Education in Wicomico County – Is It Really “For the Children”?

The next time you hear a public official, any public official, claim that we need to spend more on education in Wicomico County, grab your wallet and run in the opposite direction.  The Wicomico County Board of Education is worried about catering to its four unions, not about providing a quality education to our children.

Tuesday night I attended my first Wicomico County Board of Education (WCBOE) meeting.  After witnessing the complete disdain in which Wicomico taxpayers are regarded by this merry little band, it won’t be my last.

The reason I chose to attend the meeting was twofold:

• To comment on my extreme disappoint with Superintendent John Fredericksen’s decision to use taxpayer dollars in opposition to County Executive Rick Pollitt’s decision to request a waiver from the state’s Momemtum of Effort (MOE) rule.

• To state my oppositon to the Board’s proposal to increase the taxpayer share of retiree health benefits from 55% to 70%

While there may not appear to be a link between the two issues, in fact there is a very strong tie.  The majority of the WCBOE seem to be far more concerned with appeasing their “bargaining units” (government jargon for the teachers’ union, administrators union, classified employees’ union, and maintenance / custodial union) than in ensuring a quality education for our children or being faithful stewards of our tax dollars.

According to the board’s self-proclaimed fiscal conservative – Brian Kilgore – this proposal isn’t going to cost the taxpayers any money.  This is only one area where Kilgore and I differ on this subject.  Approximately $357,000 (of the estimated $430,000 that this benefit will cost NEXT year) is to come from “savings” that are to come from merging the Salisbury, Wicomico County, and WCBOE plans.  These “savings” are the taxpayers’ money.

If the seven members of the WCBOE were truly concerned about the taxpayers of this county they would have done two things:

1. Forbade Supt. Fredericksen from opposing the county’s request for an MOE waiver.
2. Implemented the savings in the employee health plan (along with several other available savings) WITHOUT increasing retiree healthcare benefits.

Of course, that was NEVER going to happen.  What’s more important; putting $357,000 into the county’s classrooms or kowtowing to the four employee unions?  Board members Michelle Wright, Mark Thompson, Tyrone Chase, and Brian Kilgore answered that question by voting for the bureaucracy.  Only Board President Robin Holloway voted in favor of the taxpayer.  Susan Hitch and Ron Willey abstained because of conflicts (Hitch works for CareFirst, Willey is a WCBOE retiree and handpicked by Del. Norm Conway to serve on the Board).

Some of you may think that $357,000 is just too small an amount to worry about in a budget the size the WCBOE’s.  You certainly have a right to your opinion.  However, this amount will be growing each and every year.  We were told by board members supporting this measure that IF the savings don’t materialize or IF they aren’t large enough to pay for this benefit increase that the benefit increase will be rescinded.  Ask yourself IF you can remember the last time any government rescinded a benefit.

What is even more startling is the very fact that the WCBOE claims that it cannot perform common sense tasks on behalf of the taxpayer without the consent of their employees.  Think about it for a moment; when was the last time your employer asked YOUR PERMISSION to make changes to your health benefits?  Unless you work for the government the answer is probably NEVER.  Yet, you are are expected to pay for assault on your wallet.

A starting teacher in Wicomico County is paid $42,140 for NINE MONTHS of work.  Annualized, that comes to over $56,000 per year!  Where else is someone fresh out of college going to get that kind of pay?

An employee of the WCBOE has the most generous health benefit around.  The taxpayer picks up 90% of the cost of that benefit for the employee and 73% of the extra cost if they have dependents.  If you are fortunate enough to receive healthcare coverage from YOUR employer, how much do you have to pay?

Yet, the WCBOE claims that they can’t implement savings on behalf of you and I unless the four employee unions agree.  It’s a vicous cycle that the taxpayer continues to fund because a group of appointees, wholly unaccountable to the local taxpayer, are told that they need to in order to provide a good education for the county’s kids.  And guess who keeps telling them that foolishness?  You guessed it, the same teachers, administrators and staff that benefit from a never ending cycle of taxpayer funded wage inflation.

It’s time for the members of the WCBOE to start standing up for their fellow citizens and stop caving in to the unions.  It’s time for County Executive Rick Pollitt and our county council to start standing up to the WCBOE.

 

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