(The following is re-posted by permission from Info Tech and Telecom News. IT&T News is a project of the Heartland Institute.)

By Bruce Walker

An epic of Hollywood proportions has been playing out in Washington DC this year, with the climax due next week when the Federal Communications Commission convenes for its final 2010 monthly meeting.

This epic traverses several cinematic genres and includes equal parts spaghetti Western, horror, science fiction, political intrigue, courtroom drama, and pugilism—this hodgepodge of a film inevitably will make no one happy and possesses minimal entertainment value.

In Act One, our intrepid hero—let’s call him Julius Genachowski, former Harvard Law School chum of the U.S. President—rises from relative obscurity to head a shadowy government agency with no publicly known purpose. Seeking to claim a scintilla of relevance as head of this group—we’ll call it the FCC—Genachowski adopts the principles and strategies of his former law school buddies, Ivy League elitists, and another FCC commissioner, the crusty and crafty Michael J. Copps. The sought-after “McGuffin,” as director Alfred Hitchcock would call it, in this case is the concept popularly known as network neutrality.

With his powerful allies and ideological commitment, Genachowski meets resistance in an encounter with the DC Federal Appeals Court, which swats down the FCC for attempting to impose net neutrality regulations on Comcast.

Act Two: Defeated but still determined, Genachowski reanimates the net neutrality corpse by pouring his “Third Way” tonic down its throat. The zombie rises to frighten away investment in the Internet, scare away job-creation in the industry, and panic a majority of the public largely content with the progress of the Internet. At Genachowski’s command, the zombie finds the tomb of Title II telecommunications policy drafted in 1934, and attempts to wrap the Internet in its shroud.

Act Three: Hoping to create a sense of certainty for the present industry, time travelers Google and Verizon devise their own versions of net neutrality. Likewise, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) proposes a net neutrality bill of his own. Genachowski hubristically disparages both efforts.

Act Four: Our petulant hero dons the cloak of invisibility by waiting until the November elections have passed before announcing the FCC will finally vote on yet another version of net neutrality, wherein the Title II reclassification has become a forgotten red herring. Pushing back the meeting one week to December 22 ensures a lame duck Congress headed home for the holidays will have little opportunity for media reaction. Additionally, scarcely 10 days prior to the meeting and late on a Friday afternoon, a 2,000-page data dump of random, disorganized materials is released by the Wireline Competition Bureau and placed on the official FCC record prior to the meeting.

And the final reel? A showdown of sorts will take place today at the FCC. While tumbleweed blows down a mostly deserted Beltway, the five commissioners will meet at the FCC corral to vote on Genachowski’s latest version of network neutrality.

There may be a further twist, however. One of Genachowski’s Democrat allies—the cantankerous Copps, has cast himself as the betrayed ideologically pure advocate of net neutrality. He might just switch sides and vote against Genachowski’s plan with the hopes of getting the FCC back to its Title II reclassification plan, joining the two Republican net neutrality opponents.

Regardless of what happens December 22, there will be a sequel beginning in January 2011. That’s when Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) assumes the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which holds jurisdiction over the FCC. More than 300 members of Congress publicly oppose mandating net neutrality, and all 95 candidates who signed a pledge in support of Genachowski’s dream lost in their election bids last month.

Yup, the new sheriff, superhero, ring manager, hobbit, U.S. Calvary division, or zombie slayer in town this coming year might help clean up any potential mess the Genachowski-led FCC creates next week.

Bruce Edward Walker (bwalker@heartland.org) is managing editor of  Infotech & Telecom News.

The total compensation of a West Bloomfield school teacher grew 173 percent over an 11 year period, going from $47,346 to $129,637. The teacher’s compensation history is being used by the West Bloomfield School District on its website as an example to explain how the district is getting less money than its neighbors

The information was unveiled at a school board meeting and was part of a presentation showing that West Bloomfield has received $105 million less in state funding over the last five than the neighboring Bloomfield Hills district.

The teacher’s salary started at $31,881 in 1999-00 and grew to $85,836 in 2010-11. Meanwhile, insurance payments climbed from $9,309 to $19,304 per year, and retirement contributions jumped from $3,717 to $16,854 per year.

“Whether it’s sustainable or not is up to the district,” said Michael Van Beek, the education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “They could afford to pay for this salary schedule if they didn’t double what they pay for health insurance over this same time and nearly double what they had to pay for in retirement costs. It’s the combination of these three things, two of which the district directly controls, that make these unsustainable. The other issue with this method for paying teachers is that salary schedules lock in labor costs and stifle districts’ ability to innovatively deal with declining revenue or increasing costs. Since the bulk of all school spending goes towards teacher pay, this severely handcuffs districts financially.”

West Bloomfield superintendent JoAnn Andrees didn’t respond to an e-mail sent to her and her administrative assistant seeking comment.

The powerpoint notes that some employees of the district - those not represented by the West Bloomfield Education Association teachers' union - have taken 5 percent pay cuts for the last half of last year and all of this year; and contribute monthly to the cost of their insurance premiums. This is put in contrast with the WBEA union membership, which has not taken the pay cuts and does not contribute to the cost of their health insurance plans.

“The teachers are often very fast to point out their starting salaries and they point out a low number,” said Leon Drolet, director of Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. “What they don’t tell you is that they get these large percentage increases every year. A situation where they get those type of raises every year is not uncommon."

Van Beek did a similar analysis of a mythical teacher in Saline Public Schools using their existing teachers’ union contract.

He found that a teacher starting with a salary of $40,425 in 2009 would see it grow to $111,750 by the 15^th year, an increase of 178 percent. That mythical Saline teacher didn’t have any extra-curricular activities but did earn a graduate degree in the eighth year.