Comments on: Public Education’s Looming Fiscal Train Wreck http://educationnext.org/public-educations-looming-fiscal-train-wreck/ Education Next is a journal of opinion and research about education policy. Fri, 25 May 2012 01:51:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: George Mitchell http://educationnext.org/public-educations-looming-fiscal-train-wreck/comment-page-1/#comment-2193 George Mitchell Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:25:39 +0000 http://educationnext.org/?p=49633308#comment-2193 Ben, Actual or de facto bankruptcy appears inevitable for the Milwaukee system and many like it. Barring very sizeable tax increases, the dollars simply won't be there to pay the bills. Teachers either will have to agree to wage and/or benefit reductions or they will be imposed. The move to non-union personnel will grow. It will be a GM-like situation. Ben,

Actual or de facto bankruptcy appears inevitable for the Milwaukee system and many like it. Barring very sizeable tax increases, the dollars simply won’t be there to pay the bills. Teachers either will have to agree to wage and/or benefit reductions or they will be imposed. The move to non-union personnel will grow. It will be a GM-like situation.

]]> By: Ben http://educationnext.org/public-educations-looming-fiscal-train-wreck/comment-page-1/#comment-2151 Ben Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:30:17 +0000 http://educationnext.org/?p=49633308#comment-2151 In addition to the pension time-bomb, the spiraling costs of fringe health insurance benefits and the salary schedule itself, James Guthrie and Arthur Peng do an excellent job identifying the other factors combining to bring a fiscal tidal wave to K-12 schools in a working paper they wrote for Fordham. I wrestle with their analysis here: http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/02/11/its-time-to-face-the-fiscal-tidal-wave/ Kudos to Mr. Thompson for his courage in taking on the situation. He is absolutely correct to finger the magnified power of public employee unions and interest groups in local school board elections as a major cost-driver. Dr. Terry Moe has done some excellent groundbreaking work in this area. We know what the problems are. I see Mr. Thompson's proposal as a part of the solution. But seriously, where do we go from here? In addition to the pension time-bomb, the spiraling costs of fringe health insurance benefits and the salary schedule itself, James Guthrie and Arthur Peng do an excellent job identifying the other factors combining to bring a fiscal tidal wave to K-12 schools in a working paper they wrote for Fordham. I wrestle with their analysis here:
http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/02/11/its-time-to-face-the-fiscal-tidal-wave/

Kudos to Mr. Thompson for his courage in taking on the situation. He is absolutely correct to finger the magnified power of public employee unions and interest groups in local school board elections as a major cost-driver. Dr. Terry Moe has done some excellent groundbreaking work in this area.

We know what the problems are. I see Mr. Thompson’s proposal as a part of the solution. But seriously, where do we go from here?

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