To those who scream and shout the Senate Bill 5 will gut the middle class and usher in some gilded age of mass exploitation, one should ponder what has happened under a similar measure that happened in Wisconsin.

Yes, yes, I know, conservatives in Wisconsin are just as “demonic” to teachers as those in Ohio is, but that seems to only be because they have been taken in by teacher union propaganda. Check this out,

“’With “collective bargaining rights” limited to wages, [Brown Deer district finance director Emily] Koczela was able to change the teachers’ benefits package to fill the budget gap. Requiring teachers to contribute 5.8 percent of their salary toward pensions saved $600,000. Changes to their health care plan — such as a $10 office visit co-pay (up from nothing) — saved $200,000. Upping the workload from five classes, a study hall, and two prep periods to six classes and two prep periods saved another $200,000. The budget was balanced.

“Everything we changed didn’t touch the children,” Koczela said. Under a collective bargaining agreement, she continued, “We could never have negotiated that — never ever.’
With these savings in hand, the Brown Deer school district was able to avoid firing 27 teachers who had been pink slipped. Contrast that with Milwaukee, still under a legacy collective bargaining agreement, where the union refused to compromise on benefits, leading to 354 teacher layoffs.”

Fascinating.

Maybe, those that pushed for reform aren’t demons to be exorcised, but figures that simply did the right thing. Probably not by OEA standards, but maybe by the standards of the teachers likely to be facing pink slips.