Teachers in the Badger state have put the “con” in Wisconsin. Ethics have largely broken down among democrats, teachers and their unions.
Teacher absences from Madison, Wisconsin schools caused the closure of public schools Wednesday through Friday of the last week.
Schools are closed in Madison, Wisconsin today after an estimated 1,000 teachers called in sick to protest Gov. Scott Walker’s bid to limit unions’ right to collective bargaining. Walker’s proposal would limit unions’ collective bargaining power to salary and force government workers to pay more for their benefits and pensions.
The Madison Teachers union director made it clear that the this is the work of the unions.
Madison Teachers Inc. union director John Matthews told the Wisconsin State Journal that the sickout is the first coordinated absence in Madison schools in 16 years. Teachers are asked to attend protests at the state capitol instead of going to school. Madison superintendent Dan Nerad told Channel 3000 that teachers who were absent will have to prove they were sick.
It is illegal for teachers to strike in Wisconsin, but the Matthews argues that the dog ate his homework:
State law prohibits public school teachers from striking. So did Wednesday’s “sick out” by Madison School District teachers constitute an illegal strike?
No, said John Matthews, Madison Teachers Inc. executive director, who called the event “a political action,” not a strike.
The bad news for Matthews?
Peter Davis, legal counsel with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, which administers the state’s collective bargaining laws, declined to say whether the action — in which 40 percent of the Madison union’s 2,600 members called in sick as of late Tuesday — amounted to a strike since his organization could be called on to make that judgment in any complaint against MTI.
But in general, Davis said, a strike includes any concerted work stoppage by municipal employees, any concerted interruption of operation of services, or any concerted refusal to work or perform normal duties for the purpose of enforcing demands on a municipal employer.
Over at I hate the media is posted this slice of hilarity:
Fox News anchor Stuart Varney was not happy about the Wisconsin teacher sick-in. Not happy at all.
He jumped all over Robert Kraig, executive director for Citizen Action of Wisconsin, an “independent” group that’s thrown its weight behind the public employee unions in their battle against Republican Governor Scott Walker’s budget slashing plans.
Varney noted, rather reasonably we thought, that it’s irresponsible for teachers to use taxpayer-paid sick time to demand that the taxpayers give them even more.
When the Fox host rolled video of public school teachers “using their students as political props,” Kraig lauded the teachers and students for “standing up for their fundamental human rights.”
“Collective bargaining laws in Wisconsin were created,” he said, “to create labor stability so that you didn’t have any kind of public service disruptions.”
You know, like sick-outs.
The Teachers Union USS Ship of Fools has embarked upon a new journey on the ocean of deceit. They are procuring phony “doctors’ notes” provided on demand by members of a special group of physicians- “Doctors without Ethics.”
Video courtesy of the MacIver Institute
More video here and here. Even Andrew Breitbart got a doctor’s note.
Dr. Lou Sanner, one of the physicians involved in the fraud had this to say:
“What employers have a right to know is if the patient was assessed by a duly licensed physician about time off of work,” Sanner said. “Employers don’t have a right to know the nature of that conversation or the nature of that illness. So it’s as valid as every other work note that I’ve written for the last 30 years.”
OK, here’s where Sanner has a problem or two. Firstly, the video makes painfully obvious that Sanner has “assessed” no one. Secondly, if he asserts that he has assessed these teachers, then he has done so in public and has violated the HIPAA act. Either way,he has acted unethically. These physicians could face fines of $250,000 and be imprisoned for ten years.
if the offense is committed with intent to sell, transfer, or use individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage, personal gain, or malicious harm, be fined not more than $250,000, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Wisconsin has seen the worst of people’s behavior. Teachers have abandoned their students, used their students as props, engaged in illegal strikes and are attempting to defraud their employers. They are neither ethical nor trustworthy.
Teachers.
I would not want these people teaching my kids anything.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
1. The ‘doctors’ or if they are even licensed, should lose their license over handing out doctor’s notes without actually checking out the ‘patient’. No one has actually asked these doctors if in fact they are.
2. It is illegal for teachers in Wisconsin to strike, and they are. political action, my backside. they are striking. They should all be FIRED. I am betting it wouldn’t take a couple of weeks to find unemployed teachers all over the country that would take their jobs. as an aside, do these teachers still get paid while striking? The Governor of Wisconsin should take a page from Ronald Reagan when he fired the air traffic controllers. There were plenty of people to replace those who were fired.
3. The teachers. I believe for those who can think on their own are seeing the teachers as being selfish and greedy. I am not sure what other profession pays 100% of their health care and 100% of their OWN retirement. They should ask the state workers in CA if they like forced furloughs. They should ask federal govt employees if they like their pay checks frozen for the next 3-5 years. Guess what everyone has to give a little. -and I could go on.
4. jesse jackson. he is just a parasite and only comes out when he can get some credit. he actually never helps a situation.
5. the congressmen. It is illegal for federal employees to strike. They should be hauled back, censored, fined and recalled. If I went AWOL, and that is what they are doing, I would be fired.
6. The unions. Perhaps many years ago they were helpful, but not today. Now they just want people in the union so they can control them, so they can get their money through dues so the unions can use it to manipulate the political system (which they do). The union reminds me of the Jimmy Hoffa days.
6. barack, barry, steve or whatever the heck his name is. I do believe that he is rebel rousing. I am not sure if a sitting president is allowed to get into the business of the state. The man seems to always falls back on his community agitating. He is embarrassing, and is disgusting. What he is doing might even be against the law. I haven’t been able to nail down the exact law, but I will find it. When is this man going to be impeached?????
7. The good thing about this, is that a lot of Americans are finally waking up to the scenario that is unveiling. barack and his hoods (aka unions) are slowly taking control of the people of the United States. I would say the teachers are pawns, however I have only met one teacher in my life time that was not a flaming liberal. – Thank goodness my daughters were brought up in a conservative household and taught to think for themselves or else they would have been fodder in college.
If these teachers are receiving fraudulent sick slips, that must mean that they are starting to worry about their jobs. Also if these sick slips are in standing with standard medical procedures, we are in need for a hell of a lot more then medical insurance. Is this what they teach in medical school, diagnosis by demand? When is Eric Holder going to jump into this fracus and sue the State of Wisconsin for some silly reason? We know that this administration does not believe in States’s sovereignty.
Too bad the weather is so bad in Wisconsin….
If it was nice, all the Home-school moms and dads could set up on the lawns of the schools, and start teaching in place of the spoiled jerks who call themselves “educators”.
I was surprised to learn that many of Wisconsin’s schools will be closed again today.
These teachers know the world knows they carry fake doctor notes…..The notes are fake, the doctors are real.
From a news report I learned that each day the Madison Metropolitan School District is closed costs the TAXPAYERS $900,000.
From a news report I learned that each day the Milwaukee Public School teachers stayed out sick cost TAXPAYERS more than $3,000,000.
Hubby and I were looking at the inside of the Capitol Building taken over by these protesters.
If that’s not a fire hazard, I don’t know what is!
@Nan G: It’s for the kids, Nan.
Woops, Obama let his alligator mouth overload his hummingbird ass once again. After admitting the DNC involvement as well as the his campaign organization’s involvement, the administration is saying they are not involved. The Polls must falling like duck crap.
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/02/oops-white-house-dnc-disavows.html
Over the weekend, the White House and Democratic Party officials pushed back against criticism from Republicans that Mr. Obama and his political network were meddling in the Wisconsin dispute.
Administration officials said Sunday that the White House had done nothing to encourage the demonstrations in Wisconsin — nor was it doing so in Ohio, Florida and other states where new Republican governors are trying to make deep cuts to balance their budgets…
…And, officials and union leaders said, reports of the involvement of the Democratic National Committee — specifically Organizing for America, the grass-roots network born of Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign — were overblown to start with…
… “This is a Wisconsin story, not a Washington one,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “False claims of White House involvement are attempts to distract from the organic grass-roots opposition that is happening in Wisconsin.”
OfA is in this thing Neck Deep. As is the DNC. This is just a flat out perpetuation of falsehoods.
1. The noisy teacher protesters gave all the teachers in that area a very bad image. The majority, however, did NOT call in sick. They shouldn’t be tarnished with the activists, they should be supported and given tools instead.
2. You can be an ‘agency fee payer’ instead of a union member. This is a tool that is not as well known as it should be for teachers required to pay a union for its collective bargaining. It is NOT a cure-all, but it does limit some of the damage. As an agency fee payer, you can opt out of the union taking your money for political expenses. In California, it must be done annually, and I strongly suspect that money still gets to political activities, but it does prevent the blatant misuse of your money for politics that are opposite of yours. You lose some union benefits such as scholarships and liability insurance, so again, this is not optimal. Becoming an agency fee payer is the option my husband and I chose.
3. Educating teachers of this option in areas that have become subject to massive power plays like Wisconsin, might pay off and send a very direct message to the unions: If you don’t want to be defunded, represent your people responsibly.
A couple of questions that need answering concerning the WI teachers who were involved in the protest.
1. Why on earth are you, the WI teachers, allowing the union thuggery of the SEIU and AFL-CIO to be your speakers? The people with the voices make more money off of their respective union members than your typical business owner and many CEO’s of private corporations. It is hard to claim any sort of link to the average “working man” when you choose to allow rich “moochers” to argue on your behalf.
2. At a time when unemployment is high, many people have lost their jobs, and others(in the private sector) are being asked to pay more and more for their own health insurance, why on earth are you arguing to maintain your own status quo when it will result in either thousands of teachers being laid off, or the asking of those private sector employed to pay your way? One could easily argue the “greed” card in relation to the teachers.
Both of those questions should be asked of the teachers themselves, independently of any union management being present. The answers given could be very, very enlightening to the citizens of not only WI, but of the other 49(or is it 56?) states.
http://www.biztimes.com/daily/2011/2/18/republicans-reject-offer-by-unions-to-compromise-on-concessions
Got that? An offer from the Wisconsin public employee untions to accept all of the salary and benefit cuts Scott Walker deems necessary has been on his desk since last week. The only concession the governor would have to make is to cease his effort to abolish collective bargaining rights.
Obviously it’s not really about Wisconsin’s budget shortfall, as Walker claims. It’s all about the republican agenda to bring an end to collective bargaining, and the disempowerment of workers and their unions.
Not negotiable? It is so long as Walker hasn’t gotten his legislation passed. If and when he finally does, it’s going to happen in the national spotlight, with every working person in America fully aware of it and fully aware of the implications.
I have generally credited republican politicians with a bit more intelligence than this move suggests.
Greg, why would anyone want to end collective bargaining?
@Drjohn, #11: “Greg, why would anyone want to end collective bargaining?”
In Walker’s case, there might be an element of personal vendetta involved. He probably blames Wisconsin public employee unions for the fact that he has previously made himself look like a bit of a (fill in whatever word you think is appropriate).
Walker won, Greg. He campaigned on just exactly what he’s doing, nothing is a surprise to anyone from Wisconsin that was paying attention.
48% Back GOP Governor in Wisconsin Spat, 38% Side With Unions
@Greg: GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker says he has given back more than $370,000 of his salary to Milwaukee County
I wonder how many of the liberals in Wisconsin or anywhere else have done anything like it.
Vendetta.
>snort<
@Greg: Where is the link for the “only $70,000” saved claim? Walker was looking at a budget shortfall of somewhere between $6 and 8 million.
He did save money
The savings, pegged by Walker’s staff last fall at more than $750,000 a year, now are estimated at $411,000.
And your site says this
But the articles say this
Walker was within the scope of his emergency budget authority in making the airport layoffs, said Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary Ann Grimes.
and this
Which means that your entire argument is pretty much bullsh*t.
University of Wisconsin to investigate doctors who gave out fake sick notes to protesters
Madison Doctors Give Dr. Note To Andrew Breitbart and Protesters Who Missed Work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQRcNBWTOr8&feature=player_embedded
(No Offense to Medical Professionals, Doc)
@DrJohn, #16:
No doubt. He had his private contractor Wackenhut rent-a-cops on duty at the taxpayers’ expense for a full 2 weeks before the long-time Wisconsin public employee security guards had even left.
Of course private contractors always provide higher quality personnel. The Wackenhut replacement appointed as the new Chief of Security at the courthouse was subsequently removed when it was discovered that he had 5 previous convictions. They involved coersion of subordinate officers to engage in afer-hours drinking and pornography parties at his home, making unwanted sexual advances toward male subordinates, use of a loaded firearm while intoxicated, etc. He spent 3 months in jail.
Wackenhut must have one crackerjack background check process. The guy’s prior convictions were for offenses committed while he was Chief of Police of Manaya, Wisconsin.
Walker’s comments on having replaced a public employee courthouse Chief of Security with a private contract employee having a history of sexual misconduct, professional misconduct, and irresponsibility with a firearm:
Yeah, sure. Beam me up, Scotty. The problem had already been taken care of in the public employment context. When the former Chief of Police of Manaya was discovered to be unfit, he was promptly removed from duty, prosecuted, and went to jail. The problem was solved until Scott Walker and a private firm gave him a gun and put him in charge of a county courthouse.
You get what you pay for. And you get what you vote for.
@Greg: Wow!
Greg!
Good catch!
I especially appreciated this:
Now compare that to a tenured teacher.
Roland Pierre was was arrested on felony sex-abuse charges after allegedly calling one of his PS 138 sixth-grade students into an empty classroom, closed the door and
molested her. Pierre was permanently removed from the classroom, but
like many tenured teachers accused of wrongdoing, he wasn’t fired.
Instead, he joined other disgraced educators in the so-called “rubber
room” 13 years later, Pierre is still receiving full pay and fringe benefits from his old teaching job, including health benefits, pension and
vacation time. In all, the 75-year-old continues to pull down $97,101 a
year for a job he hasn’t done in 13 years.
The school investigator at the time had recommended Pierre’s termination after he gripped the student in a “bear hug” and “kissed her on the mouth, inserted his tongue in her mouth, fondled her chest and
reached under her skirt.”
Department of Education dropped disciplinary actions against Pierre “on a technicality” but he remains in the rubber room until he is reassigned.
Though he was eligible for retirement at 62, Pierre continues to
collect his full teaching salary.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/rubber_room_dirty_old_man_t4OA6Bw25idPYynCnVJHyO
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another teacher accused of serious wrongdoing — including impregnating a 16-year-old student and allegedly molesting a string of other girls — finally retired this
month after spending seven years in his own “rubber room”:
For seven years, math teacher Francisco Olivares, 61, did nothing but rake in his $94,154 salary.
The DOE bungled a chance to boot Olivares in 1978 after he impregnated a 16-year-old former student at IS 61 in Corona. He skirted rape charges by marrying the teen; their baby was born less
than nine months later.
Still in the classroom, he was criminally charged a decade later with showing one 12-year-old girl p0rn, photographing her with pants down and rubbing up against another 12-year-old girl.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/perv_pension_pSSxBzq6gTy3ivibHSMGxI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“They told me to sit in a little chair in a corner and never get up and walk around,” said Hal Lanse, a $100,000-a-year teacher from Queens who had been accused of sexual harassment. He was assigned to an
administrative office on Fordham Road in the Bronx in September as part
of a deal that led the city to drop the charges against him.
One day he plopped down on a couch in the hallway and began reading a novel, he said. Eventually, he dozed off. Then he was asked to “paper-clip some papers” and refused: he was charged with
insubordination. He is now collecting his full salary at home in Queens,
with plans to retire in January; the city is trying to fire him for
insubordination before then, which would reduce his pension.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/nyregion/08schools.html?_r=1
@Nan G, #19:
There’s some connection between Scott Walker of Wisconsin and problems with the New York public school system?
The Wisconsin teachers’ union plan is to only evaluate teachers every three years.
Then, re-evaluate those who get bad reviews, annually.
Then, if still getting bad reviews, the teacher can go into a peer assistance program for three more years, or the process of trying to fire him/her can begin.
So, only 6 or 7 years after a bad teacher is on the payroll in Wisconsin, he/she might be stopped from holding students back.
Well, that’s the reform the union is willing to allow, anyway.
NY was just so much easier to document, as very little is released about Wisconsin teachers and their ratings.
@Greg:
Kind of creative with that story, eh Greg?
According to the links I followed from your union source, the overlap was included in the contract, it did not cost the county extra money.
My, my, he was cleared by the state.
You do realize that Manawa, Wisconsin is not even in the same county as Milwaukee?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manawa,_Wisconsin Milwaukee county is the third county up from the state line on the lower right corner of the state.
I doubt Waupaca County (pop. 51,665) operates their police department the same as Milwaukee County. Their police department might not have the same rating or classification, what ever it’s called, they might not even have a union. Curt would better know what the difference between a small community department and a large city department. You can’t mix the officers, they aren’t trained as well as officers in big cities, night and day, apples and oranges.
Well, anyway, there are areas in Wisconsin where they have prostitution stings, heh, never a dull moment.
Kewl.
http://www.thenorthwestern.com/article/20110222/OSH0101/110222129/Hintz-said-he-unaware-citation-prostitution-ring-case-until-Sunday?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
@Missy, #22: “My, my, he was cleared by the state.”
Do you suppose Wegener filled out this form required by the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing completely and correctly? It would be interesting to find out.
It seems odd to me that the state should be held ultimately responsible for assuring that an out-of-state private contractor hires responsible people. What Walker did, over the objections of the County Board, shifted most of the control away from the county–along with a lot of local taxpayer dollars.
@ Greg, Did You want the job?
Could You pass a background check?
@Greg:
Those links don’t work on my computer. The guy was far from honest wouldn’t you say, would have been nice to be able to depend on his honesty, but that’s why we have state and private agencies to check these people out? He fell through the cracks.
If that is what the state agency is tasked with and funded for, of course “out-of-state private” contractors, as well as…. school administrations, children’s orgs. elder care,etc. should be able to depend on the checks that agency is doing.
Had Walker’s plan been allowed to continue, I think it would have saved the county money, but, politics got involved. You do know that the sheriff’s department also hired G4S Wagenhut to save money?…the same firm even after the Wegner flap?
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/95037789.html
Anyway, the Wagenhut case alone showed the state of Wisconsin just who they were voting for, they voted for Scott Walker to clean up the mess and rein in the unions.