Yesterday through two different forms of media, a local newspaper and a global TV network I heard the same news story, that being about the new definition of ‘Two Americas.’ Now it is probably not what you think, it is not black vs white nor rich vs poor but rather private employment vs public sector employment.
From July 2008 to July 2009 public sector employment (government) increased by 238,000 workers and private sector shrunk by 5.2 million workers, public sector employees averaged $79,197 in wages versus a private sector average of $49,935.
In addition it was announced that for the first time public sector union membership surpassed private sector union membership and with continued stimulus spending the odds are that these trends will continue.
So the new ‘Two Americas’ definition is public sector union employees versus private sector non-union employees. There seems to be a great deal of anger evident today and I think this new reality as evidenced above is a growing contributor to the tension and anger. It is not a good situation and will have unintended consequences.
Here is one such consequence, our local school district failed to pass a levy last November, is was a large levy and it lost significantly. So the school board held public forums to listen to citizens (a good thing always) and what they heard overwhelmingly was that until labor gets under control don’t dare bring up a levy. Comments were made like; the teachers need to share the burden, they need wage freezes or cuts, they need to pay more for their benefits, their generous pensions should be reduced. Hey, us in the private sector are experiencing those things and so should the public sector before we think about giving you more money.
It just so happens that the labor agreement is up for negotiations so the school board delayed putting the levy on the ballot for May until the labor issue is solved and that the citizens see evidence of progress. So in this local issue the ‘Two Americas’ defined above are doing battle at a distance today but I predict it will probably get worse before it gets better.
Now to make this personal; in the meantime the school district is going to cut over 100 teachers, this means less classes choices for my high school freshman, of course the majority of cuts seem to come from advanced placement and honors courses and my daughter is mad. She says “Dad it is the choice to attend those future classes that keeps me motivated to do well now’ she knows that to have more college and life choices that high school classes are critical, she sees that her choices are being reduced, and she is mad. Mad at the people who won’t vote for the levy and mad at the school board for not managing better.
I can’t say that I blame her for being mad, your thoughts?
