A week and a half ago, Northeast Ohioans were treated to a barrage of videos of crying and angry teachers on all of the local news programs. Facing large deficits, the Cleveland School Board was forced to lay off 500 teachers. Remember this exclusive video of union members disrupting a Cleveland school board meeting last October?
This time, in that very same room, they were lamenting. Some of the teachers were berating the board members for having made such a “horrible decision” with a “how dare you!” and “have you no shame” type of attitude. Their arguments wouldn’t have been more ridiculous if they had added “Just go pick some more cash off of the money tree you have!”
I sincerely hate to see anyone lose their job, but excuse me if I don’t feel as bad for these folks as I might for someone in the private sector, for instance. You see, these very same teachers engaged in a campaign of lies and distortion last year regarding Senate Bill 5/Issue 2. The legislation would have required public employees to pick up more of the tab for their own benefits, but still not nearly as much as most people pay.
GOHP Blog has more details on the benefits that Cleveland teachers get:
Just look at the contracts. Under their last contract, Cleveland teachers paid only $30/month for a family health plan–just $360 per year–while the average Ohio family pays $4,129 per year for health coverage. The reforms of Senate Bill 5 would have increased teacher contributions to just 15%, half of what the average Ohio family pays. In a district with 5,600 teachers, those savings add up.
To over a million dollars to be exact.
So if union hacks like the one above are looking for “anyone in the public sector” that Senate Bill 5 would have helped, how about any one of the thousands of teachers currently unemployed. And without health insurance.
Maybe they’d be able to tell you the benefits.
Indeed.
And it’s not just happening in Cleveland. As GOHP Blog also explains, this is happening all over the state. For months, we explained that if voters listened to the smear campaign perpetrated by the unions against Governor Kasich and the reasonable reforms in SB5, public employees all over the state would begin dropping like flies. And now it’s happening.
We told you so.
