Adapt Or Die: Wisconsin Teachers Adjusting To Lost Pay and Benefits

Starting Friday, Racine Unified teachers Keith Kohlmann and his wife, Nancy Gibson, will collectively earn $14,000 less in pay and benefits per year.

In addition, their health insurance deductible will skyrocket from $2,000 to $8,000 before the district’s self-funded insurance plan will start paying at 80 percent. And with Gibson having survived cancer last year, she made a point to get needed tests done before the hike.

“Keith was relieved. Not just because my tests came back negative for cancer, but he let out this sigh and that’s when he told me that after July 1 we essentially wouldn’t have insurance, instead we’ll have this high deductible plan,” Gibson said.

How The Budget Cuts Trickled Down

Gov. Scott Walker (R) Wisconsin signed the state budget into law on Sunday, which goes into effect on Friday. Walker’s budget aimed to fill a projected $3.6 billion deficit in the biennial state budget. To fill the gap, the state defunded the Racine Unified School District by reducing their state shared revenue amount by $25 million.

To fill the hole in the school districts’ biennial budget, in March six unions agreed to give the District what the then budget proposal asked for - a wage freeze, paying 5.8 percent of their salary to fund their pensions and moving to a high deductable plan.

Dr. Jim Shaw, superintendent for the Racine Unified School District, said the cuts the district’s employees agreed to in contract negotiations saved the district $18 million.

“But the trade off is, our employees’ benefits are now less than the state’s plan,” Shaw said. “And the effect on the district budget has been traumatic.”

The effect on the Kohlmann family finances has also been traumatic.

For Kohlmann and Gibson that meant they stopped buying anything they could do without. They canceled planned vacations, stopped hiring people to help with work around the house, and opted for maintaining their cars instead of buying new ones. They'll also be paying $600 to $700 a month for Gibsons prescriptions until their deductible is met.

Despite his family’s financial uncertainty, Kohlmann accepts this new reality.

“It hurts to take that kind of cut,” he said. “But at the same time, the business world is seeing the same cuts because health insurance costs are increasing 12 to 15 percent a year. With no end in sight, everyone is getting hit with this.”

Budget cuts dilute technical education program

Kohlmann is also aware of Racine’s growing population of kids living in poverty. Kohlmann is a Career and Technical Education teacher at Mitchell Middle School, which had 28 percent of the student population living at or below poverty level 15 years ago. Now, 78 percent of the kids are living in poverty. The district also has the highest percentage of students in poverty with 58 percent of the 21,000 students receiving free and reduced lunches.

Over those years, he’s seen a decline in parent participation.

“When I have an open house or a parent/teacher conference and 5 percent of the parents are showing up, something is wrong,” Kohlmann said.

Kohlmann also teaches a pre-Engineering curriculum called "Gateway to Technology," which is part of the National Science Foundation's Project Lead the Way. Racine Unified is considered one of the top technology schools in the country. This year, five Horlick students brought home engineering and drafting medals at a state SKILLS USA competition and a Park High School student earned first place in the country. The kids in the program are “career ready” and some have even earned college credits from the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

But Kohlmann’s main concern isn’t getting recognition. He’s concerned with how the program will survive. The budget deficit meant cuts to support staff that helped him run the program – the people who organize machinery repair, the people that did the purchasing, and the person who coordinated a career awareness day. And the workload is too much for him to do all on his own.

And that means the program will not likely be the same as it is now.

Angry, but grateful

For Kohlmann, it’s difficult to hear the rationale from Republican state Legislators that public education is failing and cuts are necessary while also funding the expansion of the school voucher program to include the Racine Unified School District.

“It does make me angry, but I try not to focus on the anger,” he said. “When we were protesting against Walker…. Republicans were pulling in driving their Lexus and Mercdes. People were giving us the finger and yelling ‘God bless, Walker.’

Instead, he focuses on adapting.

Kohlmann says he’s not wallowing in self-pity. He’ll find ways to manage. He and Gibson believe in public education. They are in it for the long haul, and they will find a way to teach his kids. He’ll also adjust his curriculum to the reality of the resources available.

But he's also working to expand his skills to prepare for a career change, just in case he's laid off. 

“I’m learning this from my wife, who says, ‘You either have to adapt or you die.’”

For Kohlmann, the answer to all of this mess is pretty clear: "it’s the golden rule: Love thy neighbor… if we have no community, what have we got?"