Voice For Liberty

Tag: Labor unions

  • Kansas teachers union compliance instructions released

    Kansas teachers union compliance instructions released

    If you’re running for office in Kansas and want the support of the teachers union, here are questions you’ll need to answer their way.

    Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), our state’s teachers union has a questionnaire for candidates running for elective office. It’s really not a series of questions; instead it is a list of things the union wants. Candidates seeking union backing are expected to comply.

    Following are a sample of questions with some commentary. The full questionnaire may be viewed here.

    Question: “Do you support requiring that bonuses and/or incentive pay including any form of ‘merit pay’ be a mandatorily negotiable topic under the PNA given such plans would have the impact of reducing the earning potential of other teachers?”

    Teachers unions oppose merit pay because, they say, it may not be fair to some teachers. But opposing teacher merit pay based on fairness issues isn’t being fair to students. Instead, it’s cruel to students. If we retain the worst teachers and pay them the same as the best teachers, we aren’t being fair to students. But here we see the union’s interest is teachers, not students. 1

    Question: “Do you support high standards for entry into the profession of teaching including comprehensive training and licensure upon recommendation of an accredited degree-granting institution of higher education? Will you oppose legislation that would grant access as teacher of record to the classroom by persons without a license granted by the State Board of Education?”

    One of the main effects for occupational licensure is to reduce competition for people who already hold the license. This is also the main thrust of labor unions: fewer jobs, but with better pay and perks for those who have unionized jobs.

    Question: “Do you support the stabilization, maintenance, and improvement of the KPERS defined benefit pension system for all educators including paying back with interest all monies diverted from KPERS?”

    Defined-benefit pension plans like KPERS are incompatible with elected politicians, as they can’t resist delaying required funding until some future year, and a future generation of taxpayers. 2

    Question: “Do you support state funding for student support services in public schools including counseling and nursing services, social workers, and physical and occupational therapists?”

    Questions like this make it seem as though the state does not fund these functions.

    Question: “Do you support a safe and secure working environment in which educators can teach and children can learn without fear, including allowing local units of government to enact reasonable restrictions on the carrying of firearms?”

    There is not much evidence that local restrictions on firearms will do anything to increase school safety.

    Question: “Do you approve of and support the actions of the 2017 legislature that repealed the ‘march to zero’ income tax plan?”
    Question: “Do you approve of and support the actions of the 2017 legislature that repealed the LLC income tax loophole?”
    Question: “Do you approve of and support the actions of the 2017 legislature that restored the third income tax bracket?”
    Question: “Do you support the three-legged stool of income, sales, and property taxes as foundational to a balanced and fair tax system?”
    Question: “Do you support the establishment of an additional income tax bracket for high-income earners?”

    These five questions point to one of the most important priorities of teachers unions: More taxes and higher spending on schools.

    Question: “Please explain your position on the use of public monies to support students in private schools. Include tax credits, vouchers, and scholarships.”

    Any form of school choice is anathema to teachers unions. They want no competition. Plus, schools without labor unions reveal just how harmful the union is for children trapped in their schools.

    Question: “Do you support a school finance formula that addresses the needs of all student populations including bilingual students, at-risk students, students in poverty, and students with special needs (special education)?”

    This is another question that makes it seems as though there is no support for these needs. But the Kansas school finance formula provides extra funding for these.

    Question: “Do you oppose all efforts to divert funding from public schools through voucher or ‘scholarship’ plans, tuition tax credits, and the expansion of unaccountable charter schools?”

    Again, a question that exposes the union attitude towards school choice. By the way, charter schools are accountable in ways that public schools are not. For example, students can’t be forced to go to charter schools. Also: Until recently, Kansas schools rated themselves using standards that were among the weakest in the nation, but were telling Kansans that standards were high and schools were good. 3

    Question: “Do you support efforts to adopt an inflation measure appropriate to public education on which to base annual increases in funding?”

    For many years the school spending establishment has contended they face a “special” rate of inflation that is higher than other industries.

    —
    Notes

    1. Weeks, Bob. Merit pay fairness is not about teachers. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/merit-pay-fairness-is-not-about-teachers/. ↩
    2. Weeks, Bob. This is why we must eliminate defined-benefit public pensions. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/kansas-government/we-must-eliminate-defined-benefit-public-pensions/ ↩
    3. Weeks, Bob. Kansas school standards remain high. Available at https://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/kansas-school-standards-remain-high/. ↩

  • Teachers unions vs. students

    From PragerU:

    There is a dilemma in American education. On the one hand, teachers are essential to student achievement. On the other, teachers unions promote self-interests of their members which are antithetical to the interests of students. So, how do we fix this problem? In five minutes, Terry Moe, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, delineates this quandary and offers solutions.

    View below, or click here to view at YouTube.

  • Wichita teachers union president on video

    Wichita teachers union president on video

    The president of United Teachers of Wichita has been caught on video expressing thoughts that can’t be comforting to Wichita parents with children in the state’s largest school district. Project Veritas reports on the candid thoughts of Steve Wentz in the story Teachers Union President Admits To Abusing Children.

    Based on past Wichita School District investigations, Wentz likely faces a lengthy stretch of paid administrative leave while the district decides what to do. Not long ago the district paid its school safety services supervisor for 15 months while he was charged with aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, and indecent liberties with a child.

    Steve Wentz Project Veritas example

  • They really are government schools

    They really are government schools

    What’s wrong with the term “government schools?”

    A recent op-ed in the Wichita Eagle read: “Some have begun to call public schools ‘government schools,’ a calculated pejorative scorning both education and anything related to government.”1

    This is not the only time people have objected to the term “government schools.” Public schools bristle at use of the term. In a 2008 email from Wichita School Interim Superintendent Martin Libhart to Wichita school employees, he took issue with those who, using his words, “openly refer to public education as ‘government schools.’”2 “Openly refer,” he writes, as though it should be kept a secret.

    It’s surprising that liberals and progressives object to the term “government schools.” They like government, don’t they? They want more taxation and government spending, don’t they?

    When we think about public schools, we find they have all the characteristics of government programs.

    Public schools are owned by government.

    Their funding comes almost totally from governmental sources, which is to say taxes. (Isn’t it strange that few will donate to public schools?) If you can’t use the services of public schools and don’t want to pay for them — even if you are also paying for other schools that meet your needs — the full weight of the government will come crashing down on you.

    Through laws passed by government, public schools are guaranteed a stream of customers.

    Public schools are regulated — heavily — by government.

    The members of their “board of directors” (the local school board) are chosen through a governmental process — elections.

    Public schools are welcoming to labor unions at the time the private sector is becoming less unionized. In fact, labor unions are becoming a hallmark of government, and government only.3

    Accountability of public schools, like other forms of government, is weak.

    In sum, public schools have all the negative attributes of government institutions and few or none of the positive characteristics that make markets the source of continuous improvement and innovation. So I guess it isn’t surprising that public school advocates like Merritt object to being lumped in with government in general. But public schools share all the characteristics of government, and government is the worst way to supply services except in a few special instances.

    What’s also troubling is how Merritt equates using the term “government schools” with scorn for education. Turning over education to government — with its litany of troubles as listed above — is scornful for children.

    Merritt and others want to have the benefits of governmental institutions without accepting the reality of what government means. That’s a shame for Kansas schoolchildren.

    —
    Notes

    1. Merritt, Davis. Can traditional conservatism save Kansas schools? Wichita Eagle, May 17, 2016. Available at www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article77969617.html. ↩
    2. Weeks, Bob. Wichita School Superintendent Martin Libhart: What’s Wrong With “Government Schools?” Available at wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/wichita-school-superintendent-martin-libhart-whats-wrong-with-government-schools/. ↩
    3. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union Members Summary. January 28, 2016. Available at www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm. ↩
  • WichitaLiberty.TV: Bob’s shaking his head, Wichita water woes, and the harm of teachers unions

    WichitaLiberty.TV: Bob’s shaking his head, Wichita water woes, and the harm of teachers unions

    In this episode of WichitaLiberty.TV: There are a few things that make Bob wonder. Then, a troubling episode for Wichita government and news media. Finally, the harm of teachers unions. View below, or click here to view at YouTube. Episode 114, broadcast March 27, 2016.

  • Sales tax revenue and the Kansas highway fund

    Sales tax revenue and the Kansas highway fund

    The effect of a proposed bill to end transfer of Kansas sales tax revenue to the highway fund is distorted by promoters of taxation and spending.

    The bill is SB 463. The bill’s fiscal note tells how this bill, if passed, would affect the highway fund: “Beginning in FY 2018, the percentage of state sales tax and compensating use tax distributed to the [State Highway Fund] would be eliminated.” The fiscal note goes on to estimate that the highway fund would receive $553.4 million less sales tax revenue than it would otherwise in fiscal year 2018. (This bill proposed changes to other funds, but here I consider only highways.)

    In an email to supporters, Economic Lifelines wrote: “SB 463 would redirect 35% of T-WORKS funding beginning in July of 2017. Passage of this legislation would be a devastating blow to the future of the T-WORKS program.” (Economics Lifelines is a group that lobbies for more spending on highways. Its members are primarily local chambers of commerce, labor unions, construction equipment dealers, and construction material suppliers. In other words, those who benefit from more highway spending, without regard to whether it is needed and wise.)

    Former Kansas budget director Duane Goossen was more emphatic, writing: “Watch out! A very dangerous financial bill just surfaced in the Senate Ways and Means Committee, but it was promoted with language that hid the ultimate purpose and effect. Senate Bill 463 permanently transfers more than $500 million annually from the highway fund to the general fund.”1

    Goossen has it backwards, however. The proposed bill would transfer nothing from the highway fund to the general fund. It would, however, stop transfers from the general fund to the highway fund.

    There’s a difference, and it’s important. The highway fund has no claim on sales tax revenue other than what the legislature decides to send it. That amount has changed over the years. Kansas law specifies how much sales tax revenue is transferred to the highway fund. Here are some recent rates of transfer and dates they became effective:2

    July 1, 2010: 11.427%
    July 1, 2011: 11.26%
    July 1, 2012: 11.233%
    July 1, 2013: 17.073%
    July 1, 2015: 16.226%
    July 1, 2016 and thereafter: 16.154%

    (If SB 463 passes as it stands now, on July 1, 2017 the rate would become 0 percent.)

    Transfers from Sales Tax to KDOT. Click for larger.
    Transfers from Sales Tax to KDOT. Click for larger.
    Nearby is a chart showing how many sales tax dollars were transferred to the highway fund. In 2006 the transfer was $98.914 million, and by 2015 it had grown to $511.586 million, an increase of 417 percent. Inflation rose by 18 percent over the same period.3

    (It’s important to note that in some years money has been transferred from the highway fund back to the general fund. Worse, in some years KDOT has borrowed money for the highway fund, but it was transferred to the general fund.4)

    You’d think that Goossen, a former state budget director, would understand the difference between stopping a flow of funds versus reversing the flow. He claims the latter, and it isn’t surprising to see this mistake. A few sentences in the article let us know Goossen’s ideology, which is that Kansans should be taxed more so that government can continue to spend: “This maneuver does not fix the problem caused by unaffordable income tax cuts, it just makes highways and children pay for it.” First, tax cuts are never unaffordable. It is government that is unaffordable. Tax cuts let people keep more of what is rightly theirs. That is, unless you believe that government has a legitimate claim to your income and assets, as Goossen does. Second, he complains that “recurring revenue does not begin to cover expenses.” That is true. But the proper remedy is to reform and cut spending. Goossen prefers raising taxes.

    Economic Lifelines makes the same mistake. We can understand — but not condone — this organization’s motive. It exists for the sole purpose of drumming up support for spending that benefits its members. If its director, who wrote the email cited above, said that Kansas is spending enough or too much on highways, he undoubtedly would be fired.

    But what is Duane Goossen’s motivation for twisting the meaning of a bill? That’s a mystery.

    KDOT spending on major road programs. Click for larger version.
    KDOT spending on major road programs. Click for larger version.
    To top it off, spending on highways has increased — notwithstanding the transfers from the highway fund — when we look at actual spending on roads. KDOT’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report shows spending in the categories “Preservation” and “Expansion and Enhancement” has grown rapidly over the past five years. Spending in the category “Maintenance” has been level, while spending on “Modernization” has declined. For these four categories — which represent the major share of KDOT spending on roads — spending in fiscal 2015 totaled $932,666 million, up from a low of $698,770 in fiscal 2010.

    1. Goossen: High Danger Alert: SB 463. Kansas Center for Economic Growth. Available at: http://realprosperityks.com/goossen-high-danger-alert-sb-463/. ↩
    2. Kansas Statutes Annotated 79-3620. ↩
    3. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator. Available at http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm. ↩
    4. Voice for Liberty, Kansas transportation bonds economics worse than told. Available at http://wichitaliberty.org/kansas-government/kansas-transportation-bonds-economics-worse-than-told/. ↩
  • In Kansas, teachers unions should stand for retention

    In Kansas, teachers unions should stand for retention

    A bill requiring teachers unions to stand for retention elections each year would be good for teachers, students, and taxpayers.

    The bill is SB 469, titled “Recertification of professional employees’ organizations under the professional negotiations act.” It would require that the Kansas Department of Labor hold an election each year in each school district regarding whether the current representation should continue. These elections, in effect, would be referendums on the teachers union, by the teachers. (Update: The bill has been revised to call for elections every third year.)

    That’s a good thing. The teachers union monopoly ought to stand for retention once in a while.

    The bill has an estimated cost of $340,000 annually, including the hiring of 4 employees. But this is a situation ideally suited for outsourcing to one of the many companies that can perform this work. It would undoubtedly be less expensive and would not require the hiring of employees to do a job that is seasonal in nature.

    Further, the professional employees’ organization (union) that represents each district ought to bear the cost of the elections, if they want to continue representing a district.

    How effective has the teachers union been in advocating for teachers? In particular, teachers in the Wichita public school district ought to be wondering about the benefit of its union. The contract for this year did not include a pay increase, although the teachers do get some additional time off as the school year was shortened by two days. (Which makes us ask: Where is the concern by the board or teachers for the welfare of the students?)

    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.
    Wichita public school salaries and change. Click for larger.
    As far as performance over time, since 2008 teacher salaries in Wichita rose by 2.6 percent. Salaries for principals rose by 8.1 percent over the same period. Statewide, the increase in teacher pay was 7.7 percent, and for principals, 10.9 percent.

    On top of that, the Wichita teachers union takes credit for providing benefits that aren’t really benefits, such as when it promoted that only United Teachers of Wichita members would receive a copy of the employment agreement. In reality, it is a public document that anyone has the right to possess.

    There are many reasons why Kansas schoolteachers might be unhappy with their current union representation, including:

    Creating an adversarial environment for public schools in Kansas. Instead of cooperating on education matters, the union foments conflict with taxpayers.

    Forcing professional employees to work under rules more suited for blue-collar labor.

    Working to deny Kansas teachers a choice in representation. 1

    Promoting a false assessment of Kansas schools that is harmful to Kansas schoolchildren. 2

    Forming a task force to promote a false grassroots impression of support for the teachers union, complete with pre-determined talking points on a secret web page. 3

    Encouraging party-switching to vote in primary elections to protect union members’ “professional interests.” 4

    Constant drumbeat for more school spending without regard to competing interests and taxpayers.5 and taxes to support it.6

    Opposing the introduction of a modern retirement system, instead preferring to saddle Kansans with billions of dollars in debt.7

    —
    Notes

    1. Weeks, B. (2013). Kansas teachers union: No competition for us. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/education/kansas-teachers-union-no-competition-for-us/. ↩
    2. Weeks, B. (2016). Kansas schools and other states. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/kansas-schools-and-other-states/. ↩
    3. Weeks, B. (2014). Our Kansas grassroots teachers union. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/kansas-grassroots-teachers-union/. ↩
    4. Weeks, B. (2012). KNEA email a window into teachers union. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/wichita-kansas-schools/knea-email-window-teachers-union/. ↩
    5. KNEA – School Funding . (2016). Knea.org. Available at: http://www.knea.org/home/366.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2016. ↩
    6. KNEA – Taxes and Revenue. (2016). Knea.org. Available at: http://www.knea.org/home/368.htm. Accessed 8 Mar. 2016. ↩
    7. Weeks, B. (2011). KPERS problems must be confronted. Voice For Liberty in Wichita. Available at: http://wichitaliberty.org/kansas-government/kpers-problems-must-be-confronted/. ↩
  • Machinists Union has been bad for Wichita

    Machinists Union has been bad for Wichita

    The Machinists Union hasn’t been very good for Wichita.

    Besides destroying the jobs of some 2,100 Boeing workers in Wichita when the company fled to somewhere with lower labor costs, it seems that the local Machinists Union in Wichita may be stealing from its members. KAKE Television quotes union members using the word “embezzlement,” with one saying the unions is “three and a half million dollars in arrears.” (Machinists Union members hear investigation findings, February 22, 2016)

    The union members still with jobs may have thought they were the lucky ones. That is the economic effect of labor unions, after all. By driving up the cost of labor, less is demanded. So union workers who still have jobs are doing better than they would otherwise — that is, until their leadership steals from them, allegedly. Or until the company employs no one, as does Boeing in Wichita.

    The 2,100 Boeing workers without jobs in Wichita because of the union’s effect — well, at least the union isn’t able to steal from them, allegedly.

  • Wichita teacher contract: For union members only?

    United Teachers of Wichita logoIn a pitch to increase membership, United Teachers of Wichita promotes an exclusive benefit: “Only UTW members receive a copy of the Teachers Employment Agreement (contract).”

    I don’t know why the Wichita teachers union would promote the contract as an exclusive benefit. It is a public document. You may read it here.