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10/8/2010
WI school costs - will you make a difference?

The primary source of high cost health insurance benefits for teachers is the subject of a recent report from the Education Action Group Foundation (EAGF) in collaboration with the MacIver Institute. Below I quote the Executive Summary extensively – the full report is a fairly quick read and very much worth your time.

WEA Trust, a union-affiliated insurance company, has an unfair advantage in Wisconsin’s public school insurance market, and uses that advantage to soak every penny possible from local school coffers.

…. That unfair advantage** is protected by state law.

…. WEA Trust has grown very fat on public school dollars, with a net worth of $316 million and a team of 12 administrators all receiving compensation packages worth six figures per year.

Sadly, this insurance swindle** is endorsed by state law.

…. So most unions have traditionally come to the negotiating table demanding expensive** WEA Trust insurance coverage, and the strategy has been effective. About 64 percent of Wisconsin’s 426 districts carry WEA Trust insurance, despite its prohibitive costs.**

Selected districts around the state have attempted to free their budgets and their taxpayers from the “shackles of WEA Trust” – some have even succeeded. But it wasn’t easy.

Most [districts] said they had to agree to share all or a portion of the insurance savings with the union, in the form of salary increases for employees. That means that most of the breakaway districts saved little or nothing that they could apply to other operational expenses.

“Whatever was saved went right back to the teachers - that was part of the deal,” said Dennis Riley, business manager for the Marshall school district. “They were for it, because of the fact that they got a choice on the money.”**

Union employees got their “choice on the money.” When is it the taxpayers turn to get “a choice on the money?” And more importantly, the kids? After all, isn’t it all about educating our kids?

One angry resident of the [Kenosha school] district was quoted as saying, “It blows my mind when someone is presented with a (insurance) program that duplicates what they have, protects someone else’s job, provides a better education for kids and no one is the worse for it, but they say no because this is not the union insurance plan, which has become a monopoly in Wisconsin.”

According to the EAGF/MacIver report, Kettle Moraine School District board members are working to gather support for a change in the state law that allows the indulgent costs of WEA Trust to be thrown on unwitting taxpayers.They've developed a resolution addressing the need for a statutory change - and are seeking support from school districts around the state.

…. Whereas, school boards too often must pay more for their health insurance benefits than would be necessary if the school board could unilaterally select the health insurance carrier;

….Now, therefore, be it resolved that the (fill in the blank) school board calls on Sen. (fill in the blank) and Rep. (fill in the blank) to make the specification of health care provider a prohibited subject of collective bargaining and give school boards the full authority to make that selection.

(By the way, similar legislation was passed by the legislature in 2004 and was vetoed by a Governor Doyle deeply beholden to WEAC.)

According to a school board member active in the effort, no Fox Valley school board has yet committed to the resolution. (I specifically asked about Appleton, Brillion, Freedom, Green Bay, Kaukauna, Kimberly, Little Chute, Menasha, Neenah, Seymour, Weyauwega-Fremont.)

Links for each school district mentioned take you to a list of school board members. Will you make a difference by following the steps below? (If your school district isn’t mentioned here, will you pursue the resolution as well?)

Read the EDAF report,
print off a copy of the school board resolution included in full in the report; then
call one of your school board members and ask if the resolution can be submitted and how you can best have impact in advocating its passage.

Will you do it?

Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net

**Read the report to fully understand the accusations excerpted here.

COMMENTS

Jo, you have thrown out the challenge, it will be interesting to see how many of the regular contributors take it.

babs (Thu Oct 07 22:00:35 2010)

Yea, WEAC has really blown it. Asked for and in many cases got the moon. Came to the stupid conclusion that if CEOs were taking $10 million salaries, their members (the ones that educated the CEOs) must certainly be worth $100K. Wrong!!!

I'm not a WEAC supporter. Don't like their demands for tenure nor protecting of bad teachers. I see education ultimately going to online and kids staying home during the day.

But I also feel that our anger is misdirected. The politicians that call the shots are getting off free while we nail teachers and public employees. One is inadequate but the other is corrupt. I'll take the former. Teachers aren't selling our democracy as are the politicians.

Jack Lohman (Mon Oct 11 07:43:07 2010)

Jo,

I think you missed one point. WEA is also expert and big enough to "milk" Drs. of their fees. I have a friend with WEA insurance and has three different Drs. None of the three Drs. will accept WEA insurance in total because they do not pay well.

David (Mon Oct 11 08:01:27 2010)

Hey, Jack. Please bundle up all your evidence of corruption -- names of guilty parties, dates, documents, phone records and statute violated -- and take the material to either your local D.A., the GAB, or the Justice Department. Or, if you don't have any of this stuff, give it a rest (and the rest of us a respite).

Tom (Mon Oct 11 09:40:26 2010)

Tom, what planet are you from?

Jack Lohman (Mon Oct 11 09:44:55 2010)

Please. This is not a democracy. It happens to be a Consstitutional Republic. Our country has never been a democracy and never will, God willing.

Inadequate? That's one of the understatements of the century.

These are our children who are being dealt with and shortchanged here.

It disturbs me that our teachers, who are teaching them are willing to go along with heavy-handed union thugs.

A union sponsored health insurance that charges more for premiums than any other and yet schools can't lower their costs even if they manage to withdraw from the insurance? That sounds suspiciously like a form of extortion to me. As in: You may withdraw from this insurance, but only on penalty of paying the difference to our teacher's union.

WEA isn't in the business of paying out, they're in the business of amassing money. I think we all have a good idea of where the extra money goes.

C. R. Stevenson (Mon Oct 11 10:39:01 2010)

Anyone reading the EAGF report will quickly determine it to be a partisan polemic, not a balanced investigation of either WEATrust or health insurance costs.

If reading the report chocked full of incendiary and demeaning adjectives isn't enough, check the websites for "about us" and their "perspective."

WEATrust administrators too highly paid? What is the compensation of senior administrators of competitive insurers?

WEATrust has too high a net worth? What is the balance sheet for competitors (including profits for these firms)?

What do each of the insurers charge for services and reimburse for the same medical procedures?

Paying too much for services because WEATrust has a market advantage?

Any Econ 101 student learns early that competition in the marketplace is not always consumer friendly. Hence the need for government regulation with all its advantages and problems.

Taxpayers have a right to demand value, not necessarily the lowest possible price for the dollars spent.

Isn't it about time we stop listening to the misleading half-truths, sound bites and character assassinations of those more interested in their own agendas than the welfare of society as a whole (which by the way does impact them too.)?

Determining truth requires a heck of a lot of time, effort, diligence, in-depth investigation and fair-mindedness. But it's so much more fun and easier spouting superficial personal opinions and running around screaming at every issue that has a side one doesn't resonate with.

Perhaps I should start a blog too...but then there are far too many armchair commentators already.

Dennis

Dennis (Mon Oct 11 10:43:56 2010)

I am concerned with the comment that kids are being, or may be short changed. I would like to see empirical data that differences in insurance etc will/would make a difference.

Also, our education system is a Cadillac. I believe strongly in the law of dimishing returns. When are we going overboard with our efforts and not making appreciable gains?

There are many questions that need to be answered. One being homecoming week and dress up days with the accompanying disruption. I would like to hear from teachers if they can teach as well with the interruptions? How about the days off such as teachers convention. Are those interruptions good for the kids.

Obama has suggested a longer school year. Would it help?

David (Mon Oct 11 11:00:58 2010)

Yes, C.R., we've had a taste of what direct democracy can do to us (California) and I agree that a republic ("representative government") is best. And yes, the unions are screwing over our kids.

But SO ARE OUR POLITICIANS, who take money from special interests to spend money on pork barrel projects RATHER THAN our schools. Yes, you are probably as tired hearing about that as is Tom above, but I am equally as tired hearing the right wing complaining about high taxes and deficits and refusing to tackle what is *causing* them. It *IS* political corruption, it *WILL* take down America, and if the right wants to stop it they will have to take off their blinders.

As to the issue of this blog, these teacher contracts are being negotiated by somebody representing the taxpayers, but that "somebody" has no skin in the game. And even the R's have failed to fix that when they were in power.

If you want to fix healthcare let the teachers AND politicians into Medicare. If you want to (help) fix the economy implement a Medicare-for-all system. If you are afraid of what Medicare will NOT cover, buy a Gap policy that covers what Medicare doesn't.

Jack Lohman (Mon Oct 11 11:06:39 2010)

I am in the Kenosha district. When United Health Care, the carrier for the administrators and assistants, came in with rates over 20% this year, our District looked for other carriers. The Trust, still the carrier for the teachers, had the best rates around. Here are a few facts that the report has wrong:
*The Trust pays 93 cents of every premium dollar for medical care.

*The Trust insures fewer than half of the public school employees in Wisconsin.

Mary Modder (Mon Oct 11 13:00:19 2010)

As far as I know the WEAC insurance is operated very efficiently. As such a large group it has the power to negotiate low rates. It does operate at a far lower overhead as other similar organizations. I suspect that as a delivery system for health care it is one of the best. On the other hand I believe ALL people covered by health insurance should not over use it and shop for the best prices (see kagen's 3 page bill to force pricing disclosure). This includes teachers and employees of private employers and people on Medicare and medicaid. But the WEAC plan? Very efficient as I can see. Should the beneficiaries pay more in each month? Should they have HSA type plans required? Maybe, but that's another topic.

dave allen (Mon Oct 11 18:18:19 2010)

Ok, if WEA Trust insurance is the best product for a given school district, great, use it! But why must it be demanded - and supplied - as part of contract negotiations? Can anyone site another situation where the insurance provider is determined by collective bargaining?

Jo (Mon Oct 11 21:13;54 2010)

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