What happens when the union becomes management? Just wanted to bring your attention to a couple of recent stories that highlight two different ironic approaches to their separate labor situations:
Take the hard line in staff bargaining negotiations: Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) reports on the plight of the Ohio Education Association — whose employees today went on strike against the state teachers union
Contract picketing duty to non-union workers at minimum wage: Christine Hall of the Competitive Enterprise Institute highlights a new video of CEI’s Vincent Vernuccio crashing a carpenters’ union protest in Washington, D.C., only to find the picketers marching and chanting in the August humidity were non-union
Hey, you can’t make this stuff up. Great work as usual by EIA and CEI.
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I know I’m biased, but watching this video is 4 minutes well spent if you want to understand how some Colorado unions representing teachers and other school employees put money and power before common decency. Watch non-union Pueblo school employee Becky Robertson tell about the year she missed the September deadline to opt out of paying union fees because of family medical emergencies, and what happened when she asked for the money back:
Thank you, Colorado teachers unions (not to mention the school district negotiators that agree to make these deals). And yes, it’s entirely legal in Colorado. For more information on the school districts where non-union teachers and other employees have to go through pains each year to opt out of expensive union fees, and the deadlines for both union and non-union members to opt out (usually in August and/or September), check out the Independent Teachers website.
Republican state senate candidate Owen Hill was blindsided yesterday by a Colorado Springs Gazette story with fabricated claims that Hill plagiarized statements off his Libertarian opponent’s website. A friend of mine, quoted in the story, does his job of defending his Party’s position and candidate, but issued his quote carefully:
“My understanding is, from Doug, that Doug had written the stuff, and he noticed it was on his opponent’s website and was not pleased with that discovery,” said David K. Williams Jr., chairman of the Libertarian Party of Colorado. [emphasis added]
Essentially hearsay.
Unfortunately, the Gazette opted for a sensational he said / he said story rather than perform a little basic investigation. Owen Hill’s campaign did the homework for the reporter showing that Hill’s statements were posted on his blog in January, months before the Libertarian even had declared as a candidate or put up a website. (more…)
For what it’s worth, if you want a glimpse of the public mindset concerning 16 major institutions in American society, you should check out the new Gallup survey (H/T Mike Antonucci). The following are some salient observations on how favorably Americans view the 16 major institutions: (more…)
Just how politically correct are today’s colleges? Are the faculties at American universities really as ideologically imbalanced as you have heard? What are the effects of that imbalance on students and their futures? Are there any promising and politically achievable reforms for academia?
If these questions pique your interest, then you should look at obtaining a copy of the new book The Politically Correct University, a collection of insightful essays on a range of topics under the theme. Even better, if you live in the Denver metro area, you can meet one of the volume’s editors — Robert Maranto from the University of Arkansas’ Department of Education Reform — this evening at Liberty on the Rocks Red Rocks: (more…)
In other words, Amazon firing its affiliates does nothing to impact the fact that Amazon.com is still required to collect sales tax or, at a minimum alert their customers to this requirement under state law. The giant retailer is using its political weight to protest losing its tax-free status and having to compete on par with other Colorado retailers.
Why should you care? Because sales tax revenues fund public schools. A portion of all sales tax revenue goes into the State Education fund, the first source for nearly all K-12 public education programs, from the state’s share of Total Program to funding for full-day kindergarten. (more…)
I don’t mean to kick a man when he’s down, especially when he’s biked his way into the hospital with broken ribs. But it was quite the experience to open the virtual pages of the Denver Post this morning and read the lead editorial raking Governor Bill Ritter over the coals for his weak-kneed half-efforts at education reform:
The governor’s executive order was quite clear: Members of a panel who were to devise ways of linking teacher evaluations to student achievement were to meet on or before March 1.
They have not.
But don’t blame panel members. Gov. Bill Ritter hasn’t bothered to appoint them yet.
The foot-dragging is indefensible, and is further evidence, we think, of the Ritter administration’s unnecessary appeasement of the teachers union, which has never been a fan of these efforts.
Is the United States ready for a new labor model, one more grounded in freedom of association and individual liberty? That’s the central thrust of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s new book — Sweeping the Shop Floor — for which I was honored to be a contributor.
EFF labor policy analyst Rachel Culbertson joined me and my Independence Institute colleague Mike Krause for a conversation to whet your appetite for the book. Click the play button below (or follow this link) to listen to the 12-minute iVoices podcast:
For more detail on the book’s argument about how we can give workers more freedom in designing a labor model for the 21st Century and how it might work in Colorado public education and other government agencies, check out Ed Is Watching.
The story of the heroism of Deer Creek Middle School math teacher David Benke is a compelling one. A Jefferson County schoolteacher like many others who went to work yesterday, placed into an unexpected moment of high stress and great danger to those around him, he acted as we all would hope to act under similar circumstances.
His initial action to stop the shooter at Deer Creek very well may have saved lives. By all accounts, he also is a man far less interested in his own instant fame than in the well-being of his students who were subjected to this violent attack.
For all these reasons, it is fitting and proper to acknowledge Dr. David Benke as a hero. For he is more deserving than many in our modern celebrity age who have gained the appellation. (One small way to make the acknowledgment that promotes the best in civil society, you can join the “Dr. David Benke is a hero” Facebook page — 11,700 strong and growing as I write this.)
I had the honor to meet Dr. Benke briefly several years ago at an education-related meeting. My vague impressions are of a thoughtful man, a man of modesty and integrity. Now add courage to the profile.
Be thankful for Dr. Benke and the other Deer Creek staff members who acted to stop the gunman. With God’s help, may many of us be able to do the same if confronted with a similar crisis situation. Now our prayers go out to the injured students and their families, as we thank God that more students were not hurt, or worse.
About four months ago the Colorado Supreme Court decided that judges have a role in deciding how the state’s public schools are funded. In a Colorado Daily column I explained why this decision in the Lobato case was bad policy and a dangerous precedent.
You also can listen to Professor Joshua Dunn bring his expertise to bear for an 8-minute iVoices podcast we recorded last October — click the play button or follow this link:
One of the big takeaways from Dunn’s conversation is that most states realize the bad policy and bad consequences of adequacy lawsuits and are moving away from them. Colorado is out of sync for its courts to be sanctioning such action.
So why am I bringing up the Lobato case today? It seems that the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) and Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) are actively urging local school boards to agree to help pay for the lawsuit against the state. That way, you the taxpayer can help fund both the plaintiffs and the defense … Seriously? (more…)
Yes, Colorado loves California in this regard, because we too through the Independence Institute have the Independent Teachers website, which lets teachers in our own backyard know about their membership options. Expanding teacher rights, informing teacher choice: This we can celebrate.
Todd Engdahl at Ed News Colorado reported Friday on two educational tax credit bills (HB 1295 and HB 1296) being introduced in the legislature, and closed with this comment:
While the proposals could make for interesting debate, they’re expected to fail for three reasons: 1) Democrats control the legislature, 2) the education lobby, and 3) most lawmakers don’t want to fiddle with school finance or tax credits when the state budget is in the tank. [emphasis added]
The first two reasons are rather straightforward. Of course, Democrats don’t want to devolve power from the education establishment. And of course, the iron triangle of CEA, CASE and CASB would oppose the slightest effort to grant authentic private school choice to taxpaying Colorado parents. (more…)
The lonely Friday crowd can make your popcorn in plenty of time for tonight’s 8:30 showing. For everyone else, get your TiVos/recorders ready or watch the episode re-air on Monday, 1:30 PM, on KBDI.
Republicans in the Colorado Senate today unveiled a proposal to reduce government spending as an alternative to the Democrats’ plan to raise taxes on the businesses and citizens of Colorado.
“Democrats keep saying that in order to balance the budget ‘everything is on the table,’” said Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud. “Republicans want to make sure that a reduction in government spending is on the table and thoroughly debated before we raise taxes.”
The GOP proposal includes a 0.25 percent reduction in state payroll spending for the current fiscal year, and a 4.4 percent reduction for next fiscal year. If the state government made these small sacrifices it would eliminate the need for a laundry list of Democrat proposed taxes on everything from soda pop, to napkins, fertilizer and Internet sales. (more…)
HB 1036, called the Public School Financial Transparency Act, contains many of the same provisions as last year’s all-GOP effort by Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Ted Harvey, R- Highlands Ranch. That bill died on a party-line vote in the same committee. Stephens, who also is a co-sponsor on the new bill, and Harvey have reintroduced their bill again this year as Senate Bill 91, which they say would provide an easier way for people to search for and use data in a more meaningful way while including more descriptive characterizations of line items.
Stephens, however, said she would be happy to see HB 1036 pass to achieve increased transparency.
While we’re busy waging battle on the defensive fronts against Obama Care and cap-and-trade and card check, pro-liberty forces also would be wise in 2010 to continue looking for opportunities to go on offense. Writing at the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone makes at least one point that deserves the attention of activists, strategists and officials:
[Tech entrepreneur Jim] Manzi, citing models in Sweden and the Netherlands, calls for “the creation of a real marketplace among ever more deregulated publicly financed schools — a market in which funding follows students, and far broader discretion is permitted to those who actually teach and manage in our schools.”
Democrats are prevented by their teacher union paymasters from pursuing such goals seriously; witness their battle to kill a small school voucher program in the District of Columbia. Republicans could do much better, starting at the state level and daring the Obama administration to stop them in Washington.
Since the ruling Democrats in Congress have effectively snuffed out D.C.’s successful voucher program (or as Moe Lane puts it, resegregrates the D.C. school system), it’s time to step up the push for K-12 education tax credits (both for tuition scholarships and family expenses) in different states both as an empowerment tool and as a money saver for state government.
One more agenda item around which to rally the forces of liberty.
In his latest offering, former state legislative leader Mark Hillman praises the “freedom nationally, virtue locally” National Freedom Initiative of Colorado’s own Kevin Miller — not the first time it has crossed my path. It was last year about this time I wrestled a lot with the role social conservatism should play, and something that never strays too far from my mind.
Therefore, I’m very intrigued by this initiative — which, of course, is not altogether new, but rather a very sensible clarification and reformulation for our current political context. The opportunity definitely is there:
To educate many social conservatives on the vital and wholly compatible value of liberty and limited government
To build a strong bridge between the Right-leaning faith-based community and the Tea Party & 9/12 movements (where I’m sure a lot of overlap already exists)
(At the least) To have ongoing, important debates that can help hone views and broader strategies heading into the 2010 election and beyond
Just maybe, Miller is vying to be the Frank Meyer for a new generation of the conservative movement. For more, watch Miller and state senator Ted Harvey hash out the issues on a recent episode of Independent Thinking with host Jon Caldara (parts 1 through 3): (more…)
Education News Colorado editor Alan Gottlieb offers up a laugh about the new Denver Public Schools board calling in a therapist to help everyone get along. In case you haven’t heard, it was all brought on by some low-class politics at Monday’s board meeting (H/T Ed Is Watching):
As board member Michelle Moss walked up to take her seat for what was to be her last meeting in eight years representing southwest Denver, her newly elected replacement Andrea Merida told her that she would be sitting on the dais instead.
Merida, rather than waiting to take the oath of office with two other new members after the meeting, had instead been sworn in hours earlier so she could cast a vote on the controversial reforms.
A shocked Moss reacted with tears and anger. (more…)
Update, 12/11:Tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:30 PM local Mountain time I will be discussing the Every Member Option political refund and other union issues on Grand Junction’s “Getting It Right” show with Rick Wagner. You can listen live on AM 1100 KNZZ. On Sunday evening at 7:30 PM local time I will be on Denver’s Backbone Radio with John Andrews to discuss the same topic. Listen live on AM 710 KNUS.
Update, 12/4:I am slated to be on the Jeff Crank Show Saturday at 8:30 AM to explain the Every Member Option refund deadline to a Colorado Springs-area audience. A podcast of the appearance will be available here after the show.
Are you a Colorado public school teacher? Or perhaps a friend or loved one? If so, do you or (s)he belong to the union? Are you interested in getting back your money that the union spends on politics? If you answered Yes to these questions, then the following video about the Every Member Option (EMO) political refunds is for you:
Or go ahead and listen to an EMO overview and some frequently asked questions on a 3-minute podcast by clicking the play button below (if you can’t see the player, or it doesn’t work, click here to listen):
In any case, the information is only valuable if teachers know about it and act on it by December 15. (Teachers in the AFT union have a political refund, too, but no deadline to request it.) Then they’ll have to wait to next school year. So please help spread the word!
The exciting opportunity for a Republican pickup in Senate District 16 with a departing incumbent Democrat Dan Gibbs has taken some interesting turns in the past week. State senate minority leader Josh Penry’s most highly touted replacement was Cheri Gerou. But the HD 25 representative told me today her current seat is “where I plan to stay.” So count out Gerou.
Then there’s Ali Hasan who, while refuting my initial speculations that he might contend, had suggested Jeffco GOP chair Don Ytterberg as a great candidate. However, Ytterberg says he has no desire to take another shot at SD 16 and is dedicated to his current work. “I made the commitment to work for the success of our party and I will do that to the best of my ability,” he said.
But as of today the Republican Party finally has an Evergreen businessman willing to jump in and battle for the open SD 16 seat. No, not that Evergreen businessman, the one who has expressed a firm commitment to the governor’s race and was left out of the crafting of the unity “Prosperity Platform.”(more…)
