Lest anyone think that Gov. Scott Walker's push to break Wisconsin's public employee unions is a stand-alone idea, an automated call we received tonight should help clear that up.
It's from one of those nefarious national right-wing advocacy groups no one ever heard of before, bringing their poisonous message right into your home or voicemail. When last heard from, this particular front group was trying to stop Americans from getting access to affordable health care
The 60-second call from the League of American Voters made it clear that trampling the rights of teachers and their unions is at the top of the to-do list if Walker's bill passes.
This is not exact transcript. but contains all of the key language form the call:
This is an important Legislative alert. The League of American Voters strongly supports the limits on public employee unions Gov. Walker is proposing.
Wisconsin and other states need to balance budgets and cut spending. It is only fair to ask workers to pay more for pension and health insurance; we all have to make sacrifices.
If Gov Walker can limit bargaining to just wages and benefits (a lie, since he wants to eliminate everything but wages -- Xoff), "we can be free to implement key reforms in our schools.
We need to reform teacher tenure, replace seniority-based pay with merit pay so we can reward good teachers and hold the others accountable, and we need to let parents send their children to school of their choice. if we need layoffs we have to be sure that our best teachers can be protected and principals can make layoffs on the basis of merit, not seniority. The union agreement expressly prohibits these key reforms.
So Gov. Walker's plan will make it possible to put our children first.
It ends by urging calls to Walker and state leggies to support his bill.
Scary stuff. Let us lay off the trouble-making activists, let school choice replace public schools, let us pay our favorites more.
And this is just for starters. Any more doubts about what's at stake?