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Related Story Why are the Minneapolis Schools Cutting their Budget Midyear? Why, Poor Planning, of Course!

The Minneapolis School Board approved a Union Contract with the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers on January 13, 2004. The contract, which runs for two years, will increase the district's salary and benefit expenses by 6.1%. While the settlement will not result in increases in the salary schedule this school year, in 2004-05, the salary schedule will jump by 1%. The teachers union has claimed that that 1% increase is back pay owed from a previous settlement. The most expensive portion of the contract is it's restoration of the "traditional raises" for "experience" and "education" (not performance or effectiveness) that were eliminated for this school year.

Minneapolis' Interim Superintendent David Jennings said that the contract does not reflect the teacher's "hard work"--presumably, if he could, Jennings would throw more money at the teachers without requiring better performance in return. Louise Sundin, President of the local teacher's union, told the board that teachers were angry and hurt (they want more money) and that that anger and hurt will not go away easily.

But it turns out that compared to other working stiffs, teachers don't have a lot to complain about. The lowest salary on the current pay schedule--which is for a starting teacher with a bachelor's degree--would be $31,549. Under this new, supposedly hurtful contract, a teacher making the starting pay this year would get $33,550 next year--a $2,001 raise after only one year of work. Not many folks in the private sector get that. But that's not all. A teacher with a master's degree and 10 years seniority would get $57,377 under the new contract. District figures show that the largest group of teachers has between 6 and 10 years of experience, meaning most of these whiners are getting between $40,000 and $55,000 already. How much money do they need?

Teacher Contracts Forced District to Cut Budget

And while we're at it, according to the Star Tribune, the contract's small salary increase for the current year is approximately $4,500,000--the same amount as the "emergency cuts" the district made in December 2003. These are the same cuts that teachers and principals were whining about late last year. Apparently, when the school district realized that they'd need more money than they had to appease the greedy union, they decided to slice up the budget for more salary and benefits. So it turns out that the same teachers who were recently complaining about these new budget cuts brought this on themselves. But they're still crying just as loud--even though they get to pocket the proceeds.

Analysis: Hey, I respect teachers...well, most of them. But for the union to keep pushing for more and more money when they know the district doesn't have it is pretty stupid. At any rate, the union will pay in the long run--membership will decline after the layoffs this summer--which are no doubt going to put more teachers out of work--and more kids in each classroom, in violation of the referendum promise--because of the teacher union's greed. As for Superintendent Jennings, it's hard to have a lot of faith in his grandiose plans for cutting the district's costs when he can't even hold firm with the teacher's union. Jennings may be working too much, actually. Fact is, if he'd just rein in the unions, he'd have much less need for his cost-cutting gimmicks. How pathetic. Finally, though I'm glad Jennings is only a temporary staffer, I'm scared to think about what imbecile the school board will hire next.--Mr. T Bagger, Editor-at-Large

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