The idea had more holes than Swiss cheese. Would we have heartlessly kicked out the currently enrolled sons and daughters of teachers? If we only prevented new enrollments, wouldn’t that mean that budget savings would only accumulate several years down the road, after the economy and tax receipts had already recovered?

Leave alone the logistics – the proposal was a cold-hearted attack that was only entertained, if briefly, because it was directed at perceived “outsiders.” They’re not like me.

Thankfully, the plan never gained support.

Sadly, across the nation, those who attack public employee unions have taken up this strategy of demonizing the “other.” Just as out-of-town students were not responsible for Wayland’s budget woes, teacher, police, and other government worker unions cannot be blamed for state or federal deficits.

The numbers can’t lie. Teacher pay doesn’t cause deficits; depressed tax revenue, thanks to the recession, does. Generous pensions aren’t responsible for pension fund shortfalls; pension fund investments in a collapsing stock market are.

Sure, there are more than a handful of examples of well-paid government officials who did very little for the public good, were paid extravagantly, and retired at age 50 with a lavish pension. While such cases are definitely cause for outrage, do not be misled by these aberrations. Public employee unions are not the real budget busters.

Why, then, are (primarily conservative) politicians launching an all out war on public sector unions? It is for the same reason that some proposed banning Wayland teachers from bringing their kids to Wayland: it is politically acceptable to demonize and lay blame on a segment of the population to which most feel no connection.

Such attacks on minorities have occurred countless times in history. Both sides of the political spectrum, from Nazi all the way to Communist, have been responsible. (American liberals, most recently, in the demonization of Wall Street.)

Never has it once been anything but a political tool to avoid an uncomfortable reality or tough choices. Today is no different.

Critics who denounce public employee unions simply because they are easy targets and provide a distraction from the real causes of America’s debt problem need to stop. We’ve got bigger problems.