WHEREAS, The House Republican Caucus launched attacks against public school employee pension and health care benefits under the guise of "cost containment" by passing HR 14, a resolution stating the intent of the House to address the rising cost of health benefits and pensions in education; and

WHEREAS, House Resolution 14 places most of the blame for the financial crisis our school districts are facing on rising labor costs, including health insurance and pension benefits; and

WHEREAS, The Senate is currently considering Senate Bills 55 and 56 calling for an appointed board to be created in the Department of Civil Service to determine the only health benefit plans that can be offered by school districts and community colleges in Michigan, with universities having the option to participate; and

WHEREAS, This legislation also takes away the right of K-12 and community college employees, to freely bargain with their employers over what benefits will be offered; and

WHEREAS, For more than 25 years school districts and community colleges and their employees have made adjustments in total compensation to offset rising health care costs; and

WHEREAS, In the same time period the share of total expenditures going to all compensation items for instructional employees (the area with the highest organized members) dropped by 1.84 percent while the share going to their health type benefits rose by 1.81 percent; and

WHEREAS, Attacking school employee benefits will do nothing to address the real issue of escalating costs of medical care for all United States citizens; and

WHEREAS, The majority leaders in the Senate decided to spend $281,700 of tax payers money to study investigating the feasibility and cost savings of placing all public school and community college employees into a statewide pool for the purpose of health care coverage; and

WHEREAS, The Michigan Federation of Teachers opposes eliminating collective bargaining rights for health care and establishing state-run education employee health care; NOW THEREFORE BE IT

Resolved: The Michigan Federation of Teachers & School Related Personnel opposes Senate Bills 55 and 56 and will continue lobbying efforts in Lansing to assure that health care and pension benefits for school employees are preserved.