A little background for those reading who aren't in Indiana... all of our democrat legislators walked out of the house about a week ago and LEFT THE STATE so there couldn't be a vote on a handful of bills (since the republicans are in the majority, currently). They've been camping out at a Comfort Suites in Illinois. Nice, huh? The bills in question? Well, the main ones were (1) the expansion of charter schools, (2) school vouchers, and (3) The Right to Work bills. The later is the big one causing controversy in Wisconsin, too... There's another handful or two of bills, also, but these three are the ones that keep getting mentioned.
So now, I myself, will probably get controversial... I'm going to voice my opinion on all this.
First off, I think this was a horrible way to go about this. It's like a kid running to his room and slamming the door because he didn't get what he wanted at Wal-Mart. Stay and fight - put your reasons out there why you think these bills need to be killed or rewritten on the table. You might just get results you want! I just think the whole way they've gone about it is childish. I think politicians on BOTH sides need to look back to the people who put them in office and vote the way the PEOPLE want them to vote, not the way their party expects them to vote!
So the bills in question... first, the Right to Work. Who's against this bill? Unions. Why? Because it further proves they are obsolete. Unions were once needed, but with all the other laws and acts that have been put in place, they're not needed anymore. Now I give some of the construction/trade unions credit for the training programs they have set up before you can 'go off on your own'... but the problem is, you never really go off on your own if you stay within a union. They never experience the 'real world' most people live in, where you don't always get a raise, or don't have a pension waiting for you, or, at any moment, you could be laid off because the company is losing money. The unions continuously play protector to those who pay in, regardless of how it affects everything else around it... the economy, the company, even those who've yet to enter the workforce.
This has been a big discussion around water coolers, and one of my friends brought it up like this... In order to continue operating, unions MUST deliver a better contract EVERY PERIOD contracts are due. It does not take a genius to realize that no institution in the planet can accommodate raises, better benefits, perks, etc., while losing money every year. Guess what? Most states are losing money because companies are moving to countries where they can deal with non-union workers and cheaper labor. This is leaving the state as the only target for unions and just like they nearly broke those fleeing companies they will destroy the states.
No, I have never been in a union. And quite frankly, I'd like the option to NOT join if I ever go into a trade where you are currently required to join the union when starting a job. And that's what the Right to Work bill is about - giving people the option not to join, to say "I can fight my own battles if I feel I'm not being treated fairly at the workplace." It doesn't say unions aren't allowed. They can still try to woo new members - some people want someone else to stand up for them and fight their battles. Nothing wrong with that.
I could go on about unions, but I won't - what I've said is enough to get me tarred in feathered in this State. So I'll move on the education bills I mentioned.
To start off with, Indiana has the whole education system F'ed up!! They need to completely wipe the slate clean of EVERYTHING and start over!! The bills on the table are actually a GOOD thing and a start in the right direction... unfortunately, it's not hitting to heart of the problem. So in the end, they'd be wasted because they won't work to their full potential in this current system.
Indiana's education system it too top heavy. WAY too many school districts, each of which has their own superintendent making a 6-digit salary. I can count the number of school districts with more than one high school on one hand. In fact, in a State with a population of 6.5 million in only 92 counties, Indiana has 340 school districts! That means 340 superintendents, 340 school boards, and 340 district administrations. Can we say overhead?? Granted, some of these are private schools... but you can take half of those districts out, and you'd still have too many!
In my opinion, there should be no more public school districts than there are counties. So Indiana should have no more than 92 public school districts. In fact, some of the more rural counties could even combine and have fewer districts. First advantage? Less overhead, plain and simple. One superintendent, one school board, one administration to support the superintendent and school board. So in salaries alone, you'd be saving MILLIONS! Well, you'd be utilizing millions for things that actually educate the kids instead of giving someone a salary (whether that be teachers, books, computers, or whatever!).
But going beyond the labor side of the overhead that you save, you have the resource side of things, too. If you have more than one high school in a district, with even more 'feeder schools' below them, you have the option of best utilizing facilities as population shift from one area to another. You can expand the district lines for a certain school instead of closing it because everyone moved 'out of that district', and as other areas surged in population, you can shrink those district boundaries to allow for other schools to take overflow instead of building a new school. Currently, with only one high school per district, your options are very limited, as the lines quickly cross into another school district out of your jurisdiction.
I'm not sure why I'm so opinionated on the education system. I don't even have kids, but watching how the system works in this State makes me want to move to another state before school aged kids. This is just another one of those topics I could go on and on about.
So as our legislators hang out in Illinois, I shake my head in shame. How embarrassing that our legislators are so set in old school party ideals that they can't even look at the big picture. Change is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. And it needs to be done.
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