 saving money do it for the children unions exist for one reason to serve their members well one other thing to give money to democrats their purpose doesn t include the welfare of the industry they supposedly serve including schoolchildren this is not to say that teachers don rsquo t care about students that is not at all what i rsquo m saying but the union representatives exist to squeeze every dime out of whomever they are negotiating with for the benefit of their members in this case those dimes come from you and i according to the mackinac center for public policy  health care plans for michigan teachers in 20082009 were 39 percent higher than the statewide average the average teacher contribution to is four percent so their union has been serving them well at the cost of taxpayers as michael van beek notes michigan taxpayers now spend 2 billion per year or 1250 per pupil for school employee health insurance john stossel s column last week dovetails with this idea of expensive per student cost with little benefit since 1980 government spending on education adjusted for inflation has nearly doubled but test scores have been flat for decades today we spend a stunning 11000 a year per student more than 200000 per classroom it s not working house speaker andy dillon a democrat has proposed including public employees teachers included be handled by the same state commission estimated to save 900 million less of course government projections of money saved are always wrong cough stimulus bill cough would is save money yes it probably would occasionally a democrat has a good idea bravo keep them coming mr van beek has a better idea if all school employees were enrolled in consumerdriven health plans such as a highdeductible health savings account mackinac center analysts estimate that schools could save at least 450 million in just one year over the course of a decade those savings could grow to 26 billion states like indiana are already reaping the benefits from moving public employees into hsas yet only 19 michigan school districts have hsa plans for their teachers i highly doubt this idea will ever come to fruition because the michigan education association arguably the state s most powerful union will oppose it but it is important to keep these ideas coming eventually we may have enough people in the legislature to make it happen  