I have a problem with people making grand, sweeping accusations against people/entities without anything to back it up. The privatization movement relies on people like you making these kinds of remarks on blogs (not saying you’re one of their paid shills, but they absolutely do employ people to post things like this on blogs of all types) in order to fool the sheeple.
I also have a problem with teachers (or other public sector employees) being maligned when the vast majority of them are some of the hardest working and most dedicated people around…and it’s particularly irksome when the people who are spreading the lies and misinformation are, by far, some of the biggest beneficiaries of government largesse, like Doug Manchester.
As for the budget, as mentioned before, I’m not familiar with all of the negotiations at each school district, but many teachers across the state (and country) have been giving up wages and benefits over the past ~5 years. While the pension contributions will most certainly rise after Wall Street decimated the pension funds (after Wall Street and its minions began pushing these funds into ever-riskier investments over the years), many teachers have been paying more toward their medical costs and/or getting inferior medical coverage, and have been taking pay cuts in order to help pay for some or all of the increased costs.
So, even if you do see an increase in benefit costs, that is far more likely the result of:
1. new teachers, and
2. increased contribution amounts that have been offset, to one extent or another, by wage cuts and benefit reductions/increased contributions on the part of the employees.
