Teacher’s union lies to extort billions from – Latest News
As George Costanza, that sage son of Queens, as soon as noticed: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
That’s the battle plan for New York’s public-employee unions, who say Albany wants to enable their members to stop contributing to their pensions after 10 years on the job and to retire at age 55 with a full taxpayer-guaranteed, state-tax exempt pension — all for “recruitment and retention” causes.
They don’t have proof for this, simply political threats towards state lawmakers. So senators and assemblymen are doing what George suggests: consider the lie.
The unions insist that the state wants to “fix” the pension guidelines as a result of, they are saying, reforms enacted for future workers in 2009 and 2012 (the latter generally known as “Tier 6”) have made it more durable to appeal to and keep good workers.
This is a outstanding declare that crumbles beneath inspection.
New York state authorities set a file for essentially the most workers employed in 2023, solely to smash it in 2024. So a lot for that recruitment downside.
New York public colleges had 221,000 classroom academics final 12 months, a 5% increase from 2019-20. That’s particularly notable on condition that public college enrollment was going within the different direction, falling more than 6% in the identical period.
The quantity of first-graders dropped more than 8% in simply 5 years.
Still, need to improve recruitment? State officers may trim the extreme obstacles that scientists, engineers and different completed professionals face to turn into academics, however the academics union fiercely opposes the idea. They derided one such plan as opening the door to “fake certification.”
The Legislature may give employers a new carrot and permit colleges and native employers to offer the option of 401K-style retirement accounts to new hires, however the unions don’t need that both — not even the selection, as a result of people would take it, and the unions’ case for sweetening pension advantages would get even weaker.
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The rigid establishment additionally makes it more durable to recruit mid-career people who don’t plan to work in authorities for 30 years however in any other case may be helpful additions at state businesses or instructing specialised high college courses.
As for retention, as my colleague Neetu Arnold notes, “teachers cite chronic student misbehavior as the top source of stress and burnout, ranking it above workload and even pay.”
So why isn’t the union doing more to problem current public coverage adjustments championed by progressives, corresponding to “restorative justice,” that stop disruptive college students from being punished or suspended?
Surrendering to the unions’ unreasonable calls for can have the assured impact of driving up property taxes upstate and on Long Island, and placing large stress on the New York City finances, the place property tax hikes would additionally possible end result.
The argument for sweetening pensions retroactively boils down to making the unions completely happy— by including effectively over $100 billion to pension prices. There’s no demonstrable upside for the public.
Albany’s Republicans (with one exception, Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick) are cravenly making an attempt to revenue politically from one thing that can drive up property taxes — and increase the ground on which the union’s subsequent set of calls for shall be primarily based.
That means it’s up to Governor Hochul to be Albany’s lone grownup who defies the insanity and says no the unions.
The various, of course, is to consider the lie.
Ken Girardin is a fellow on the Manhattan Institute.
