Schools Districts may have the power to lower teacher wages 30%, beyond limiting raises.

As the story originally appeared in the Journal Sentinel, it looked like Scott Walker was attempting to change the base salary teacher raises could be calculated from.

jsonline: The rule change would not use an individual's actual salary as a "base salary" to calculate raises and would exclude factors such as a teacher's higher degree … lower inflation-based raises that public unions can negotiate by 30% or more for teachers in public schools and technical colleges. Walker ordered changes to the rules that would limit base wages to exclude pay given to workers such as teachers to reflect factors such as having a graduate degree.

But now the story has taken an even uglier turn; districts may be able to lower actual wages to the lower pre-education wages, separate from the issue of raises. If districts wanted too, they could lower a teacher’s wages by around 30%.

Check it out at Sly in the Morning:

The spin he's generated everywhere has effectively taken the spotlight off the assault, convincing even the state's largest newspaper, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, in to believing that the measure only affects pay increases.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and listen to the evidence from attorney Tim Hawks who's handling the situation on behalf of Wisconsin's teachers' unions.  

We now have 1500 fewer teachers than last year, do to Walker's tools, without any layoffs. This new wrinkle will do exactly what?