Lar80-Look at any job in Kentucky and Im sure that the WI equivalent makes more money. Now compare the cost of living for both states and you'll know why.

Lar80 -"Teacher salaries in WI and KY are both public record.. Take a look at WI teacher salaries and bennies (after act 10) compared to KY teachers..... You will see WI is still far far ahead."
.
Yes Lar80 I know. I moved to Wisconsin because the education in Wisconsin is better than in Kentucky. I didn't move here because I thought the teachers were paid less. It is like the old saying... "you get what you pay for." Kentucky doesn't pay its teachers well and the education that the students get there is terrible (even in Lexington!). Who wants to teach if you don't get paid well. I think it is a terrible that the teachers in Wisconsin got a take home pay cut of 8-10% because of Walker. I think we should pay them more! I want to continue having great education in Wisconsin for the reasons that I stated earlier.

Why would you give blood if it's a plasma center?

And they teach our children? Case closed.

Next we will have the plasma center set up shop at schools and make teachers give blood to balance the budget.

916WI-Walker couldn't hit his foot, however you may want to look down.

Screwing over your most valuable asset is akin to peeing on your foot. Walker missed.

This is proof that Walker lied - he said the savings from Act 10 would offset the budget cuts and anyone with a grain of sense knew he was blowing smoke. Now there's no disputing the fact that he was lying.

hooters.......it already had rolled downhill by the time that it got to the public employees. If you think the middle class in WI was doing fine at the point where Walker came into office and proposed Act 10, please review unemployment rates for the region as well as net household income levels......

916WI Asking teachers to make a contribution to their retirement is a wage cut...pure and simple. As with the state workers, the contribution to their retirements was in lieu of a wage increases when the economy and everyone else were getting raises! Just wait, it all rolls down hill and we'll see what you think and have to say when your wages start getting cut too. respectively.

OldBadger,
.
Teacher salaries in WI and KY are both public record.. Take a look at WI teacher salaries and bennies (after act 10) compared to KY teachers..... You will see WI is still far far ahead.
.
Support teachers yes! Teachers unions being realisitc and not demanding raises every year? No... Diddn't happen.. So ACT 10 did.
.
If unions would have heeded Gov. Doyle when he GAVE THEM THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BUDGET... Gov. Walker and ACT 10 would have never occured.
.
A willow tree is strong enough to bend, never like an oak, who lives in fear of a wind... Gov Walker was the perfect storm and the unions stiff-necked approach over the last 15 years were it's genesis.

916WI -- define "relatively small".

916WI -Look you get what you pay for. When I lived in Kentucky, they were spending just over $8000 per student. You can look up how well they do as far as eductation. Why do you think we moved here. Wisconsin has been known for good education. Now I am concerned with Walkers massive cuts! Having experienced the other side (less education funding) I know from experience that it isn't good!
.
So to answer your question, I would be happy to pay 10,000 per student even if I didn't have kids in school. States that have better educational system have a higher standard of living. Property values are higher in districts that have better education. There are many benefits to a better education as a whole.
.
The GOP keeps talking about the concern for our children's future. I don't see it when they talk about education cuts and privitizing education.
.
Keep America strong! Support education!

Oldbadger....huh?? So spending around $10,000 per student per school year throughout the state of Wisconsin wasn't funding education? I'm shocked because that's an awful lot of money being spent not to fund education!

Walker's tools didn't work. School districts couldn't balance their budgets even with the tools to slash and burn the teachers. This is obvious from the article.
.
It is time to start funding education. We don't need to have a corporate welfare state!

Eagle1 - You want to trade salary with teachers and you want the 3 month summer layoff. I don't hear you say that you want to do the work that the teachers do. Putting up with snot nosed kids like yours or putting in the late nights grading and preparing for the next day. How about the money they spend to supplement what you don't pay in taxes so the kids have the tools they need in the classroom? Finally, you don't have the education or the critical thinking skills that it takes to be a teacher. This is obvious from your posts.

Analcitizen.....so you're saying we don't value teachers because we ask them to make a relatively small contribution to their retirement and HC premiums?

So teachers should have to bear the burden of 2/3 of the funding deficits due to cuts in state aide. Plus they bear a share of the other 1/3 as they are also taxpayers. That's fair?

So much for valuing teachers.

This appears to have turned into the brotherkoch whining blog - how revolting.

http://careers.walmart.com/company-benef...

Not bad benefits, no sirreee. All the slim jims you can handle at a 10% discount.
---------------------------

Walmart Health & Well-Being Benefits

•Consumer-directed health plans, including Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA) plans and a high-deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (HSA). Highlights include: •100 percent coverage for eligible network preventive care
•$4 co-pay on thousands of eligible generic drugs
•Maternity Program – personal support network before, during and after pregnancy

•HMO plans (available on a location-by-location basis)
•Dental insurance
•Free confidential counseling and health information service
•Quit Tobacco program
•Company-paid life insurance for associates; optional and dependent life insurance available
•Accidental death & dismemberment insurance (AD&D)
•Critical illness insurance
•Accident insurance
•Short- and long-term disability insurance
•Associate Eyewear Program

Financial Benefits

•401(k) plan
•Associate Stock Purchase Plan
•Associate Discount Card: various discounts in-store and online at Walmart.com, including 10 percent off fresh fruits and vegetables for Walmart associates/annual membership for Sam’s Club associates
•Exclusive discounts on travel, entertainment and more
•Military differential pay

Eagle1 - Get out of the basement and make something of your life instead of moaning and groaning about public education.

Awwwe reality set in for some that the rest of us have been dealing with, when does the whining stop? I will gladly trade for the salary and benefits and early retirement they are still getting, not to mention 3 months a year off, get a grip, and spare me the college degree excuse many of us have them. I am really tired of the whining and crying and inability to see reality from not just this group many others as well.

Don't spend any money maintaining roads for a couple years, and see if the roads are worth a damn. You'll spend more in the long run for the neglect. With defunding public education, Scott is not interested in any long runs. He is just paying back his cronies.

Corrupt Walker regime defunds public education to grant the wishes of his outstate billionaire donors.

Corporate media getting spoonfed a story by the GOP propaganda machine.

http://www.fightingbob.com/article.cfm?a...

Oh well -- if you enetred the teaching profession to get rich or for the benefits -- sounds like you chose your career for the wrong reason anayway. Its time to move on. There will be plenty of good people looking for work with another 4 years of Obama anayway.

I belong to an organization that gives quite a few scholarships to future teachers. More then a few of the scholarship winners mentioned that they were no longer planning to return to Wisconsin after graduating. Of course things can change, for the better or for the worse, in the 4 to 6 years that it will take for them to graduate.

And how many districts are having to do referendums?

Has anyone checked to see how many college students are switching from becoming teachers to a different major?

This is nothing to brag about. Wages and benefits cut, increased layoffs.

Good Luck trying to recruit good teachers here!

What is the percentage of school districts statewide, like ours, that were not yet under the rules of Act 10 for the 2011-2012 year?