Unions Coddle New York's Academics

Forget that taxpayers are being crushed by reckless government spending. Forget, for example in New York State, that they are being ground under by  a $9.2 billion budget deficit for the newly begun fiscal year. As the AAUP has just reported, professors' salaries last year increased by 1.2 percent. Yet in the New York, the state-financed SUNY and CUNY systems are enjoying a pay hike of 3 percent -- and another 4 percent this summer. Forget, in other words, a nod from these academics about what needs to done for the common good. Disgraceful.