Scapegoating MPS teachers once again
By Mike Langyel
Posted: March 13, 2010
The Journal Sentinel Editorial Board is again calling for teachers and other hard-working Milwaukee Public Schools employees to give up their contract right to choose a health plan that best meets their families’ needs.
I’d like readers to consider these facts.
Fact No. 1: The Aetna benefits our members receive are about the same as teachers have in surrounding suburban districts and districts throughout the state. Most school districts do not even offer a lower-cost HMO option. Not one has only an HMO.
Research demonstrates that teachers are the single most important factor in student achievement. MPS – one of the toughest places in the state to teach – should be doing everything it can to attract and retain great teachers.
MPS already has a huge teacher turnover problem – 45% of teachers leave within three years. The district should work to reverse this trend, not make it worse.
Fact No. 2: The bargaining priority of Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association members over the years has been to maintain quality health insurance benefits. Our bargaining teams have made hard choices to meet this goal – accepting lower salary increases in contract after contract to help pay increased health care costs. As a result, our salaries rank near the bottom in the region – 24th out of 25 districts.
MPS must offer salaries and benefits that are at least in line with surrounding districts to keep and attract highly qualified teachers.
If the district forces employees into an HMO, it will have one of the lowest salaries and weakest benefit packages of any district in the state.
Fact No. 3: MTEA has helped contain health care cost increases over time by negotiating changes such as an award-winning comprehensive health and wellness program. This collaborative effort saved the district nearly $1 million in its first full year of operation.
MPS medical costs have been below medical inflation trends for several years. Last year, the Aetna plan costs increased by 5.5% – far below the 9.6% national increase.
Teacher negotiators are again committed to working out ways to deal with rising medical costs in the current round of contract talks.
Fact No. 4: Currently, 81% of educators have selected the Aetna plan for their families. They made this choice despite paying more out-of-pocket in the Aetna plan than in the HMO.
I was glad to hear the health plan choice of columnist Alan Borsuk’s daughter and her husband – the MPS HMO – worked out well. It’s important that they were able to exercise that choice and receive quality treatment. Having that choice is important to our members, too, and 81% have carefully chosen Aetna to protect themselves and their families.
To imply that city educators made a wrong or fiscally irresponsible choice by selecting Aetna is insulting. Not just because it questions our members’ judgment but because it again scapegoats educators for the district’s financial challenges.
Fact No. 5: Even if all MPS employees moved into the HMO plan, the district’s budget problems wouldn’t disappear.
A higher percentage of families who choose the Aetna plan have serious chronic diseases or major catastrophic illnesses, such as cancer or heart disease. Their treatment costs would be shifted to the HMO, thereby raising the rates for the HMO plan.
Moreover, the district’s budget problems are not caused by health care costs. They’re caused by unfunded mandates from the federal and state governments, broken health care and school funding systems and a private school voucher program that will cost city taxpayers $50 million next year.
Fact No. 6: Teachers want to be part of the solution, but we want solutions that will strengthen our schools and benefit everyone in our community.
Real solutions require collaboration, hard work and honest dialogue. We are ready to join with the School Board, the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board and others who care about our children and our city’s future. We need to work together to fight for health care reform, educational opportunities for students and fair funding for our schools.
Mike Langyel is president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association.
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