K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: The Self-Sabotage Of The Teachers’ Unions.

What is the biggest obstacle to giving teachers a raise? It’s not, as many Democrats and teachers’ unions suggest, Republican plutocrats looking to cut funding for schools and children. (Per-student spending on K-12 has risen steadily over the last two decades). The real challenge is one of the unions and their political allies’ own making: The debt accumulated by mismanaged public sector pension funds. . . .

The findings represent a typical example of the way outdated blue model governance all-too-often hurts the people it was designed to protect. State legislatures have over-promised pension benefits, and politicized union-backed investment funds have mismanaged the money they do have. The result is that there aren’t enough funds set aside to cover the pensions guaranteed to retired teachers, so states need to dig deep into younger teachers’ pay to cover them. If pensions had been accounted for accurately and managed competently all along, teachers could be making an average of 15 percent more money today.
Meanwhile, teachers’ unions are resistant to any kind of reform that would change the way teachers save for retirement. This means that teachers’ wages will stay low (discouraging talented young people from entering the profession) to the benefit of those few veteran retired-teachers who can collect generous payouts—at least, until the whole Ponzi scheme goes bust.

Needless to say, the current system does not serve the public interest.

To be fair, it was never actually meant to, except in passing. And, yeah, all is proceeding as I have foretold.