[...] Hakim-Shabazz explains why you wouldn’t want to be Speaker of the House Pat Bauer right [...]

Politically, I don't think Bauer is in an awful position. If nothing happens on the UI insurance, then the compromise from last year goes into effect. That's not really horrible news for the unions or other unemployed individuals. The Chamber loses out if the delay or repeal of the 2009 UI compromise doesn't happen.

Meanwhile, politics being local, I don't think Republicans will get rewarded if/when local school teaching staffs get decimated (20% reduction in my local school district if nothing changes), particularly if the General Assembly was in a position to let school districts use money that was already there in other funds.

The revenues continue to decline and so from whom are these creatures of the State being protected? Taxpayers who think that teachers might begin to pay the same % of their income for health care as do taxpayers. Taxpayers will also challenge the position that in economic downturns that some folks are more equal than others.
The Legislature is wasting a crisis by not “reforming” “education” towards reward for results instead of for motives.

Teacher's salaries are not extravagant – after all, we're trying to employ people to educate our children, not scrub toilets.

But, health care is a huge elephant in the room. Too bad, on the federal level, so many seem to want to stick with the status quo of huge annual premium increases coupled with benefit reductions.

Doug, there is dignity in all jobs, even scrubbing toilets.

Here's what teacher unions don't get: the public is fed up with long-term teachers who coast to retirement, at the top of the salary scale, for multiple years. It's extremely expensive. It used to be a very small percentage of teachers. Look around: anyone with kids in school will tell you, that for some reason, too many older teachers are stale.

Tenure protects them. I'm not saying we dump them all tomorrow. I'm saying that any teacher, particularly long-termers, need a quick help up or out. If the problems cnanot be identified in one semester, and corrected by the next semester, a change has to be made.

In my school district, the avg. teacher tenure is 19.4 years. At my son's middle school, the post-55 teacher ratio is more like 50%. There are some good ones. But a hugely-disproportionate share punches the clock, doesn't break a sweat and cnanot wait for spring break or summer recess.

At any age, teacheer intertia has to be rooted out. We depend on principals to do that, and sadly, their lot isn't very gutsy. To place a teacher in the “watch” category, or, ultimately dismiss the teacher, it takes patience, record-keeping out the whazoo, and a sense of compassionate concern.

It's hard work. I don't know many principals who will do it. When they fail to properly police the effectiveness of any teacher, we all lose.

Agreed. I don't want kids sitting in front of computers for lack of live educators, or athletics and the arts completely gutted. But, how much sympathy & how many bottomless pocketbooks are taxpayers to have for the status quo?: seniority trumps performance in teacher retention, school funding byzantine and unworthy of trust, headcount is king regardless of how diluted facilities are from non-citizenry, children brought to the classrooms like crops to the bin- because that's how we subsidize many of them, and the solution for education is to be the same as for health care- pay more.

If we agree we're a declining economic titan- how would we like to tackle this? I suggest simpler systems of finances and taxes with expectations for responsibility and participation from all- including both edges of our income demographics. I suggest X percentage of spending cuts across “the board” until more adult conversation takes place or economics improve. Living in denial (that includes Republicans poo-pooing Volker financial reforms) isn't working.

Living in denial is believing that making any concessions to the teachers union will do anything at all to improve education. The sad state of public education in this state can be directly linked to the union, as it can in every state in this nation. By lowering our education standards and protecting non-performing educators, the union has handicapped our young students. Want to improve our public education in Indiana? Get rid of the union!

Rico – you couldn't be more wrong. Unions don't exist in EVERY state, in fact, the lowest performing schools in the country are in the South – and most schools in the south are NOT union. But, nice try.