Wisconsin is not alone. To little national fanfare, the Tennessee legislature voted to end collective bargaining in public schools late Friday night. Unlike Wisconsin, cost cutting did not drive these reforms —Tennessee does not have a budget crisis. While the changes will improve the state’s fiscal health, the legislature’s main goal was to remove a major barrier to quality education.
Unions exist to get more for their members. That often conflicts with giving children a good education. Former New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein recently explained what unions want:
[L]ifetime job security (tenure), better pay regardless of performance (seniority pay), less work (short days, long holidays, lots of sick days), and the opportunity to retire early (at, say, 55) with a good lifetime pension and full health benefits … The result: whether you work hard or don’t, get good results with kids or don’t, teach in a shortage area like math or special education or don’t, or in a hard-to-staff school in a poor community or not, you get paid the same, unless you’ve been around for another year, in which case you get more. Not bad for the adults. But it’s just disastrous for the kids in our schools.
Education unions push — hard — for public schools to serve the adults who run them. But government should serve the public, not the other way around. Now, in Tennessee, it will.
The legislature replaced collective bargaining with “collaborative conferencing.” School boards must meet with designated teachers’ representatives and discuss working conditions. They have the option of signing binding memoranda of understanding. However, in contrast to collective bargaining, they do not have to. School boards have the final say if they disagree with teachers’ unions. They can adopt policies that serve children’s needs, whether the union likes it or not.
The Tennessee Education Association has lost its power to block educational reforms. Soon Tennessee schools will be able to reward excellent teachers and remove failing ones — a great victory for Tennessee’s children.
— James Sherk is senior policy analyst in labor economics at the Heritage Foundation.
"Unions exist to get more for their members. That often conflicts with giving children a good education."
What an understatement. Indeed, according to the former NYC chancellor of schools, "it’s just disastrous for the kids in our schools."
CONFLICT OF INTEREST! The main product peddled by teachers unions -- as with ALL public employee unions, including police and fire -- is an ethical quandary: to actually serve the community who pays their salaries.
Bully for Tennessee. And Maryland.
Apparently, the efforts of Scott Walker received such fanfare in Wisconsin because of the added insult of his proposal being submitted in the birthplace of progressive politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAll twelve Democrats in the legislature fled to Illinois but nobody cared. :(
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis article gives me hope that sanity will actually prevail in this country.
Imagine the immediate improvement in fiscal health when parasitic unions are removed from the public host. Imagine a public school teacher whose FIRST priority is competency in his/her chosen profession.
I never thought I would see it in my lifetime.
Good for you Tennessee!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis seems like a good solution. School boards can take good suggestions from teachers but ignore the lousy ones. School boards are management and they should be managers, as it is their job and they are the ones that are ultimately responsible. They shouldn't be over-ruled by unions at any time. Someone has to be able to make the "unpopular"(or more likely unpopular with unions) decisions.
I think that unions forget that they are not part of management. They really shouldn't have any say on decisions as they are only employees. How many private business would give that much say to employees? That's right none.
Teachers forget that they aren't number one in the scheme of things. They aren't even second. School boards are responsible in this order !.taxpayers 2.students.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow about we find a way to reward excellent students and remove failing ones?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRE: "How about we find a way to reward excellent students and remove failing ones?"
That is and shall remain the domain of private education institutions.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFor your info, there is a clearly-orchestrated campaign in Tennessee's newspaper and website "comments" sections making a very funny-if-they-weren't-serious talking-point on this issue that I'd expect we'll see replicated elsewhere around the country. One example from the Tennessean, Nashville's newspaper's website, sums it up this way (paraphrasing):
"IF athletes and actors can have agents to negotiate their contracts, why can't teachers have them, too?"
In other words, since the unions and the Left have not convinced America of their right to pick the public pockets and get goodies non-govt.-workers cannot dream of, they're appealing to "fairness" by making a ludicrous comparison between a govt. union boss and "Arli$$"
A reach, but then, we're used to that from these idiots. Thankfully, it didn't sell in Tennessee, either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRe. "How about we find a way to reward excellent students and remove failing ones?": How about the novel idea of giving Fs to those who fail and As to those who excel? Nah, kids only want money these days and anyway, an F would hurt someone's feelings -at least that's what the "educators" tell us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a Tennessee teacher friend of mine said, it will be interesting to see if it makes any real difference in the quality of education here. The education union is just one of a myriad of problems.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI live in TN. I've been reading NR since I graduated college (and moved from N Lampoon to N Review), solid conservative/libertarian. Full disclosure: I am that rare breed: a university prof (and teacher education at that!) who is conservative. But this is rather silly :
1) it does NOT have any impact on the budget.
2) There was no, zero, discussion if this in the campaign.
3) it has never ever been an issue for "quality education" or anything else related to education.
This is NOT a bill grounded in need, nor sentiment. It really did come out of nowhere. TN is a right to work state and this will simply devolve the process a bit. However, I cannot help but judge this as a political stunt and grandstanding - not an attempt to address any concern or need. Sorry.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"political stunt and grandstanding" aside, Teacher Unions (odd how they are the Public Union most identified with these restructurings) suffered a critical blow in WI, and it can all be traced back to the "fleebaggers" bringing a National spotlight on the issue.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIgnoring any lesson they should have gained from their "shellacking", Lefty proceeded with business as usual. That may still work in DC, but it just solidified the public perception of Special Interest Government ignoring the will of the people. It was Pelosi walking with her gavel, changing voting rules and cramming ObamaCare down our throats all over again. It was Dragging on the "Dean Scream" for two weeks while watching teachers abandoned their classrooms to shriek, howl and threaten others. It was Storming the Capital through windows and be carried off by fellow targeted public union members. It was the over-reach and manipulation of the Judiciary to block the law. It was funding an election to attempt to stack a court to be willing to favorably legislate from the bench. It is forcing the public funding of a useless re-count to continue to delay implementation of the law until another plan develops.
Is it a wonder why similar demonstrations of "protest" did not occur in the list of other states who have or are planning to pass similar legislation? An overt liberal is a public spectacle which harms the cause while a covert liberal hides under the radar until their policy can be passed with little fanfare.
Lefty made quantum strides over the last 3 years as opposed to the significant quiet progress the attained for decades. We can only hope voters are smart enough not to allow Liberals to put the genie back into the bottle.
This is a politcial stunt. Teachers are not overpaid (in most states). When will parents take some responsibility for their children. Good schools are most often good school because they have supportive parents. School can succeed without parental support but it is extremely difficult.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, Garth, I've known many teachers, many student teachers, and many education professors. I can assure you that with few exceptions, you could cut their salaries in half and they'd still be GROSSLY overpaid relative to their value.
In response to your question, parents who want to "take some responsibility for their children" couldn't do better than weakening the hand of the subliterate knaves who want a monopoly over their educations. Supporting the Tennessean legislature strikes me as a sterling example of "parental support."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs an adult child of a former teacher, I can say my parent made much more by the time of retirement 5 years ago than my parents ever thought they would make. And they continue to get a very generous pension which included health insurance up until they became eligable for medicare this year. They're certainly not complaining, but they'd be the first to tell you most teachers don't put in the effort to earn that pay.
As that persons child, as well as a new parent now, I certainly think teachers, firefighters, and police should make a good wage. But even still, the base pay isn't a huge problem, it's the benefits. for example, I pay ~$200 out of pocket every paycheck for my family medical and dental, that's over $400 a month. Public employees, at least in my area, pay little to nothing out of pocket for health benefits and they can retire with defined benefit pensions as early as 25 years.
Often times teachers will pull state pension AND go back to work in either the same district or a new district and pull full salary as well (albeit starting anew at the bottom of the pay scale).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe comment about "what teachers want" reminded me of the later days of my Navy career when social issues, management techniques and cultural bravado became more important than the reason we maintain a Navy. I approached my new command in 1996 as the commanding officer, and asked the officers of the wardroom, "What is our mission in the Navy?" After a bevy of social responses, I said, "No. Our mission is to kill their sailors faster than they kill ours." I would suggest that teachers re-examine their reason for teaching.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse