Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s handouts before leaving office are burdening next year’s education budget, and the ultimate victim this time will be college students.
Not only did Patrick saddle Gov. Charlie Baker with a $765 million budget deficit, he also handed out sweetheart raises to public state university faculty and staff.
Now, the universities are protesting the 2.4 percent increase in funding for next year that the Baker administration is offering them.
“The strange process that happens with collective bargaining and higher education is that the governor’s office through the administration of finance secretary essentially establishes what the salaries are going to be. Then tells the campuses to go negotiate,” state Secretary of Education James Peyser told Boston Herald Radio yesterday. “The concept seems a bit backwards.”
The collective bargaining agreements reportedly will cost state universities in 2016 about $9 million. Patrick’s generosity with your tax dollars is to blame.
“In the past administration they set pretty generous salary increases and the campuses were essentially stuck with the bill,” Peyser said. “So I don’t totally blame the campuses for the bill they have been handed.”
Patrick was doling out taxpayer cash on the way out, and not only did he know he wouldn’t have to deal with these raises, he ended up saddling his Republican successor with the bill.
“Let’s face it, the prior administration had a closer relationship with the union than the current one does,” Peyser said, “and they probably felt the path of least resistance was to give them a good raise.”
If the state universities don’t get more funding from Beacon Hill they say they’ll need to raise fees for students or cut programs.
What about the moral obligation of protecting young students who are seeking higher education? The best path should be offering affordable higher education, not pleasing union bosses.
Baker shouldn’t budge. The state can’t keep handing out money it doesn’t have. The governor should send a strong message to unions who have helped cause these problems.
We have to stop letting unions hold our public schools hostage. When did it become acceptable for teachers and administrators to care more about their salaries and job security than their students’ basic right to a good education?
That needs to end now.
Jaclyn Cashman co-hosts “Morning Meeting” from 9 a.m. to noon on Boston Herald Radio.
Copyright © 2024 Jaclyn Cashman.
