Defective bargaining

By Larry Sand
07/27/2021
A challenger for governor of California could radically improve education with one executive order. In a recent opinion piece in The Epoch Times, veteran writer John Seiler put forth a set of strategies for a Republican to beat California Governor Gavin Newsom in the state’s September 14th recall election. Among other things, he suggests that...

TAGS: collective bargaining, Larry Sand, recall, Rodda Act, teachers unions, Unions

Winning a war of attrition against government unions

By Edward Ring
04/23/2021
Anyone involved in state or local politics in California soon realizes that government unions are the most powerful special interest in the state. From time to time, as the ride-share behemoths proved in spectacular fashion last November with Proposition 22, corporations will defy the unions on very specific issues. But by and large California’s corporations...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, collective bargaining, education reform, Edward Ring, public sector unions, recall, teachers union, Unions, vouchers

Schools for Scandal

By Larry Sand
11/03/2020
As shown by the 2019 NAEP, most of our students are being badly shortchanged. The latest bad education news comes to us courtesy of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The most recent exam was administered to high school seniors in early 2019, a full year before the COVID-19 lockdowns. The so-called “Nation’s Report...

TAGS: collective bargaining, education spending, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, NAEP, Neal McCluskey, Randi Weingarten, school choice, seniority, teachers union, tenure

A solution to the free rider problem

By Larry Sand
01/14/2020
Union leaders grumble when non-members get union perks; here’s a way out. As a result of the Janus decision in June 2018, workers are no longer forced to pay any money whatsoever to a public employee union as a condition of employment. While teachers and other government workers were freed from paying union dues or...

TAGS: Alexander Willen, Andrew Coulson, collective bargaining, Greg Forster, Janus decision, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, Mike Petrilli, National Education Association, teachers union, Terry Moe, wage compression

Estimated Impact of Janus on California’s Public Sector Unions So Far: $50M/year

By Edward Ring
04/24/2019
On June 27, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case Janus vs AFSCME. An immediate consequence of this ruling was that public sector unions could no longer collect so-called “agency fees” from workers in their bargaining units who had opted out of full union membership. The other main consequence of the Janus ruling was that those...

TAGS: agency fee, collective bargaining, Edward Ring, Janus v. AFSCME, public sector unions

The Freedom to Falsify

By Larry Sand
04/23/2019
AFT president’s talk is rife with platitudes, attitude, and misinformation. Platitudes at the ready, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten gave a speech to the National Press Club in Washington last Thursday. Calling her talk “The Freedom to Teach,” she referenced a poster on her office wall which reads, “Teachers inspire, encourage, empower, nurture,...

TAGS: Act 10, American Federation of Teachers, Barbara Biasi, collective bargaining, Janus decision, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, Randi Weingarten, Scott Walker, teachers union

Collective bargaining hurts teachers and students

By Larry Sand
01/15/2019
Using a model from the Industrial Era, teachers in Los Angeles are striking. I have written about the subject many times, but it is worth revisiting as Los Angeles teachers are striking over a one-size-fits-all collective bargaining contract that is harmful to all concerned. Collective bargaining, a term first introduced into the lexicon by socialist...

TAGS: Alexander Willen, Andrew Coulson, Caroline Hoxby, collective bargaining, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, Mike Petrilli, teacher strike, teachers union, Terry Moe, wage compression

Saying bye-bye to nana’s union

By Larry Sand
03/20/2018
Following similar actions in Wisconsin and Iowa, eternal union representation of teachers is a thing of the past in Florida; the new law doesn’t go quite far enough, however. Just imagine that in the 1970s your grandmother hired a lawyer to represent her in a lawsuit, and today, you’re forced to patronize the very same...

TAGS: collective bargaining, F. Vincent Vernuccio, Heritage Foundation, James Sherk, Larry Sand, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Rick Scott, teachers union

Defective collective bargaining

By Larry Sand
01/16/2018
Despite what teachers unions tell you, collective bargaining is bad for kids and country.  Ask any teacher unionista – leader or camp follower – and they will tell you with great assuredness that when teachers are organized and collectively bargain, children are better educated. To bolster their argument, they say things like unions enable teachers...

TAGS: Act 10, Alexander Willen, Barbara Biasi, Caroline Hoxby, collective bargaining, Jason Bedrick, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, Rick Hess, Scott Walker, teachers union, Terry Moe

After Janus

By Larry Sand
11/21/2017
If the Janus case is successful, will it be the first of many shoes to drop?  Janus v AFSCME is due to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court early in 2018, with a decision announced in June. If the lawsuit is successful, no teacher or any public employee in the U.S. would have to...

TAGS: Act 10, collective bargaining, Forced Unionism, Janus v. AFSCME, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, Mike Petrilli, Rick Hess, Right to Work, Scott Walker, teachers union, wage compression