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Teacher Unions Block Reforms
By David W. Kirkpatrick
The National Education Association (NEA) was established in 1857, and the American Federation of Teachers in the beginning of the 20th century but neither evolved as a significant traditional labor union until the 1960s. Unfortunately, as that transition took place, they adopted some of the less attractive features of industrial unions.In the ongoing attempts to reform education, the NEA and AFT consistently block or cripple any meaningful change, such as school choice and charter schools. They, of course, deny this and cite rhetoric stressing the need for change and their wish to bring it about.
Anyone who has spent anytime within the movement knows that the charge is true and the rhetoric false.
Child-Centered School Funding
The Toledo Blade
reports,
"despite the downright ugly economy, [Governor Strickland] plans to
forge ahead next year with his promise of tackling a school-funding
system that the Ohio Supreme Court repeatedly has found to be
unconstitutional."
In
A Child-Centered
Solution to School Finance in Ohio,
Buckeye Institute fellow Brian Gottlob writes,
"Educating children is not the same as directly funding school systems.
A child-centered school finance policy that supports the choices of
parents can create higher-quality schools and more equality in the
educational opportunities available to children. The only way to ensure
that all children have the same educational opportunities and equal
resources to obtain them and at the same time create powerful
incentives to improve school performance, is to adopt a
student-centered school funding system."
Strickland Looking for a Handout
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, "Many things Ohio spends money on are becoming more expensive, Medicaid most prominently. In the 2007 budget year, Medicaid costs devoured 24.2 percent of the state's general fund, or $4.3 billion. Four years earlier, the figures were 20.5 percent and $3.7 billion. While Strickland hopes a 6 percent increase in Medicaid will be part of a federal stimulus package, the relentless math of a balanced-budget mandate forces cuts."
In
Stimulating a Bad Idea,
Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "Governor Strickland and
the legislators who kept spending in light of an almost-guaranteed
decline in tax revenues now want someone to bail them out. They have
failed in their duty to be good stewards of taxpayers' money but do not
want to face the consequences of their own actions. It is too bad that
they are likely to receive positive reinforcement from D.C. for their
fiscally irresponsible ways."
Wrong Way to Stimulate Economy
In an interview with the Ravenna Record-Courier, Governor Ted Strickland boasted about his "economic stimulus" package: "We have passed an economic stimulus package -- the first state in the nation to do so in the face of a developing recession -- (with) $1.57 billion that will be used to build our infrastructure, improve our logistics and distribution network, fund sectors of our economy that are ripe for growth, such as advanced energy and bio-medicine, bio-products."
In
Governor's New Deal is a
Raw Deal, Buckeye Institute fellow Sam Staley
writes,
"Restoring Ohio's economic vitality will be difficult under the best of
circumstances. But the solution is not in having state government pick
winners and losers by rewarding favored, politically correct businesses
over others not on their political radar screen. On the contrary, the
key will be in creating a policy environment where broad-based
entrepreneurship and business investment is welcomed and nurtured."
Buckeye
Institute in the News
The Mansfield News Journal published a story on the Buckeye Institute's teacher salary database.
World
Net Daily mentioned the Buckeye Institute in stories on ACORN
and the Ohio Department of Agriculture raid on the Stowers'
food
co-op.
