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Bad news for teachers and other public-sector employees: America ismore than ready to cut your pensions and benefits. While mostpoliticos had been focusing this week on the Wisconsin recall, an election 2,100 miles away in San Jose, Calif., may be abigger harbinger of the kind of austerity voters are developing a taste for. In this city of about a million residents an hour south of San Francisco , voters on Tuesday approved arguably the country s boldestpension cuts. San Jose s Democratic mayor, Chuck Reed, has beengrappling with ballooning pension costs that have increased from $73 million to $245 million in the last decade. Retirement costs already consume more than 20% of the city s general fund, which helps explain why Reed waspushing San Jose to pass Measure B , which would give voters the power to approve increases in pensionbenefits and give the city the power to suspend automatic 3% annualraises during a fiscal crisis. The measure would also make workerscontribute half the cost of their pensions; employees currently pay $3 for every $8 the city contributes, and the city is financially responsible forany shortfalls. Also included are provisions to curb the abuse ofdisability benefits. It s a tough package and will certainly bechallenged in court because it changes benefits not only for futureworkers, something everyone agrees is legal, but for current onesas well. Nonetheless, voters passed it by a stunning margin of 69.5% in favor, 30.4% opposed. A pension reform measure alsopassed in San Diego. ( MORE: Why Scott Walker Survived His Recall ) These results matter for teachers, whose pensions and benefits arefacing scrutiny and who should realize from Tuesday s results thattheir unions are not invincible. Collectively the votes inWisconsin, where Walker survived a recall after cutting benefitsand curtailing collective bargaining for public sector workers, andin these California cities are a big wake-up call. These cuts arebeing made not in red states but in some of the country s mostprogressive territory. If public-employee unions can t hold theline in Wisconsin and California, they face even more dauntingprospects elsewhere. But voters need to understand the choices here as well. Unless cutsin public-sector benefits are coupled with improvements in workingconditions and job satisfaction, there is a real risk that schoolswill not be able to attract the kind of people we want inclassrooms. Good teachers don t go into the profession for themoney, but generous retirement benefits are hardly a disincentiveeither. And if we cut those benefits while continuing to treatteachers like DMV clerks with lockstep pay schedules, littletrust and few opportunities to take leadership roles or beentrepreneurial it will become even harder to attract talentedworkers. ( MORE: How Should We Pay Teachers? ) So the riddle for educators is straightforward in theory andchallenging in practice, i.e., how to make schools exciting enoughplaces to work that people want to be there, even with benefitsmore on par with the non-governmental sector. There are someemerging ideas, including teacher-run cooperative schools inMinnesota, initiatives to give teachers more leadership roles thatdon t mean leaving the classroom entirely, and high-performingurban charter schools where applicants for teaching jobsdramatically outpace openings. But make no mistake addressingworking conditions is the flip side of the benefits coin. If wefail to pair public-sector fiscal reforms with efforts to maketeaching a more attractive profession, then in the long run whathappened on Tuesday will end up being a lose-lose proposition. Andnot just for public-sector employees, but for us all. MORE: Teachers' $500 Billion (and Growing) Pension Problem. I am an expert from hotelbathamenities.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Toiletries Travel Bag Manufacturer , China Guest Room Folder, Eco Friendly Hotel Amenities,and more.
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