Psssst. Scott Walker's Cuts in Wisconsin are Working

At this point, anyone on the left that continues to attack Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is one of two things: a lemming or someone so completely prideful that they're unwilling to admit the truth. Walker's plan is working. The public sector is being forced to balance its books in Wisconsin and it is doing so successfully. The best part? There was no substantial cut in services. In fact, some schools have actually - are you sitting down - decided to look at meritocracy and paying teachers based on performance in order to make up the difference.

Christian Schneider at NRO has more. Check out the reaction of Walker's Democrat opponent in the last election, Tom Barrett, who is also Milwaukee's mayor:

Recently, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted that under Walker’s plan to require greater health-care and pension contributions from government employees, the City of Milwaukee actually comes out $11 million ahead — contravening Mayor Tom Barrett’s March prediction that Walker’s budget “just makes our structural deficit explode.” Barrett, who lost to Walker in the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election, refuses to give the governor any credit for helping him balance his city’s books, instead complaining that Walker’s plan to curb collective bargaining went too far.

How about that meritocracy idea?

Yet many governments are putting the collective-bargaining rollback to good use. In suburban Milwaukee, the Brown Deer school district is implementing a plan to allow performance pay for its best teachers. “No Wisconsin public-school district has ever had the opportunity in any of our lifetimes to even think about these things,” said Brown Deer Public Schools finance director Emily Koczela in an interview with a local television station. “We’re looking at understanding what effective teaching is, how to measure it in the children’s point of view, and how to reward teachers that consistently turn in a performance that’s better than the norm,” added Koczela.

One of the arguments against Obamacare and health insurance reform was that we should allow open markets across state lines. Here is that idea being applied to a school district. Go figure, making insurance companies compete for business.

In Appleton, the collective-bargaining reforms allowed the school district there to save $3 million by bidding for health care on the open market. Previously, the district had been required to purchase health insurance from WEA Trust, which is affiliated with the state’s largest teachers’ union. When the Appleton School District put their health-insurance contract up for bid, WEA Trust magically lowered their rates, saying they would match any competitor’s price — a sign they had been fleecing local taxpayers for years.

As Schneider points out, this is all being done through the right kind of 'shared sacrifice.'

Read it all.