Union Case for "Jobs Bill" Underscores Government's Ineptness

Unsurprisingly, one of the few interest groups advocating for the “American Jobs Act” is the American Federation of Teachers. Despite claims that “the money is not for us as teachers,” everyone knows that’s a farce. Nobody suggests teachers shouldn’t be paid, but they shouldn’t patronize taxpayers by suggesting that increased spending on government schools isn’t for the teachers.

The unions and Obama administration have been running the full-court press to gin up enough pressure on Congress to act on the bill. Despite the speeches, advertising campaigns andphoto ops, they can’t even get enough Democrats in the Senate to kick it out of that chamber.

Joe Biden has been carrying the water for the administration. In a recent conference call with union leaders, he claimed students in a Baltimore school are “dodging falling ceiling tiles” during their school day.

More recently, AFT President Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten visited a Yonkers school and decried the conditions those students are in. A photo published by the union shows students sitting in a basement with paint peeling off the walls and a large air conditioning system looms directly over head.

"We can hear the rats when they run" through the ventilation system, the union quoted a student as saying.

Across the country, unionists infer that the money for public education has simply vanished. It’s absurd. The reality is America is continuing to spending more per student on education than at any other time in history. So where is it all going? Are the rats carrying bags of money away?

Of course not. What we’re witnessing is the cost of government education going up, largely due to union labor contracts. In addition to a negotiated raise, most employees also get a “step raise” – which means their pay goes up regardless of their effectiveness. Additionally, the cost of employee retirement and health care benefits are continuing to escalate, and many employees pay nothing toward those costs.

Simply put, revenue is not keeping pace with the expenses. So instead of dealing with the expenses – ie.their benefits and perks – the unions want to increase government revenues, even though thousands of taxpayers are suffering from the recession.