Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Lower-paid teachers will get $1,000, but most teachers will get $480 as a pike hike that's retroactive to the current school year.
Since Act 10 was passed into law, Whitefish Bay teachers' salaries have remained frozen while their benefits have been cut. So it was good news for the teachers union when the School Board approved a small salary increase that would retroactively apply to the current school year. The salary increase results in a $480 pay bump for most teachers, and a $1,000 increase for teachers at the very bottom of the pay scale. The modest salary increases were made possible through attrition: experienced teachers leaving or retiring from the district and being replaced by new teachers at a lower salary. Through attrition and retirements, the district was left with a $130,000 pot of money to redistribute to teachers. In agreement with the teachers union…
Monday, April 29, 2013
Documentary "Citizen Koch" and book by Journal Sentinel reporters have differing takes on 2011 battle between unions and Gov. Scott Walker.
As the dust settles on the epic battles over union rights for public workers in Wisconsin, two new major works aim to put these events into perspective. The first is “Citizen Koch,” a documentary by award-winning filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. It aired at the Sundance Film Festival in January and the Wisconsin Film Festival this month. The second is “More Than They Bargained For,” a book by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Jason Stein and Patrick Marley, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Both recount how newly elected Gov. Scott Walker in February 2011 “dropped the bomb” (his words) regarding his plan to largely end the collective bargaining rights of most state and local public employees. “Citizen Koch” frames …
Thursday, April 25, 2013
A lawsuit filed by unions representing Madison teachers and city of Milwaukee employees over the state's collective bargaining law may be headed to the State Supreme Court.
A state appeals court is urging the Wisconsin State Supreme Court to take on an Act 10 lawsuit filed by two unions, which challenged the constitutionality of the collective bargaining limitations Gov. Scot Walker imposed on almost all public unions in 2010. The Supreme Court could take the case without waiting for an Appeals Court decision, but whether is does so is at the high court's discretion. If the Supreme Court doesn’t take the case, then the Appeals Court would need to take it. A certification filed by a panel of three judges from the 4th District Court of Appeals, asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take the case because “a number of public unions have filed suits against municipalities over Act 10 provisions, which have left …
Monday, March 25, 2013
Some say the changes Act 10 brought about for teacher compensation could lead to resignations—and possibly a decline in the quality of education offered in Whitefish Bay. Others think it's much ado about nothing.
When veteran Whitefish Bay High School math teacher Christine Keifer tearfully resigned at a February board meeting, she said changes brought about by Act 10 were behind her departure. “When I started I had all these incentives to improve, and now I’m completely stuck," Kiefer said at the time. "I have no master's degree, I have no way to increase my salary, and I have no incentives in place to improve my practice." Reduced benefits, limited salary increases and requirements that teachers meet more stringent testing and evaluation standards with larger class sizes just added to the problem, she said. Board member Cheryl Maranto said at that meeting that resignations will continue if teachers have no hope for better compensation—like …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen had asked appeals court to stay a rule by a Dane County judge that said parts of the collective-bargaining law are unconstitutional.
A Wisconsin appeals court Tuesday refused to put a hold on a judge's decision repealing major parts of Act 10, the law that ended collective bargaining for most public workers. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen in September had asked the 4th District Court of Appeals to stay the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas that portions of the law were unconsitutional. Van Hollen wanted to stay the decision while the case was being appealed. Colas refused in October to do so, and the state appeals court on Tuesday upheld that decision, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The appeals court said it saw "no basis to set aside the circuit court's decision that a stay was not warranted," the State Journal reported. Today’s ruling likely …
Friday, January 18, 2013
Act 10, which essentially stripped public unions of their ability to bargain, was ruled constitutional on Friday in a federal appeals court.
The controversial state law that curtails collective bargaining for most public employees was upheld by a federal appeals court Friday. In ruling that Act 10 is constitutional, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said the state had a rational reason for rolling back collective bargaining rights, and rejected arguments from public employees unions that they violated First Amendment rights, WisPolitics.com reported. The court overturned a decision by a federal judge last year that struck down parts of the law dealing with prohibitions on government employers withholding union dues from workers' payrolls and a section requiring labor unions to vote to re-certify yearly, the Journal Sentinel reported. A separate case challenging the law remains …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The village will save $347,000 this year and at least another $275,000 in 2014 by contracting directly with an insurance provider instead of through the state's Employee Trust Fund.
Whitefish Bay was able to save at least $622,000 over the next two years by changing the way it contracts with health insurance providers. Typically, the village acquires its benefits through the state's Employee Trust Fund. Most employees choose WEA Trust, which offers the lowest-priced plan. After conducting an analysis, the village's insurance broker determined it was able to save money by eliminating the state as a middle man and contracting directly with WEA Trust. The Whitefish Bay Village Board voted in approval of the two-year insurance plan at its Monday night meeting. Although it's a two-year plan, the contract will be signed one year at a time. The WEA Trust Plan comes in $347,000 under the price offered through the Employee …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The state senator of the 8th District, Darling survived contentious recall a year ago and her only challenge on Nov. 6 is Beth Lueck, a UW-Whitewater professor running a write-in campaign.
A Whitefish Bay professor has launched a last-minute write-in campaign against state Sen. Alberta Darling that has picked up some momentum. Beth Lueck, an English professor at UW-Whitewater, said she believes voters deserve a choice in the 8th Senate District. Supporters have been publicizing the effort on social media and blogs. The state Democratic Party is also pushing the write-in candidacy. However, Darling told Patch that voters' choices should be educated ones. She said that voters have even less of a reason to not re-elect her than they did in the high-profile recall election she survived because Act 10’s reforms are becoming apparent. “Act 10, daily, there are positive results,” she said. “In terms of taxes, municipalities are …
Sunday, September 30, 2012
There's a strong and growing sentiment to restrain government spending, but is public safety an area that would be an exception?
Holding the line on government spending is a mantra that propelled Scott Walker to a victory — and subsequent title defense — in the Wisconsin governor’s race. His much-debated Act 10 exempted police and firefighters from the financial squeeze, but it doesn’t mean police — and the communities they serve — aren’t feeling the pinch in other ways. The FBI recommends 2 officers for every 1,000 residents in a community. According to 2009 data, Milwaukee had twice that number, with 2,403 officers for just more than 600,000 residents. Other communities varied widely, with some at the threshold and Caledonia an example of a community well under. While every community is different, would you be willing to consider a property tax increase to beef up…
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Gov. Scott Walker talks about the Dane County judge's ruling on the state's collective bargaining law during this week's radio address.
The state partnered with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association to produce and distribute brief radio address once a week. Audio files and a written transcript of this radio address can be accessed on http://www.wi-broadcasters.org and http://walker.wi.gov/Weekly-Radio-Addresses. To download an mp3 file, you can right click the radio address link and click “save link as.” Hi, this is Scott Walker. As you may have heard, recently, a Dane County judge in Madison issued a ruling that struck down key provisions of the budget reforms enacted late last year. We are confident this ruling will be overturned because Act 10 is constitutional. This would not be the first time a Dane County judge's decision on Act 10 was held to be wrong by a …
thinkin' out loud
10:19 pm on Thursday, May 2, 2013
It's just amateur newswriting that doesn't say what it means to say, clearly and accurately. And what the hell is a "pike hike," and an "artificially lowered salary"?! The lead of the story indicates the pro-teacher/union bias from the get-go. Instead of just objectively laying out the facts—that the district decided to use unused funds to pay for a small increase in teachers' salaries—the story … more ›