A few years ago, a friend, who happened to be a retiring Dixon school teacher, confided to me that he felt “a little guilty” in collecting his, and I quote, “embarrassingly generous” retirement package.

Over the years and unbeknown to most of the public, educators, facilitated by weak or biased school boards and an extremely powerful political lobby, have negotiated incredibly lucrative contracts.

Unfortunately, these unsustainable “deals with the devil” are vampiring close to 85 percent of institutional working capital, afflicting taxpayers and coming at the expense of their students by loss of programs, services (Bi-County, etc.), and increased fees.