Yesterday’s Detroit News had a story titled “Schools push retire, rehire”, by Shawn Lewis.  In it, he describes an effort being pushed by the Hazel Park School District, and other schools (including the Oakland County ISD).  Hazel Park claims they can save $2 million by getting folks to retire, and then rehire them as contractors at a fraction of the cost.

This is just another financial shell game, which seems more and more common in government these days.  In a shell game, there are three cups.  The scammer hides a ball under one of the cups, moves it around, and a victim bets which cup the ball is under.  When the scammer lifts the cup, the victim invariably asks “where’s the ball?”.  It obviously didn’t just disappear.

Hazel Park and other school districts are revealing they’re magically saving millions of dollars – and keeping teachers or administrators in the process.  That money is placed under a cup, and the school boards move the cups around.  When we lift the cup - the money’s gone!  See?  No change in service, and we realize all sorts of savings on the school district’s budget.

But the ball didn’t disappear.  So I ask – “where did it go?”  It’s just under another cup – the “state pension” cup.  These people didn’t just agree to take a substantial paycut.  They’re also taking home cash and health benefits from the state pension fund.  There are no real savings here.  Hazel Park’s $2 million savings are coming out of the state pensions.

I can’t exactly tell who the scammer is – is it the school boards and superintendents?  Is it the state government, unions, and pension fund?  All I know is that we’re being scammed.  Is it legal?  Yeah, but we (the taxpayers) are going to be on the line for this money eventually.  Today the school districts are saving money by playing games.  The next time we’ll be bailing out the state pension fund.  When that day comes, will we play another financial shell game?  Let’s stop this insanity now by being reasonable, rational adults and making the decisions and cuts necessary to run our little governments.