The Wisconsin Cheese Showdown

[anvi]

Just some sundry info about public teacher compensation in Wisconsin.

The average public school teacher salary in Wisconsin clocks in at just over $51,000 a year, which ranks 20th in the U.S. 

More specifically, preschool teachers make an average of $23,000 per year, elementary school teachers $51,000 and secondary school teachers just under $50,000.  Secondary school teacher pay provides a good example of the average range of salary depending on experience; entry level teachers in secondary school make over $30,000 a year and those close to retirement make an average of just under $70,000.  While starting public school teacher salaries in Wisconsin are low, they enjoy a rather steep "climb" rate.

What Torie writes about the pension and health care contributions being required by Governor Walker is correct; teachers are being asked to contribute 5.8% of their salary to their pensions and 12.6% to their health care plans.  These amounts are increases from current levels of 0% teacher contributions.  In Wisconson, for every dollar spent on salary, an additional 33 cents is spent on benefits, which ranks it at 8th highest in the country according to this measure. 

[anvi]

I have no objection to the measures regarding increased pension and health plan contributions; the fact that teachers have contributed nothing up to now, and even under this measure still enjoy a very good deal compared to teachers in other states, really does put an unnecessarily heavy strain on the state budget.  The CPI cap seems arbitrary and the ending of collective bargaining is extreme and unnecessary.  The governor claims he wanted to get rid of collective bargaining because the process takes fifteen months, time the budget doesn't have to fix.  But, as noted above, there are other ways around that.

The Wisconsin GOP has spent a lot of money, time and effort building up their organization in the last two years; they have huge majorities in the state legislature, they won the governorship, one U.S. Senate seat and two House seats.  In the midterms, they got big turnarounds from younger voters and women as well as "independents."  But shooting the moon like this is going to mobilize a lot of opposition in 2012 that otherwise may have been lukewarm.  I guess abusing a mandate is just too great a temptation for any group of politicians, no matter which party they represent.