Dori: Teacher strikes are a criminal conspiracy to rip off taxpayers
Aug 20, 2018, 3:43 PM | Updated: 5:16 pm
(AP)
(AP)
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve heard about threatened teacher strikes in Mukilteo, Tukwila, Kent, Seattle, and on and on. The teachers say that they don’t just want, but need, more money.
All of this comes down to a prediction we made when the McCleary Decision was first coming down from the State Supreme Court. I said that this would be leveraged into the biggest taxpayer rip-off — other than Sound Transit — in the history of the state. Let me explain this to you — I have stuff you are not going to get anywhere else in the media.
By the way, there are many, many, wonderful teachers in this state. They touch the lives of students like my three daughters. There are a lot of fantastic individual teachers and I appreciate all that they do. This is not a critique of individual teachers.
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But the teachers unions — whether the Seattle Education Association or the statewide Washington Education Association — are the most corrosive public agencies in all of public life because they will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want. Teacher strikes are illegal in our state. You know that and I know that.
When Bob Ferguson incorrectly believes that a florist in the Tri-Cities has violated a Civil Rights Commission rule, he will try to destroy that business and sue that woman into oblivion. But when the educators clearly violate state law through teacher strikes, Bob Ferguson won’t do a thing about that, because he wants to be governor and needs the votes of the teachers.
The teachers plead poverty, but they are very well-paid. On average, according to state government documents, teachers in our state are paid $65 an hour, including benefits. The average working citizen who pays their salaries makes $38 an hour, with benefits. But the teachers are telling us they need more and more and more. The reason for this is that the Edmonds teachers got a double-digit raise, so the other school districts feel they should have raises too.
They told us that the reason they needed to raise our property taxes by billions of dollars was to reduce class sizes. But in Seattle, class sizes will not be reduced. They just want to get more money for the teachers. Even the Seattle Times points out in an editorial that this fire hose of property tax money will not continue. What the teachers want to do is lock in a salary level now that they know that it’s not sustainable. They want to lock it in now with no source of funding down the road.
And by the way, if you are a teacher and you hate the union, opt out. You can legally do that now. Get away from this criminal racket that does not care about the children, and stop pretending that you care about the children if you’re just repeating the union mantra. The union just wants to break the bank of the taxpayers.
What you’re hearing is validation for tuning in to our show. We predicted every single thing that is happening right now with this criminal agency that is the WEA, our criminal attorney general, and a criminal conspiracy to rip-off taxpayers for billions of dollars using the force of government.
