By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

PHILADELPHIA – Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten has penned an open letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking him to pressure Pennsylvania state officials to cough up more money for Philadelphia schools.

Weingarten would have been better off leaving a sticky message for herself – remind Philadelphia teachers union leaders that their last collective bargaining agreement was far too expensive for the district, and labor concessions will be absolutely necessary to put the district back on a healthy financial foundation.

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Everyone knows time is running short for the Philadelphia school district to close its projected $304 million budget deficit and avoid the permanent layoff of 3,859 employees.

School officials say they need $120 million from the state, $60 million from the city and millions in concessions from the teachers union to avoid starting the school year with a much leaner academic program and much smaller staff.

Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wants to put the entire responsibility on taxpayers. She joined union puppet Diane Ravitch in penning the following paragraphs to Duncan, according to CrooksandLiars.com.

“Philadelphia’s children will lose art, music, physical education, libraries and the rich learning environments they need and deserve. Everything that helps inspire and engage students will be gone. The schools will lose social workers, school nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals and teachers. Classrooms will be more crowded, denying children the attention they need.

“Sports and extracurricular activities will be gutted as well as other after school programs that help keep kids safe and engaged. And children will be denied the social, emotional and health services they need. All of these cuts, on top of the mass school closings, have a disproportionate effect on African-American students, English language learners and students from low income families.

“On behalf of the students, educators and families of Philadelphia, we ask you to publicly intervene. Reach out to Gov. Corbett and the state Legislature to seek additional funding for Philadelphia’s schools. Do not let them die. The children of Philadelphia need your help. Do not let them down.”

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What a sham.

Weingarten really wants the district to get more state money so it can continue to give teachers and other staff members unaffordable raises and benefits. This has nothing to do with the welfare of students. It has everything to do with maintaining goodies for union members.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, AFT’s local branch, has already indicated that it will not make concessions to help the district dig itself out of the financial hole. That’s very sickening, considering the union’ last contract helped the district dig the hole in the first place.

The union contract forced the district to pay the following amounts of money in a recent school year:

$165 million for employee health insurance (with only $275,000 contributed by employees), $15.3 million for termination and severance pay, $23.6 million on extra pay for those who oversee extracurricular activities, $7.1 million for wage continuation pay, $66 million toward the employee Health and Welfare Fund, $14.4 million for a general three percent raise, $2.6 million for a personal legal services fund for employees, $579,457 for teacher college tuition reimbursement , and $25 million for substitute teachers due to a very generous paid absence policy.

We figured that trimming or cutting those costs alone would save the district $135 million in a single year. That would be nearly half of what it needs to erase its deficit.

The people of Philadelphia must stop viewing everything through union -shaded glasses that make union officials appear to be the good guys. The teachers union has been bleeding the school district dry for years, and the debt problem will not go away until labor costs are properly corralled.