Grand Rapids Pundit

Exclusive: Grand Rapids Teacher’s Union Planning an Illegal Strike

Exclusive to Grand Rapids Pundit:

GR Pundit has come in to possession of a letter being sent to teachers and substitute teachers, preparing them for an impending illegal strike against Grand Rapids Public Schools. View the GREA Strike Letter. The letter, signed by Grand Rapids Education Association president Paul Helder on August 5th, laments the fact that Grand Rapids Public Schools teachers have worked without a contract for a year, and that no other teachers in Kent County are facing this “difficulty.” They claim that their contract demands are “minimal” and that there is “no end in sight” for the end to the negotiations. They further warn that the school district “…may impose its will on us, taking away rights and benefits…”

What is the difference between what GRPS is proposing and that the GREA is demanding, with the threat of strike?

According to the Grand Rapids Press, the union is demanding that teachers receive a raise of between 6.85% and 9.05%, with a retroactive increase of an additional 2% for the prior school year. In addition, the union is fighting a health insurance contribution increase of $40 a month. In contrast, the the school district is proposing raises of between 5.1% and 7.31%. The district wants teachers to pay $90 per month for health insurance, up from $50 a month now.

The union’s proposals would add $8.5 million to the school district’s budget, despite the fact that the district is losing around 850 students a year.

As we can see, the school district’s offer is imposing “difficulty” on teachers. When’s the last time you received a minimum 5.1% annual increase, no matter how well (or poorly) you did your job?

The letter is directed at those who would potentially cross the picket lines, mostly substitute teachers. It asks the letter’s recipient to “honor our picket lines,” and to “reject a call to substitute, if a strike occurs.” In other words, the union is clearly planning an illegal teacher strike, and asking substitute teachers to participate in their illegal activity.

Finally, the letter states that the recipient will “receive a telephone call from a GREA member…” No doubt, this phone call will consist of a “friendly” reminder of the consequences of breaking a picket line.

The state’s attorney general should investigate this matter immediately. The union is obviously spending money, received from taxpayers, to prepare to break state laws.

The union is doing everything it can to drive even more students and parents out of Grand Rapids. When will the popular media and the politicians stand up and end this fiasco? The lack of a decent education available from GRPS, along with an increasingly militant union, only makes our economic situation worse.

Posted by: GRPundit on Saturday, 23rd Aug, 2008

Who Paid for Proposal 5? You Did!

We did some reseach on who backed Proposal 5 and, to our complete and utter lack of surprise, the far majority of the money came from the National Education Association, aka, the teachers union. How much? $3.4 million. If you’re a teacher, I hope you rest well knowing that so much of your dues money was wasted.

The Michigan Education Association contributed $496,000. All told, the teachers union funded Proposal 5 to the tune of about $4 million. That’s out of about $4.1 million total that was raised. There is no question as to who wanted this proposal to pass and who it would benefit.

But another interesting side note is how two publically-funded organizations, the Michigan Association of School Boards and the Middle Cities Education Association also contributed money. Both these organizations charge dues to school boards across the state. In other words, the taxpayer dollars we contribute to pay for schools are then paid to these two organizations as “dues,” and then those dollars were spent to back a proposal to extract even more dollars from us. Our own tax money was used against us. This should be criminal.

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 10th Nov, 2006

GR Pundit Election Wrap-Up

GR Pundit would like to express contentment with the outcome of the elections in Michigan this year. We have been in favor in a split government, that’s why we weren’t very big fans of a DeVos election. The re-election of Jennifer Granholm will ensure that continued split, with the addition of a Democrat-controlled State House. We just hope that the legislature and governor can get together and see the light about really turning Michigan around. Pet economic development plans won’t work – and when government picks economic winners and losers, we all lose. It’s time to make Michigan friendly to all businesses, not just a few that the governor likes.

As for the proposals, we are very pleased about how they turned out.

Proposal 1 – Ensuring that state park funds are actually spent on state parks – Passed

Proposal 2 – Banning racist hiring, admissions, and contracting practices by any unit of government in Michigan – Passed

Proposal 3 – Allowing morning doves to be hunted – Failed

Proposal 4 – Banning eminiment domain for economic development purposes – Passed

Proposal 5 – Setting up mandatory funding levels for K-16 education – Failed

We were most worried about Proposal 5 passing because it would have caused the most economic damage and would have done nothing but protect the bloated public education bureacuracy and continue the lack of accountability of education in Michigan. Now it’s time to lift the cap on charter schools – which cost less than traditional public schools and do a better job. Parents desperately want and need the choice.

Proposal 2, which we were also hopeful would pass, did so handily. Michigan, and any unit of government in Michgian, will no longer be able to engage in racist hiring, admissions, and contracting practices. We now have true equality in Michigan. Of course, groups such as By Any Mean Necessay (BAMN) have filed lawsuits trying to overturn the passage of Proposal 2. This just shows their complete contempt for the will of the people. In addition, their lawsuit invokes the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment in trying to argue that creating a color-blind government somehow creates unequal treatment.

Let the gnashing of teeth begin.

Posted by: GRPundit on Thursday, 9th Nov, 2006

Don’t Bankrupt Michigan – Vote NO on Proposal 5

Proposal five, which will be on Michigan’s ballot on Tuesday, is a union-sponsored and funded campaign to dramatically boost funding for teacher pensions. The proposal basically creates a madatory annual increase for school funding, based on the rate of inflation. However, what the proposal’s backers don’t tell you is that the majority of this money ($700 million in the first year alone) will go to teacher pensions, not the classroom. That money will either have to come from cutting other government services or raising taxes, because there certainly isn’t that much extra money in the state’s general fund. Voting yes on five does nothing more than line the pockets of the teacher’s union – none of the money is mandated to go to the calssroom. That’s why at GR Pundit, we’re voting NO on Proposal 5.

Posted by: GRPundit on Sunday, 5th Nov, 2006

GRPS Loses More Students

The Grand Rapids Press reported today that the Grand Rapids Public Schools lost 1,100 students over last school year. They say this is the largest single-year student loss in a decade. The article (which is not available online) quotes a school board member who’s completely baffled by the loss.

Well, gee, who knows, maybe it’s the total lack of fiscal discipline? After asking for and getting $160 million to build buildings, they increasingly hint that they will be declaring bankruptcy. Now please tell us, board members, who in their right mind would send their child to a school district that will be bankrupt in a year? The only students that will be left are those with parents who can’t afford to send their children someplace else.

So, while tens of thousands of children get completely short changed with a disaster of a school system, the politicians in Lansing, in collusion with the teacher’s unions, do everything they can to prevent the expansion of charter schools, which serve a much higher proportion of at risk and poor children than traditional public schools. And when’s the last time you heard a charter school whining about money?

It’s a tragedy that an entire generation of children, whose biggest hope in life is to get a good education, will be left behind by bureaucrats, labor unions, and selfish politicians.

Posted by: GRPundit on Monday, 19th Sep, 2005

Area Teachers Best Paid in the Nation

In an interesting article from the Grand Rapids Press, it seems as though area teachers are the best paid in the nation, when cost of living is taken into account.

The average teacher in the GR area makes $55,568 in adjusted salary. Bert Bleke, superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools, says that this number looks “about right.”

Of course, the teacher’s union is going crazy now that the secret is out. “We’re befuddled,” according to the GREA’s president.

We here at GR Pundit are befuddled too. The GR area has the highest paid teachers in the nation (with Grand Rapids Schools teachers not being very far behind), and the GR School district is hinting at bankruptcy. Befuddling doesn’t begin to describe the situation.

Posted by: GRPundit on Friday, 19th Aug, 2005

GRPS Sticking to Its Guns

Yesterday the Grand Rapids Public Schools board voted in favor of outsourcing all school bus services. The move is estimated to save $2 million per year for the school district and $18 million over five years. Hundreds of protestors showed up, according to the Press, to try and convince the board not to outsource.

How can the district save so much by outsourcing? One reason is that the state’s retirement pension system is extremely expensive for school districts to pay in to. In addition, school districts have no choice – all employees are covered by the pension system whether they want it or not. The pension system is very similar to Social Security in that it’s another pay as you go system that will only get more expensive and unsustainable as time goes by. It’s a “defined benefit” plan rather than a “defined contribution” plan. It’s the same type of system that the legacy manufacturers of America are getting clobbered with, again, because of union demands.

Second, the teacher’s union runs its own health care plan, called MESSA, which is estimated to be 20% over market cost. What does the union do with that extra money? They apparently skim it into their own coffers.

Basically, the school district can outsource those jobs to companies that will pay the bus drivers the same wage, but save millions on the extremely expensive benefits that the state and union mandate. These folks will still get benefits, just not benefits that subsidize the union.

Unfortunately, these folks are the victims of their own union. They demanded more and more until the market simply couldn’t sustain them any more. Now they have priced themselves so far ahead of what the average worker gets in terms of benefits, that the school district can save $2 million a year by outsourcing only 225 jobs. That’s over $9,000 per yer, per job, that the school district will save. And that’s just for part-time bus drivers.

We applaud the board to sticking to its guns and ensuring the school district spends its money wisely. Hopefully they won’t stop at just bussing.

Posted by: GRPundit on Tuesday, 19th Apr, 2005

Grand Rapids Schools’ Panic

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of activity around the Grand Rapids Schools. Superintendent Bert Bleke, as well as members of the school board, have been screaming about funding. They claim that they need to cut another $18 million from next year’s budget.

But, lo and behold, they are actually pursuing some cost cutting measures!

Apparently the school district is finally pursuing outsourcing non-educational services. They’re looking at outsourcing 400 jobs, according to the Grand Rapids Press. They’re even vowing to keep cuts away from the classroom (a novel idea).

The board members are blabbering on and on, as though this is such a tough and horrible decision – one they’ve been forced into against their will. Do any of them realize that they are running a school district, not a jobs program? They should have been doing this stuff years ago.

But, along came the Teachers’ Union Cavalry. They showed up en masse on Monday evening at the school board’s meeting. Even the executive director of the Michigan Education Association spoke. They’re bringing out the big guns. One can smell the fear in the air.

We’ll see if this school board and superintendent have a spine and stick by their plans.

Posted by: GRPundit on Wednesday, 23rd Mar, 2005