M.D. Kittle writes at WisconsinReporter.com:
While a lightning rod for controversy and recall, Wisconsin's Act 10 has paid significant dividends to taxpayers, according to a new analysis by the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research, at Suffolk University in Boston. Act 10, which curbed collective bargaining for most unionized public employees, in the whole has saved taxpayers more than $1 billion, according to The Economic Impacts of the Wisconsin Budget Repair Act. [...] BHI also found that, by not raising taxes to cover the $3.6 billion budget gap, the state prevented the loss of 11,500 to 14,000 private sector jobs “by keeping more money in the hands of households and businesses.” More so, the cost savings, according to the institute, helped spare as many as 6,500 public sector jobs that faced the budget ax in the absence of the Budget Repair bill.
There was evidence from the beginning of Walker's reforms actually saved teachers jobs, and the new study (which can be read here) confirms those reports. Indeed, districts where collective bargaining agreements are still in effect have
According to the MacIver Institute, a conservative think tank, the school districts of Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Racine—all of which are still operating under collective bargaining agreements—make up 13.3 percent of the state’s educational staff but accounted for 42.5 percent of staff reductions