Wisconsin Schools Buck Union to Cut Health Costs - Teachers Benefit

Received this email today and thought it was too good to not pass on.
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IF THIS doesn't make you BOIL… NOTHING will !!!!

Democrats and Liberals are keeping VERY quiet about this.

THIS is why Obama stayed away from Wisconsin on his latest campaign, though he was right next door.

Wisconsin is the last place where they want to talk about THIS situation.

Same in New Jersey !

Recall the violent and disgusting demonstrations over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker doing away with collective bargaining for the Teacher's union.

Now The results are in.

Some school districts went from a $400,000 deficit to a $1,500,000 surplus!

They are hiring new teachers, not firing like the Liberals said would happen.

Why?

The insurance company that provided all the "so-called" benefits to the teachers was an insurance company owned and operated by the teacher's union! !

INCREDIBLE SCAM !!!

Since they were guaranteed to get the insurance business from the teachers, and the State had to pay for it (not the teachers) the insurance company was increasing annual costs every single year to become the most expensive insurance company in the state.

This fraudulent "insurance" company was donating millions to democrat politicians to fund the union's outrageous costs.

The insurance company was a "pass through" for Wisconsin taxpayer money directly to the democrat politicians.

This is a racket that is going on in every single State that allows collective bargaining.

No wonder the States are taking it away.

Wisconsin is NOW free to put the insurance contract out for bids.

They have now saved so much money, it has turned deficits into surplus amounts.

As a result, none of the teachers had to be laid off, everyone got a raise and the taxpayers of Wisconsin don't have to pay more taxes to fund the union's political ambitions.


If you weren't aware of the reasons Gov. Walker was fighting to take away collective bargaining,
it gives you an idea of the problem the Republican Party has.

Almost none of them speak up and explain CLEARLY what the REAL problem was!!

In how many other states is this scam still going on??


Excerpt of the original article in the Washington Examiner: The Hartland-Lakeside School District, about 30 miles west of Milwaukee in tiny Hartland, Wis., had a problem in its collective bargaining contract with the local teachers union.

The contract required the school district to purchase health insurance from a company called WEA Trust. The creation of Wisconsin's largest teachers union -- "WEA" stands for Wisconsin Education Association -- WEA Trust made money when union officials used collective bargaining agreements to steer profitable business its way.

The problem for Hartland-Lakeside was that WEA Trust was charging significantly higher rates than the school district could find on the open market. School officials knew that because they got a better deal from United HealthCare for coverage of nonunion employees. On more than one occasion, Superintendent Glenn Schilling asked WEA Trust why the rates were so high. "I could never get a definitive answer on that," says Schilling.

Changing to a different insurance company would save Hartland-Lakeside hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be spent on key educational priorities -- especially important since the cash-strapped state government was cutting back on education funding. But teachers union officials wouldn't allow it; the WEA Trust requirement was in the contract, and union leaders refused to let Hartland-Lakeside off the hook.

That's where Wisconsin's new budget law came in. The law, bitterly opposed by organized labor in the state and across the nation, limits the collective bargaining powers of some public employees. And it just happens that the Hartland-Lakeside teachers' collective bargaining agreement expired on June 30. So now, freed from the expensive WEA Trust deal, the school district has changed insurers.

"It's going to save us about $690,000 in 2011-2012," says Schilling. Insurance costs that had been about $2.5 million a year will now be around $1.8 million. What union leaders said would be a catastrophe will in fact be a boon to teachers and students.

But the effect of weakening collective bargaining goes beyond money. It also has the potential to reshape the adversarial culture that often afflicts public education. In Hartland-Lakeside, there's been no war between union-busting bureaucrats on one side and impassioned teachers on the other; Schilling speaks with great collegiality toward the teachers and says with pride that they've been able to work together on big issues. But there has been a deep division between the school district and top union executives.

Read full Washington Examiner article here.