Comments on: Sarah Palin Wades Into Wisconsin Budget Debate

By: joe

joe — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:28:46 +0000

Dear CANADIAN OBSERVER.You have government health care in Canada.We don’t. We are paying 3 billion dollars a year out of our taxes for ISREAL to have Universal Health care and millions ,more for schools in Afganistan. What’s wrong with this picture?At the same time Palin’s calling our public servants thugs.You say this is a Public Union issue, its NOT.Back when FDR was President(you like to quote him) union membership was 27%.The FDR Administration saw the biggest transfer of wealth from the top 1/5 of the population to the middle class. Now Union Membership is 10%, thanks to NAFTA, OUTSOURCING, illegal immigration and a shift to part time labor. Union membership in the private sector is only 6%.The bulk is in the public sector.Destroy the public sector and you end unions both private and public.This is the game plan of the people behind Walker. Its no accident the Koch Brothers are funding Tea Party Busses.Take the time to research it and you’ll find that states with the lowest Union Membership have the lowest wages.Even non union employees in jobs that are traditionally union get paid more.Non union shops have to pay more to compete with Union shops for capable employees.Bringing Palin to Wisconsin is an act of desperation to bolster sagging tea party numbers.It seems to have failed in view of turnout and fact they were outnumbered by labor.Maybe FOX can run a tape of Times Square on New Years Eve with Palm Trees and claim its the turnout for Palin.

By: cheesehead

cheesehead — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:07:51 +0000

Palin has no business interjecting herself into the situation in Wisconsin. Walker has managed to polarize our state in ways I have never imagined possible. Any address by Palin will only do further damage. Also, I am dismayed by the viral tweet re: “threatened violence” by the left. Give me a break. The rallies in Madison have been peaceful, safe even for children and pets!

By: Songstar

Songstar — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 13:10:35 +0000

Mrs Palin– as Mrs Bush requested.. stay in Alaska!

By: jason

jason — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:52:35 +0000

Having worked as an educator in both union and non-union states I am well suited to see both sides here. It is deplorable that democrats are attempting to block the democratic process in Wisconsin. Having said that, it is equally bad that the GOP is looking to push through an agenda without dialogue. Teachers are many things, good and bad, but overpaid is not one of them. To suggest that a teacher only “works” from 8:00-3:00 shows ignorance and a fundamental lack of understanding of school systems. Teaching is an all consuming profession that is undervalued, surrounded by misinformation, and generally disrespected by all. States have been going after and wrongly blaming educators for ills beyond their control for years; it is only an issue, now, that other state workers are being dragged into the fold. The democratic process should go forward in Wisconsin and legislators should be compelled to act on the behalf of their constituents…and should be held accountable on election day. If the state of Wisconsin wants to do away with collective bargaining then so be it. But let us not dilute the issue with the typically ignorant degrading of professional educators.

By: Evelyn Abdullah

Evelyn Abdullah — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:23:23 +0000

Why didn’t Gov Palin keep her low paying if wages don’t matter?

By: WIteach

WIteach — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:50:33 +0000

What Teachers Make
Are you sick of high paid teachers? Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – baby sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan — that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
Now how many do they teach in day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE…. That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!)
WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Taken from another teacher who put it into perspective

By: robin

robin — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 00:36:26 +0000

what good is collective bargaining. you’ve been bargaining, and what you’ve got was multi billions of dollars of unfunded pensions. those that you bargained with never had the money to bargain with. your unions got you imaginary pensions. the economy is about to collapse. the currency is about to cease to be the world standard. all of you better wake up and deal with the real issues at hand.

By: DEO

DEO — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:05:03 +0000

You can thank the UNION for the “weekend” and 8 hour days…..they bought these rights for us with their blood and jail time over a 100 year period!
Stand with the people of Wisconsin…..$arah proves she a tool of her party once again.
The UNIONS are comprised of all the JOE Packs……the people she PRETENDS to care about.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 17:13:03 +0000

I am a teacher in Wisconsin and protested on Friday (happened to have a spring break – 2 whole days) in Madison. It is frustrating to read that teachers don’t work hard. I am at school by 6:30 and stay until 5:00 and when I put my children to bed at 8, I grade papers, lesson plan, make projects, etc until 10 every night. Then I dedicate all day Sunday to catching up on lesson planning, grading, creating innovative projects and learning activities to prepare these kids for the future. I have heard many comments that it is our time to share the burden. The QEO in Wisconsin limited our negotiations from 1991 for the next 20 years; basically we were limited to a 3.8% increase for all salary and benefits. We chose to keep our benefits in lieu of increase in pay, so now, the governor is taking our benefits, so we have lower pay and worse benefits. For 5 years, I was frozen in pay. If you look in the private sector, a person with my comparable education (master’s degree plus), they make 20-25% higher wages in Wisconsin. (It also seems the governor wants to pit the private sector versus the public.) It isn’t time for us to pay our share; we have been for the last 20 years and now the governor wants to rip away any of our protection. I’m literally scared for my family (my husband is also a teacher) and have no idea what we’ll do. I won’t be able to pay our bills, and I am very frugal with my money. It is sad when you do everything the “right” way – school, college, job, marriage, children, master’s, etc. and it won’t be good enough. I’m venting, but I just don’t know what we’ll do now…

By: JHAN

JHAN — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:30:09 +0000

I’m not sure where you got your information, Brett, but there is not one teacher I know that works only from 8-3 and has a 3 month-long vacation in the summer. Get a clue-go to the nearest school and tell that to any teacher there, but be prepared to be laughed at.
Union members have already agreed to pay what Walker wants, but he really wants to break the unions so he WILL NOT talk about leaving the collective bargaining rights alone. As for him saying “If the Democrats would just come back I would love to talk to them about this,” it’s crap….as soon as they step foot back in WI the vote will be held. Look farther into it and see what else he is doing to destroy public schools in WI…not sure how this will make our state better.