Teachers+Unions

Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s $23 Billion Teachers Unions Bailout

May 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the rest of us in America lose jobs by the millions, Obama wants to spend another $23 billion more of your taxes on public employees in a teacher bailout plan proposed by Senator Tom Harkin (D, Iowa).

Harkin wants this new public employees bailout in order to prevent teachers layoffs, a concern echoed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We are gravely concerned,” said Duncan in a letter to Congress, “that ongoing state and local budget challenges are threatening hundreds of thousands of teacher jobs for the upcoming school year.”

Oh, Duncan had all sorts of recommendations for Congress on this newest bailout.
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Obama’s $23 Billion Teachers Unions Bailout”

Budget - Business - Children - Economy/Finances - Education - New Jersey - State Government - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Prays for the Death of NJ Gov. Christie

April 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Sadly, wishing for the death of a political opponent is so typical of the left. Pol Pot, Stalin, the Democrat sponsored KKK, the chief tool used by such folks has been terror and violence. While obviously not as murderous as the aforementioned, unions have also been a violent force in history. And in New Jersey, the teachers union has lived down to the violent tendency unions have always evinced.

With a memo to its membership, the New Jersey Education Association prayed that its political opponent, Governor Chirs Christie, would die. The memo featured this:

“Dear Lord … this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. … I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor.”

Nice sentiment, eh?

But this sort of violence infused, hate-speak is so typical of unionism. Whether in the rarefied air of the teacher’s lounge, or the backroom of some smoke-filled auto worker’s union hall, this sort of violence is espoused with gusto by unionists everywhere. And it is given a pass by Democrats, excused with a wink and a nod.

And they say that the Tea Party folks are hate-filled and violent! Show me a Tea Party advertisement, event advertisement, or newsletter with such a sentiment emblazoned across it.
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Teachers Union Prays for the Death of NJ Gov. Christie”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pat Brady - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess

March 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

My friend Lennie Jarratt was featured on Fox News Chicago last night. The subject was the $85 billion dollar deficit that the Illinois finds its public employee pensions confronted with. Fox News reports that every Illinois citizen would have to fork over $6,600 to instantly solve the problem. And what has caused this problem? Unions.

Lennie has some great lines in this piece and he’s right on. He is right that education in America has become “legalized theft.” Here are some of his main points:

  • Getting a public sector job is like hitting the lottery
  • The way schools levy is legal theft
  • We have the highest property taxes in the Midwest
  • Nearly all of the top 50 public sector pensions in IL are educators
  • Killing jobs and forcing people to leave the state further cutting state revenue
  • Within 4-6 years most public sector retirees are making more than when working

Illinois isn’t the only state in this union-made morass. Nearly every state in the union is in this mess.
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Fox News Chicago Digging Deeper on Illinois Pension Mess”

Budget - California - Campaign Finance - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Lobbyists - Media - Media Bias - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Top the $1 Billion Club in California Political Spending

March 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The California Teachers Association spent $211,849,298 on lobbying and political spending to get its way in California in 2009. Along with the CTA, the Calif. State Council of Service Employees and 13 other organizations spent a total of one billion dollars on political lobbying of the State House at Sacramento. All of these special interests have helped push California to the brink of insolvency.

But, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the two unions mentioned above far and away top the spending of the other top lobbying spenders in California. The next closest in spending was the Big Pharma clocking in at $104,912,997 on its political spending with various and sundry Indian casino groups whose spending was in the less than $85,000,000 range.

Commission Chairman Ross Johnson said in a press release, “This tsunami of special interest spending drowns out the voices of average voters and intimidates political opponents and elected officials alike.”
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Unions Top the $1 Billion Club in California Political Spending”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Rhode Island - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

All Administrators and Teachers at Rhode Island School Fired

February 16, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

I don’t expect this to stick. I fully expect some left-wing, paid off judge to come to the aid of these union thugs. But… in Central Falls, Rhode Island School Superintendent Frances Gallo has fired an entire high school’s worth of teachers and administrators over a labor dispute.

Central Falls High School is situated in one of the poorest sections of Rhode Island yet the teachers there make between $72 and $78 thousand per year, far above the mean income of the area. The school is also performing dismally.

So, Superintendent Gallo told teachers that they would have to work perhaps twenty-five minutes more per day and help tutor the students. Naturally the un-caring teachers union refused — proving once again that education and the kids are not of interest to a union.

The union wouldn’t budge so Super Gallo just fired them all. Now THAT is some funny stuff right there! Good for Super Gallo.
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All Administrators and Teachers at Rhode Island School Fired”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Jobs - Liberals - Maryland - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We all know the drill, right? Unions curry favor with compliant politicians, the unions then donate campaign cash to them hoping for political favors later down the line. Yes, that’s the drill… unless you are the Montgomery County, Maryland teachers union. See, in that case candidates are expected to pay the union for its favors, not the other way ’round, apparently.

As the Washington Post says, this upside down relationship “distorts and perverts the political process.” Folks, if even the left-wing Washington Post understands that unions are bad for our democracy, you have to know things have gotten horribly out of hand.

In some unusually harsh language, the WP takes after these union thugs big time:
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Maryland’s Toxic Teachers Union”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Elections - GOP - Jobs - Pensions - President - Republicans - SEIU - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yeah, I know… it’s like a broken record around here. But, here is another voice coming to our side to agree with us that public employees unions are antithetical to good government, wholly un-democratic, and, therefore, quite un-American. This time it’s the well-regarded Michael Barone echoing our mantra.

Barone is one of the best political reporters in the country and in his own inimitable way has jumped on the anti-union bandwagon (not that he never has in the past, just that this piece is particularly on par).

Before he gets to government unions, one of his points is that unions aren’t even needed in the private sector anymore because all the evils that employers perpetrated in the days of yore have now been regulated away by governments and laws. Because of an active government unions just aren’t needed to protect workers anymore, says Barone. It is a good point, after all.
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Another Voice Agrees With Us: Gov’t Unions Are Un-American”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education

February 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that a teacher that had 30 some years ago allegedly impregnated a 16-year-old student, a few years later sexually accosted two 12-year-old students, and was accused of molesting yet another student four years after that, would be out on his ear never to teach or be allowed around children again.

But the New York teachers union would beg to differ.

In fact, the union has differed so much that troubled teacher Francisco Olivares has been continually paid his $94,154 a year salary even though he’s been kept from the classroom for the last seven years.

So, who cares what the union says about this guy? Unfortunately, the union’s resistance to getting rid of him is enshrined in state law. The school can’t get rid of this dead weight either.

As a result, because the school can’t fire him and the union won’t let them, Olivares sits day in and day out in what is called a “rubber room” getting paid his full salary. That is getting paid his fall salary courtesy of the taxpayers of New York.
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Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education”

Business - Children - Education - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Can’t Work in Education

February 5, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle had a great piece pinpointing exactly why unions don’t work, especially for education. Her piece headlined “How Unions Work,” really brings it home why unions can’t agree to merit pay for teachers.

McArdle’s post was prompted by a piece by left-winger Matthew Yglesias whose post is meaningless and I won’t go into too much here. But it did spur some good points by McArdle. Suffice to say that what Yglesias said was that he thought unions could come to like merit pay but that the discussion is messy because people “have ideological opinions about unions in general.” In other words, Yglesias thinks it’s everyone else’s fault, not the union’s fault.

Yglesias is fooling only himself.
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Why Unions Can’t Work in Education”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Liberals - New York - States - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Ruins NY Shot at $700M in Stimulus

January 29, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Being a good conservative, I am torn on this story! It seems that the teachers union in New York State refused to comply with some simple requirements in cooperation with the state government so that New York could qualify for $700 million in federal stimulus money from a program known as Race to the Top.

Now, on my fiscally conservative side I am glad that the federal government won’t be sending this $700 million to New York. In fact, I’d like to see every state be refused this money. In fact, I’d like the federal government itself to be refused this money by the taxpayers!

But this story also reveals how illegitimate these unions are because the requirements were very simple. All the union had to do was agree with teacher merit pay. But, you see, the United Federation of Teachers doesn’t believe that its membership should be held to any standards. Why should a bad teacher be able to be fired they wonder?
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Teachers Union Ruins NY Shot at $700M in Stimulus”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Freedom - Liberals - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter

December 19, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recalcitrant teachers union in Florida once again shows that reform for the sake of the kids doesn’t interest it. A federal program called Race to the Top bestows federal money on any district that institutes merit pay and reforms its schools. Guess who hates the idea. Yep, you guessed it: Florida’s teachers unions.

Instead of launching in full support of school reform in order to help kids get a better education, the union has announced that it will instead be foot draggers and opposers.

Rightly or wrongly, the federal government is offering billions of federal dollars to Florida schools, but the teachers union wants to stand in the way of that largess because it opposes requiring its teachers to be worthy of their pay through merit.
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One Again Teachers Union Shows Kids Don’t Matter”

Barack Obama - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - House of Representatives - Liberals - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas

December 9, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Weekly Standard has an excellent new article in its latest issue that reports on the discouraging story of the Washington D.C. teachers union that is rushing headlong toward destroying the successful and popular federally-funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).

The program has helped many disadvantaged D.C. are kids get a better and safer education than they would have gotten in the violence plagued public schools system. But Democratic lawmakers in Congress have continually announced their lack of support for the voucher plan despite the inner city kids that have benefited from it all.
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The Teacher’s Union That Stole Christmas”

Business - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

A Reminder About What Teacher’s Unions Do in California

October 26, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Larry Sand gave a little talk at a local tea party in Antelope Valley, California event wherein he reminded us all of the political use of state teachers union dues and how that money supports an agenda that is essentially so anti-American.

The California Teachers Union, for instance, supported with its member’s dues money SB 1322 which was a bill that would put communists in the classroom! Arnold sensibly vetoed that bill, but the Teachers union (CTA) donated money to float this proposition.

Sand lays out a whole series of things that the CTA supports with member’s union dues all of which should set your blood to boil.

This isn’t just a California problem, though. This sort of abuse of union dues goes on in the teachers unions of every state.

Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Education - Illinois - State Government - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

School Superintendent Kills Himself

October 12, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Ottawa, Illinois schools superintendent John Harrison committed suicide over the weekend. Ottawa is south west of Chicago in LaSalle County.

The school is suffering a teachers unions trike at this time, but it isn’t known if the strike and controversy is connected to the suicide.

One interesting part of the report on the CBS News site, though, showed one aspect of today’s teachers unions that is galling.

Teachers went on strike Sept. 30. They’re objecting to a school board offer that would require them to chip in for family health insurance coverage. About 1,600 students attend the school.

Seriously? These teachers think they shouldn’t have to pay any part of their own health insurance coverage? I guess we shouldn’t expect teachers to be like everyone one else in the country, eh? Naturally these greedy unions think teachers should get free healthcare all paid for by the taxpayer!

At this point these greedy, anti-student teachers unions are more like criminal syndicates than organizations with the interests of the people at heart!
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School Superintendent Kills Himself”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Capitalism - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach

September 23, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is yet another story where union members undergoing disciplinary procedures can sometimes spend years being paid their full salary to sit home and watch TV, doing nothing, working not a minute of their day. In this case it is costing a local school system at least $2.25 million to pay teachers that aren’t teaching.

This story focuses on teachers in Buffalo, New York but it is a story repeated in unions of all sorts all across the country.

The problem is that unions are allowed to become so meddlesome in member’s disciplinary procedures, the unions are allowed to block them so easily, that disciplinary procedures take an inordinate amount of time. All too often boards of review and other provisions to determine the culpability of bad teachers and arrive at a suitable punishment are opposed tooth and nail by unions. Unions especially fight the ultimate punishment: firings.

To be sure, no one thinks that unions should be so powerless that teachers can be fired on a whim. There certainly must be fairness for both parties, teachers and school administrations (the employer) alike.
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Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach”

Budget - Capitalism - Chicago - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees

September 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bill Zettler recently submitted a Freedom of Information request on the pensions of 13 retiring public school employees from District 211 in Palatine, Illinois and he found that the people of Illinois are on the hook for over $50 million in pension benefits promised to people retiring at the average age of 58.

Zettler found that these school employees are seeing an average of $96,000 a year in pension benefits whereas the average Social Security benefit is $13,500 a year. SS recipients also don’t get their benefits until they’ve reached 63 at least while the average retirement age of these public employees is 58.

I’ll get right to Mr. Zettler’s pullout quote, one that really puts the whole situation in perfect focus. “If the purpose of taxation is to provide for the common good,” Zettler said, “we may ask what common good is provided by making public employees multi-millionaires in their fifties?”
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School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees”

Anti-Americanism - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers

September 22, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the McClatchy news chain, Rob Hotakainen chose an interesting way to spin a discussion on the seeming failure of late of teachers unions to push their agenda. Instead of writing that it is teachers unions that are “feeling squeezed from all sides,” Hotakainen writes that it is the “teachers” themselves feeling this squeeze. In other words, Hotakainen tried to make it seem as if reform forces are against teachers, not the unions that represent them.

The truth is, of course, that no reform minded government official or non-governmental organization is against teachers. They are against the fraud and waste of union practices and are against union intransigence that fights against the best interests of our children’s educations.

Hotakainen points out that both the California NAACP and local Hispanic groups — groups that are traditionally on the side of unions — have supported recent moves to increase state funding for privately operated schools and instituting merit pay for teachers. He then claims that this is causing “teachers” to feel beset by all sides, left and right.
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McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers”