More Than Money

The rhetorical volleys exchanged in the battles over collective bargaining in such states as Ohio and Wisconsin have aimed straight for the gut. When governors and legislators have proposed bills to strip the collective bargaining rights of public employees -- a group that in those and other states includes faculty members -- supporters of these bills have framed the situation in two dire words: "We're broke."

In response, the rebuttals have heaped scorn on the authors of such measures, or more precisely, "shame," as the refrain went Thursday in Ohio after the state Senate passed its bill.