I went to a teacher retirement seminar today with my wife, and a speaker for the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Education Association) retired members began to criticize the massive budget cuts proposed by Governor Tom Corbett which will lead to large scale teacher layoffs. The liberal bias against Tom Corbett was predictable and he was speaking to mostly a Democrat crowed, but I don’t think he was expecting me to publicly interrupt him, taking umbrage at his assumptions and his attempt to use a retirement information seminar to promote a political agenda. However, I spoke with a former legislator at the seminar, Steven Nickol, who confirmed my assessment: since 1998, the state and the school districts have failed to contribute an adequate amount to fund their pension liabilities of the retirees in the state, both teachers and other public employees. In fact, former Governor Rendell took a budget surplus and blew it on pet projects, stadiums, and mismanaged transportation systems in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia instead of using that surplus to shore up the state employee retirement benefit system. So, for the last two democratic administrations, Rendell and Casey, persistent financial mismanagement of state and municipal retirement pension systems has led to a massive budget shortfall. These democratic administrations did not require the school districts to stay current with their retirement contributions either, leaving the state system with a large unfunded liability. This shortfall has forced school districts and the state into such a deficit that severe cost cutting is required. In fact, because the school districts have to make up their shortfalls and because the state cannot bail everyone out, many teachers are going to be laid off. But it is not only unjust but disingenuous to blame Corbett for this situation. He inherited the consequences of years of financial mismanagement. You might even say that the layoffs, and the budget crisis that is affecting the school districts, are the direct result of democratic administrations’ fiscal irresponsibility for the past twelve years.

So now someone has to be the adult in the room and tell all the children that they cannot have everything they want. It is very painful. It is going to hurt teaching. It is going to be a real problem. But when you have been living on credit card debt for years and the repo man comes to take your stuff away, you are forced to cut back whether you want to or not.