise surprise the lid is off the box in Madison, and the curtain has been pulled back for all to see. We have now spent the past week witnessing just how spoiled and thuggish public union employees (PEU) really are. We have discovered, thanks to the extremely uncouth manner in which PEU members have been protesting, exactly how they have been able to strongarm and influence politicians in their respective districts for all these years. We've discovered what magnificant benefits and pension allowances PEU's have, through collective bargaining with the very democrats that were elected thanks to PEU contributions. We also now see democrat pol's running away, literally, rather than face up to the reality of the new economy as it applies to these outrageously handsome benefits. Seriously? Running off to another state? I'd have more respect if they just sat on the floor and held their breath till they turned blue. I wonder what lesson is being learned by students in Wisconsin through by this entire episode? There's your education right there folks. The entire system as it's been applied till now was quite neat. But the taxpayer had no representation at the table, and therefore no say in the matter. My oh my what a wonderful little racket they had going.
These are the dirty little secrets of it all that have been hidden from the public for all this time. So as it turns out the nefarious villain in this case isn't a republican-led-corporation abusing hard working middle class peasants, it's actually the PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS that are doing so. See, you learn something new all the time. So regardless of what happens next with regard to Wisconsin, we have now all been given an unforgettable primer in the inner working's of PEU's and their counterparts in the democrat party. Quid pro quo doesn't even begin to cover this incredible conflict of interest.
