An item from a neo-liberal… This one is an item from a business professor with little direct experience in education, but who believes free market economic principles are the answer to education’s (and pretty much all other society’s social) problems.
This entry is a good illustration of this point! Unions are designed to ensure that workers have the ability to bargain as a group to even the playing field between employers and employees. It is worth reminding readers that in the United States unions are responsible for achieved higher wages, more reasonable hours, safer working conditions, health benefits, aid when retired or injured, ending the practice of child labor, and a host of other things. Unions have also been demonized by neo-liberals and those on the right because being forced to do things like provide a living wage to their employees eats into the profit of businesses and corporations.
In good neo-liberal fashion, Michael’s proposed solution is to trade a fundamental right that should be available to unions in order to achieve all of the things describe above, in exchange for essentially greater privatization of a public system funded by taxpayers. I mean what good are rights if we can’t leverage them to maximize profits for the wealthy!
On the heels of the illegal Newton teachers strike canceling 11 days of school, a debate has continued in the Commonwealth. Should public school teachers be allowed to strike?
While both sides have aired the rationales for and against, what’s missing is a compromise to allow both teachers and families the power they seek. If public school teachers are to get the right to strike, families should get publicly funded educational choices in the form of education savings accounts (ESAs).
Since 1973, public employees have not been allowed to strike. The arguments for including teachers in this provision include that public schools are essentially a monopoly. Many families can’t afford alternatives. And even when they can, canceling school hurts all families.
© 2024 Michael Horn
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