Life Is Good in Teachers Unions, Even in Detroit

17 Jun, 2010 by Dave Blount

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No matter how bad things get, a few always manage to live high on the hog. Often they are the ones who made things so bad in the first place. Take Michigan, for example — a once vibrant state that has been economically devastated by the unions that destroyed the auto industry. If you’re living well in the Detroit area, chances are you belong to a union. Teacher’s unions are especially advantageous:

Despite multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls in school districts across Metro Detroit, teachers continue to enjoy generous benefits that range from free health care to longevity pay, an analysis of teacher contracts in 10 of the area’s largest school districts shows.

Teachers in Dearborn, Plymouth-Canton, Southfield and Warren Consolidated Schools pay nothing monthly for health care as long as they stay in network and as little as $5 or $10 co-pays for prescription drugs and doctors’ office visits, according to their contracts. Farmington and Troy also pay nothing monthly but do pay annual deductibles.

A Detroit News review of 10 contracts covering more than 5,000 teachers who teach more than 100,000 students in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties shows teachers often get 10-14 sick days a year, which they can bank; tuition reimbursement for continuing their education; and coverage of chiropractor visits. …teachers in Utica Community Schools, the second-largest school district in the state, can get up to 38 “therapeutic massage” visits at a chiropractor’s office a year with no co-pay under their contract.

While teachers are taking three weeks of “sick days” on top of their four months of vacation and treating themselves to near weekly massages on the taxpayer’s dime,

Reeling from state funding cuts, Metro Detroit school districts are dipping into fund balances, closing schools, laying off staff and privatizing services.

Facing a $33 million shortfall, Utica Community Schools plans to close four elementary schools at the end of this school year, as does Farmington Public Schools. Lincoln Park plans to close one elementary school, consolidate its preschool program, and close another school for children with special needs.

Greedy teachers union goons claim that the schools aren’t closing because they can’t afford the outlandishly extravagant benefits, but because they are losing students. True enough, they are — because of the economic devastation wrought by unions and the stratospheric taxes required to pay public employees to loaf and get massages, people are escaping from Michigan as fast as they can dump their houses.

Fortunately for our Democrat rulers, they’ve found a solution to the problem. Put a guy in the White House who will turn the entire country into Detroit, and people will have nowhere to move. They’ll have to sit still and pay their skyrocketing taxes like good little slaves. After all, someone has to pay to keep the union gravy train on the rails.

On a tip from Edward. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.