Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/editorials/stories/2007/11/17/Robins_MUST_SAT_ART_11-17-07_A13_8V8G7FM.html?sid=101

Editorials
LETTERS

Taxpayers need to keep an eye on their schools' purse strings
Saturday, November 17, 2007 3:38 AM

As a local employee-benefit broker who for the past 18 years has watched how school systems in Ohio negotiate for employee benefits, I feel compelled to begin a public debate in response to the Nov. 8 Dispatch article, ''Levies getting hard to pass.''
It has been my experience that when school systems fail to pass tax levies, the debate usually centers on certain expenses to be cut. These tend to hurt the students, such as reducing faculty, charging for or taking away certain sport activities or taking away extracurricular activities such as field trips or the arts. There tends not to be a public discussion regarding what could be a gold mine of opportunity to correct an expense item that is out of line and inefficient.
Most school systems are influenced by the collective-bargaining power that teacher unions use to keep their health-insurance benefits rich. Not many school-system superintendents or school boards have the power to counteract collective bargaining in this area. Rarely has this item been a source of public debate.
If the taxpayers only knew how rich and how expensive the health-insurance coverage is for schoolteachers, there would be a public backlash against the teachers union.


By Ahead of her time

Continued ahead of her time

It used to be that certain populations in the work force were grossly underpaid and that rich benefits were used to attract talent. Back in the 1970s, the cost of health insurance was not as much of a factor. Over the past 10 years, the cost of health-insurance coverage has tripled. Today, it might cost more than $10,000 per year per teacher, on average, for health-insurance coverage.
Unlike most of the working class, schoolteachers, on average, might pay for only 5 percent to 10 percent of the cost of health coverage through payroll deductions. The rest of us pay, on average, 30 percent of the cost of health coverage, and our benefits are less rich. Teachers' co-pays for office visits and drugs are lower, deductibles are lower or even nonexistent, their co-insurance is richer and their out-of-pocket maximum exposure is lower than the rest of us.
As most of us pay more for less health-insurance coverage every year, teachers have been insulated from that experience, resulting in a huge disparity. Further, teachers have resisted some of the basic cost-maintenance strategies such as health-and-wellness programs and health-consumerism education.
Some help might be on the way, as over the past several years there have been studies and recommendations on this issue provided by collaborative efforts between representatives of Ohio schools systems and Ohio government. However, outcomes of that effort have not yielded mandates to cut health benefits. They have recommended optional best practices to control the rising cost of health coverage, with no teeth if recommendations are not met.
Not until the taxpayers in each school district demand town-hall meetings where full disclosure of plan designs and transparency on the cost of health insurance for teachers is revealed will there be any movement on this issue. If corrective measures occur in this area for any given school district, there could be a gold mine of resources that become available to help students and to help avoid future tax levies.
At the end of the day, I believe the taxpayers of each district are the boss, and they, in effect, sign the paychecks for teachers who serve at the pleasure of the taxpayers.
Wake up, taxpayers. You have been signing a blank check for too long as it pertains to schoolteacher health-insurance benefits. It might be time to exert your power as the boss.
DANIEL S. ROBINS

Columbus