So my right-wing boss's #1 issue is "thegoddamngreedybastardteachersunion!!" and I'd like to be able to tear him a new one with facts and figures but I usually fall short.
The state in question is Oregon, Multnomah County in particular and Portland specifically. My boss claims that if teachers would accept a 15% wage cut than the school's budget would be balanced and (according to him) you would automatically purge the greedy lazy bastards from the system and the only ones left would be the ones willing to work for less because they love the kids so much. Now normally I come back at him with vague lefty stuff about how you shouldn't balance the budget on the backs of workers and all that. What I'd like to be able to do is point to a state that cut teacher's wages and saw their education product go down. I'd also like some good info debunking the idea of charter schools as the magic-bullet to solve all education problems.
I'm not trying to be lazy here, I'll be googling away and posting updates if I find some good stuff. I just figured there might be some people here who know this stuff cold and could point me in the right direction. Plus I think this is a standard kitchen table debate that we could all use some help with. Thanks.