I live in NJ, and I’d be completely in favor of dismantling public schools, and having a set amount paid out to schools for each student.
In NJ, there are tons of little towns all over the state, and for the most part, each one has its own school system. The teachers unions are extremely powerful, and fight against any attempt to consolidate things at the county level.
A close friend of mine lived in a town where the BoE wanted to raise property taxes by some ridiculous amount. The budget was voted down by the population. The way the process worked was that if it was voted down, the budget was sent to the Town Council to review. The council had to provide a number for the taxes, and justify it with a budget accounting for every line item. The BoE wasn’t required to follow the budget at the item level, it was just guidance as to how to make it work.
The council provided a budget with no increase at all. They showed how there were math classes that could hold up to 20 students, but instead of doing that, they were being offered 3-4 times per day, with classes of less than 5 students. They just consolidated them into one class. There were many other things similar to that.
The union controlled the BoE in that town, and instead of following the recommendations, they cut after-school programs and special education programs. The union then spent a ton of money on a PR campaign against the Council, blaming them for the cuts, and putting up their own candidates to run in the next election.
I wasn’t a huge Chris Christie fan when he was the governor, but I really liked when he went to war against the teachers unions. They’re the main reason that NJ has some of the highest real estate taxes in the country.
If they disbanded public schools, and allowed people to choose private schools, providing an allowance per student for tuition, I think it would really help lower those taxes.
Alternatively, they could actually merge districts together at the county level, and save money that way.
Great post. Worth its own thread imo. I recall some PBS style documentary about the Chicago teachers union and it was much the same story, but writ large.
I’d offer a slightly different fix, tho. The unions all face decreasing student enrollments. They are out to protect teacher’s positions. The school districts have a n age old business problem…well more accurately a financing problem.
The districts have a lot of unused capacity. And that is school buildings. These have negative carry. It costs to retain them, even idle. It’s time to lease them out. Day care, sr centers, or charter schools. Anything that brings in revenues is better than where they are now.
So rather than burn it all down, could you settle for a “tactical retreat”? Condense the small suburban districts if you can. It’ll prolly mean longer transit times for a lot of kids. Affected parents gonna scream bloody murder. But sumthins gotta give.
If you have a class that can hold 20 students and it only has 5, merging 4 such classes together saves on the cost of teachers.
Yes, admins will also be affected by mergers, probably more so than the teachers - but are they protected by a union?
I get the general point and agree with it. My question is how does this differ from any other interest groups that exercise policy influence. Mostly people are against interest groups they don’t like and are for those they like. This is the American way. And if there is an interest group you don’t agree with, if you can build another that defeats it fair and fine, then the other side hates you rather than you hating them. Love and war my friend, it’s all just love and war.
It feels a bit different when it is a public union. In general, unions do not elect their boss.
Teachers unions are not doing anything strictly illegal. Just democracy in action. Also bear in mind, that the mayor of any reasonable sized city has a pretty hard time winning re election if there are protracted school closures because of teacher strikes. The fact is, BoE elections receive little attention. Small but well organized groups can really swing the composition of boards. Just the way the rules play out. But it gives the public unions a pretty big stock in any negotiation.
Now, not much any of us can do about how the general electorate regards BoE elections. So strangely, an effective counter may be other trade and professional unions, which could organize to offset the teachers. Playing hard ball with them is pretty treacherous.
I am always dubious of schemes that take tax payer money and “award” it to private companies. Privatizing has not worked out as designed so many times.