The Texas legislature is now in session to consider hundreds of bills filed for various wish lists driven by vested interests.
A +400,000 member dysfunctional voting block with the most important job on the planet of raising our kids outside the home has been sorely represented for years, cast aside as pesky and whiney constituents. “Stay in the classroom and shut up!” seems to be the unspoken message. “We are taking care of you the best we can. Be happy!”
It’s no wonder turn-over in Texas education is higher than ever. The grass is greener on the other side.
Texas public school employees have effectively become second class citizens earning less each year. The TRS ActiveCare government health plan for Texas public school districts steals from annual raises through higher health insurance premiums while further eroding paychecks through benefit reductions. More than 400,000 Texas school employees have effectively become difunctionally uninsured.
No one is Austin seems to notice or care. Instead of addressing root causes of rising health care costs Texas legislators have done little despite proven market driven solutions in front of their very own eyes.
TRS ActiveCare bureaucrats continue to put lipstick on a pig, content to continue with business as usual, hoping to hang on to their paychecks and their eroding benefits until retirement. They don’t dare rock the boat. No one has ever been fired for clinging to 40 years of failed managed care strategies memorialized by recognizable logos.
Someone needs to sponsor a bill mandating the state’s government health plan to consider proven market driven options that reduce health insurance costs while improving benefits at the same time. This is the only way to move TRS ActiveCare bureaucrats off dead center.
Is there a Marylyn Bartlett in the room? Now is the time to act. Will someone step forward to help Texas educators? Is anyone in Austin listening?
