There is an interesting article at the Times O.C. today that illustrates the divide between Santa Ana schoolteachers and the administration. A proposal was apparently made to raise the cost of their PPO health insurance from $49 per family, per month, to $844. Wow.
I can understand the district’s need to raise more money, as they are in debt and are paying some $66 million per year for health insurance for their teachers, but what a huge increase! The average teacher only makes $58,000 a year, which is not much by today’s standards. An increase like this would be a huge hardship.
To be fair, they were offered Kaiser coverage at no charge, which seems like a great deal. And they were offered Blue Cross HMO at the current rates. The only plan that the district wants to increase the cost of is the PPO program.
PPO programs allow you to choose your own doctor. That then is what the argument boils down to – should Santa Ana teachers be allowed to pay less than the public does for the right to choose their own doctors?
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report cited by the Times, the average family pays $248 per month for health their insurance coverage. The report does not note if that is for HMO or PPO coverage. Obviously the teachers are currently paying a lot less than that for their coverage.
I think the administration erred by coming up with an increase as large as the one they proposed. All that did was anger the teachers. Here’s a question – how much do Santa Ana administrator pay for THEIR health insurance? What about the school board members? Do they get health insurance – and how much does it cost?
There are imaginative ways to solve the problem. There are programs that allocate a fixed amount of money to each employee for their medical needs. If they do not spend it all they get the balance paid to them as a bonus at year-end. That discourages overuse of the medical system.
Ultimately the Santa Ana Unified School District is going to have to learn that bargaining in bad faith is a bad idea.
The attitude of SAUSD is summarized by this statement: “You’re trying to get a reaction out of them, and then you sit down and you negotiate,” said district board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji (pictured at left).
Shouldn’t the board be trying to negotiate a win-win solution instead of trying to start a war with our teachers?
Art says:
“To be fair, they were offered Kaiser coverage at no charge, which seems like a great deal.”
Gee, ya think?
Art says: “Ultimately the Santa Ana Unified School District is going to have to learn that bargaining in bad faith is a bad idea.”
I just want to make sure I understand Art clearly: Offering health-care coverage at no charge is “bargaining in bad faith”.
You never answered us: Is it weed or crack you are smoking?
Many districts don’t have a contract, Burbank isn’t the only
one. I’ve worked in San Bernardino USD for 16 years and we
never, ever have a settled contract until May. We don’t have
one again this year. Nothing new. Districts do this so they
can put raises into money market CD’s and earn tons of
interest. Then they cut teachers a measley retro check in
July. Happens every single year.
And the 800-lb pink elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about is WHY the huge increase: Because illegal immigrants treat the emergency room like a 24-hr free clinic & LAUGH when they are handed the bill.
Art welcomes illegal immigrants with open arms & then when they cause health-care rates to skyrocket for those who actually DO pay…..it is the evil employers fault (the SAUSD in this case). Unbelievably amazing!!
TEXTBOOK example of left-wing lack of common sense.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Principal who asked staff to reconsider failing marks to stay
Saddleback High teachers, parents reacted to No Child Left Behind memo.
By FERMIN LEAL
The Orange County Register
SANTA ANA
How much is insurance costing the employer? This most relevant information is missing both here and from the Times article. From the employer’s point of view, they are giving all their employees a raise, most or all of which is going to the insurance companies.
The role of an insurance company is rather odd. Insurance companies make money when you do not get health care.
Employers are faced with stiff increases from the insurance companies, seemingly every year. The whole “health care” industry is strikingly inefficient, and change is needed. But even large employers are too small to affect meaningful change.
The only way any sort of meaningful change can occur is if employees are also effected by the yearly increases demanded by the insurance companies. On the flip side, the best way to maintain the status quo is if employers continue to hide insurance costs from employees.
Since unions often require that employers hide insurance costs from workers, I have to how often union leaders get kickbacks from insurance companies. Another topic …
In this case both the district and the teachers are getting screwed by rising insurance costs. Better that employees be aware of the source of the problem, and can perhaps make informed choices in response.
#4
The illegal immigrant and its American employers dump over $70 billion into Social Security each year — money that will more than likely subsidize you, me and a large chunk of the baby boom generation in our later years.
Here’s the question – these monies, according to your definition, appear to constitute “ill-gotten goods.” Are you prepared to refuse these ill-gotten funds when it comes time for your Social Security benefits to kick in?
Stop and think about all the taxes that are sucked from this segment of the population – gas, retail goods, prepared foods etc.
This is no way an endorsement of illegal immigration and do not construe my comments to suit your argument, however it is a component of the illegal immigration conversation. You want to reduce this discussion to the most simple terms because digging deeper requires you and me to hold a mirror to our collective conscience and the picture is not pretty.
A segment of our society has proffered very well exploiting the undocumented.
This country has never been good to the immigrant – undocumentd or not. As a country we corralled and interred Japanese American citizens. We’ve “stolen” from the American Indian. We displaced the Irish American from the east to Louisana and our treatment of the African American is well documented.
Here’s the bottom line – democracy requires work and the attention of the electorate. It requires compassion. And for those states that border Mexico – an entry for all South American countries – it requires a sense of history and understanding of our geographical neighbors.
Yes, there is an 800-lb pink elephant in the middle of the room, and that elephant is going to subsidize your Social Security benefits from “ill-gotten money.” Are you going to do the right thing and reject any money that comes from the illegal immigrant and its American employer?
The underground economy, which sees billions of wages escaping payroll (and that is primarily Social Security) and income taxes, plus the skyrocketing cost of health care, is going to see government less and less able to pay for health coverage for its employees, retirees and others (such as Medicare). For some reason, it seens to be a badge of honor to skam government out of revenue or services. Sad situation.
Anon 1:06;
Thats a profound statement. Well written and thought out. However, i think a large part of the immigration debate is no more than a Red Herring to divert the public doscourse, discussion and attention away from issues that are much more serious and salient to our daily lives, i.e, war in Iraq, unaffordable housing, healthcare, education quality transportation and fossil fuel dependany etc.
For this reason, I usually stay out of the debate of immigration because I simply see it a s a giant Red Herring and dancing to the tune that a defunct system and midset puts forth as the tune for the day.
barring that, I really liked your post and the points you made.
The real issue is the district mismanages its funds, is sitting on a big reserve- way over what is needed, and then nickels and dimes the teachers instead of bargaining sincerely. Some thanks for getting bailed out two years ago.
So Noji’s way of getting the attention of teachers is to give erroneous, outrageous, and misleading figures? Are we to take it that the strategy used by SAUSD that has been so repugnant to the teachers was her idea? If her idea of getting the attention of District employess is by lowering their morale, getting them good and pissed at the District, and having them lose respect for the school board, I’d say she had successful tactics.
Imagine the cost savings if the 400+ non teaching District administrative employees took a 10% pay cut.
Better yet, have the Board brown bag it and carry a Nalgene bottle like the rest of us.
Does the board provide cute little bottles of water and subway sandwich trays for all the teachers at every school in the district?
I didn’t think so.
Imagine the cost savings if the 400+ non teaching District administrative employees took a 10% pay cut.
>>>>>>>>>> How about that and put them on the Kaiser plan for two years to evaluate it before thrusting it onto teaching staff?
Maybe they are trying to raise money to pay for the new Superintendent
Post # 7 . Excellent comments . #4 is not interested in facts . #4 posts this same argument every chance without regard to the topic being addressed . You , I and others understand #4 ‘s comtempt towards the undocumented .
#7 good post. lest you forget, the American woman was not afforded the right to vote until 1920 – a mere 87 years ago.
As a nation, who do we like? And what’s with the melting pot theory this country has peddled for years?
Art is correct about bad faith bargaining. For the District to propose $845 a month for family PPO, and then a board member comes out and publically states they only did proposed such a high contribution rate so that they could get a “reaction out of them, and then you sit down and negotiate?” Oh really? So Dr. Noji, then why did the District declare impasse? Then put out a flyer implying they may have to “impose” a contract. Now that SAEA has managed to organize its members, suddenly the District is coming back to the table.
As for offering Kaiser for free and what a great deal that is? Please. Kaiser? About 60% of Santa Ana teachers use Blue Cross PPO. So the District offers the HMO and Kaiser at cheaper rates now. Then a large number of teachers leave the PPO and move into the HMO and Kaiser. What happens to the rates of Kaiser and the HMO then?
I think most teachers realize we need to pay some increase for the PPO. But $845? Noji is wrong when she stated they only proposed this to get a “reaction.” SAUSD’s intention was an attempt to kill the PPO.
After teachers sacrificed their salary 3 years ago in order to bail out the District, no way can Santa Ana teachers bail this district out again. I think District officials have seriously underestimated its employees.
No. 18 says …
“After teachers sacrificed their salary 3 years ago in order to bail out the District, no way can Santa Ana teachers bail this district out again. I think District officials have seriously underestimated its employees.”
Noji’s disdain for SAEA is crystal clear – it’s payback time for rebuffing her this past election cycle. Noji has allowed personal and political differences to fuel the acrimonious tenor of the SAEA negotiations.
Noji has endorsed, sanctioned and implemented an era of limited communication. An era fraught with fiscal mismanagement, continued academic slide and riddled with a large number of lawsuits.
Number 19 states: “Noji has endorsed, sanctioned and implemented an era of limited communication. An era fraught with fiscal mismanagement, continued academic slide and riddled with a large number of lawsuits.”
I couldn’t agree more! I really hope that Jane Russo realizes that she needs to clean house. It’s time for a new cabinet in SAUSD.
Unfortunately, we won’t have another school board election until November 2008. And Dr. Noji was just recently reelected to the Board.
Are there “COLA’s” in the teachers and others contracts?
#20
Richardson, Avila and the newest school board member’s terms expire next year. It’s time for Santa Ana voters to give Richardson and Avila the boot!
No. 14 – why don’t you do the math for us, and tell us how much money would be freed up and give us a recommendation on how it should be used? Come to think of it, do it for the entire payroll too, and show us how kids would benefit. That is if your agenda really is to benefit the kids —-
Noji has reached a new low of lunacy by hearalding SAUSD’s negotiation tactics .. “You’re trying to get a reaction out of them, and then you sit down and you negotiate,” said district board member Audrey Yamagata-Noji.
# 21 The answer is no. The District gets a COLA from the state then the employees have to bargain with the District to get what they can.
Santa Ana school board members are elected at-large, which
means they are all from the same small enclave that does not
truly represent the “reality” of Santa Ana. Until at-large
elections are ended, the conservative school board majority
will continue to dominate and decimate Santa Ana schools,
teachers and the youth of the city. At-large elections are a disaster for public
education.
Friday, Feb 23rd, 2007
Local section page 4
Our towns
Superintendent Salary: Santa Ana Unified Trustee