The Milwaukee Post

8 • Milwaukee Post • August 2, 2013 OPINION Scratching the surface By OWEN ROBINSON Wisconsin again saw news stories in the past few weeks that continue to demonstrate the positive effects of Act 10, the controversial law that reformed public employee unions in the state. The first story was about the continuing decline of membership in Wisconsin's public employee unions. While not all public employee unions are required to disclose their dues-paying membership, estimates are that public employee unions have lost half to two-thirds of their duespaying members since Gov. Scott Walker signed Act 10 into law. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel estimates that the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which is the pre-eminent teachers union in the state, has lost about half of its membership. There are two provisions within Act 10 that are driving the decline in membership. The first provision is that it allows employees to opt out of membership. In the past, state law forced people to be a member of the union, and pay dues to that union, if they worked for a unionized workforce. Act 10 has liberated the employees to choose to be in the union or not. If they see value in being a union member, then they are free to do so. If they did not, they weren't forced to. The second provision is that unions must recertify every year with over 50 percent of the membership choosing whether to continue the union or not. Before Act 10, once a place was unionized, it was union forever. So a teacher joining a unionized public school was forced to be in a union and give them money even though every teacher who voted to unionize in the first place had long since retired or died. These two provisions of Act 10 empowered employees with choices. If a majority of a workforce valued the union, then by all means, they may have their union. If individual employees do not want to belong to the majority's union, Robinson then they do not have to. The only people hurt in this change have been the few paid bosses and employees of the unions' power structures who had become accustomed to having state law force people to fill their coffers. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of public employees are benefitting from a bit more money in their pockets and a bit more control over their lives. While the unions are lamenting the loss of their money and political clout, we celebrate the empowerment of the individual employee. The other great news out of Act 10 has been the study released by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute that thanks to Act 10, Milwaukee Public Schools will save $110 million per year by 2020 compared to how things were going without Act 10. The study focuses on MPS' obligations to retirees for health and pension benefits. Without Act 10, the projections were that the cost of these benefits would rise by $1,652 per pupil to a total of $3,512 per pupil. You read that correctly the projec, tions were that by 2020, for all of the money spent on each kid in MPS in 2020, $3,512 of it would have gone to pay for people who no longer contribute anything to educating that child. With the provision of Act 10 that required employees to pay the state contribution for their pension benefits and a few other minor provisions, the new estimate is that the increase by 2020 would only be an increase of $64 per pupil. That's a savings that adds up to about $110 million per year – almost 10 percent of MPS' current budget. That $110 million is money that can be put directly back into the classroom to educate kids. As with everything, there is a cost. Teachers now have less money in their pockets because they have to contribute more for their retirement. But that $110 million per year is also money that will prevent severe teacher layoffs and other belt-tightening that would have been needed to meet the higher retirement obligations of life without Act 10. When one considers that these kinds of savings are taking place in every school district in the state, the benefits to the students and taxpayers are staggering. The irony here of course is that the Wisconsin Education Association Council was one of the most vocal and vicious opponents of Act 10. They fought it tooth and nail and led the charge to recall Walker. Yet we are continuing to find that Act 10 is helping schools by putting more money into the classrooms and preserving teachers' jobs. Wisconsin has barely begun to scratch the surface of the benefits of Act 10. School boards, city councils and county boards should continue to responsibly explore creative ways to get more value out of each tax dollar given them. (Owen B. Robinson is a West Bend resident. His column appears regularly in The Post.) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Searches of suspected marijuana dealers over the top To the editor: There has been a scandal within the Milwaukee Police Department of officers engaging in illegal body searches, including anal cavity searches, of supposed drug suspects. We shouldn't be so shocked. We, as a nation, treat a drug, marijuana, as such a threat that we have no problem with SWAT teams engaging in no-knock drug searches in the dark of night of suspected marijuana dealers. That innocent people are at times killed (including children) and the children who don't die suffer emotional and men- tal trauma for years afterward is considered OK as long as politicians can talk about how they are tough on drugs. We are fine with the property and money taken from people not charged with any criminal offense and that police departments can spend the profits on what they collect. This is asset forfeiture, by the way. We are fine with the government lying to us about our rights, such as a Cleveland suburb lying about drug checks on the highway (which are unconstitutional) in order get motorists to do something that creates reasonable suspicion for a stop. By the way, if they can lie about our rights in this area, what stops the gov- ernment from putting up signs stating that our freedom of speech in an area is illegal? Nothing. Our government has been taken over by zealots and they make the government of alcohol Prohibition look very reasonable, in contrast. Our attorney general just had an editorial in this publication talking about the dangers of synthetic cannabinoids. Well, if people like him didn't keep supporting marijuana being illegal, then there wouldn't be a market for these more dangerous drugs in the first place. It's time to have a rational drug and marijuana policy. Jerome McCollom Milwaukee Readers Forum Previously we asked: , Do you believe that Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun did or did not use performance-enhancing drugs? When do you believe he began using the PEDs, and how long do you believe he used them? You answered: "You are only as good as your word. He is a liar. His word means nothing, it really doesn't matter how long he was using. Another failed role model." – Noah Borkenhagen Franklin "According to the evidence, he did take PEDs. I would think because of the usage he thought he could improve his performance. I think he used it until he was accused for the first time and he stopped using it." – Don Tuttle Milwaukee Question of the week Are you encouraged that the Packers and Brett Favre appear to be mending fences? Call 744-6370, Ext. 15 and leave a brief answer to the Question of the Week along with your full name with spelling, phone number and city. No address is required. Readers may also send an email with a brief answer to: dbutler@conleynet.com. Letters policy Send your letters to: The Milwaukee Post, c/o Dwayne Butler, 3397 S. Howell Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53207, or by e-mail to: dbutler@conleynet.com. We reserve the right to edit letters for style, length and clarity. Letters should be typewritten or printed and include full name, phone number and address. Please keep your letters to no more than 400 words.

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