I got an opportunity to watch the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” and it confirmed much of  what I have been saying. Teachers are a national treasure. Teachers’ unions are the new empire of evil. Whoa! That’s harsh. Yes, but not nearly as harsh as flushing thousands of uneducated children into the streets to fend for themselves, when we should be educating them for our future.

The reason I chose the word “evil” is the patent dishonesty the teachers’ unions use to advance their agenda. The steelworkers’ union doesn’t talk about looking out for the steel; they say they are looking out for their members. The United Auto Workers union doesn’t talk about looking out for the cars, they say they are looking out for their members. The Teamsters union doesn’t talk about looking out for the trucks they drive; they say they are looking out for their members. But listen to any pitch from the National Education Association or the American Federation of Teachers and they are always “fighting for the children.” What utter twaddle. If that is true they should all be horsewhipped for the awful job they are doing. Who are they fighting with? The parents? The taxpayers?  It is a bald faced lie. They are fighting for the teachers and the children be damned.

In New York City, where Mayor Mike Bloomberg has shut down 110 poor performing schools, they are trying a new approach, turning around schools. The experiment would consist of replacing the principal and half the teachers at two schools but keeping the schools and their programs running. Here is the union’s position:

Union leaders might be seen by their rank and file as acquiescing to the replacement of teachers, though those teachers would be entitled to their full salaries and jobs elsewhere in the system. But if those schools were closed, they could be replaced with charter schools, which tend not to be unionized.

That’s the basic union formula, keep incompetent teachers at all costs. They do not want to lose one dollar of union dues and the power that flows from those dues.

In the documentary a bold approach was tried by Michelle Rhee, superintendent of Washington DC public schools perhaps the worst school system in the country, where she proposed a merit pay system where teachers could earn as much as $150,000 a year in return for giving up tenure. The union would not even allow it to come up for a vote. Hmmm…merit pay, rewarding teachers for doing a good job, which means actually educating the children, but the union says, NO! We won’t even vote on that. Can we queue the violins and roll one of the union’s commercials about “the children” now, please.

In New York City they finally shut down the “rubber rooms” where teachers accused of misconduct waited, sometimes as long as three years, for an administrative hearing on their case for dismissal. At the time of closing there were 550 teachers in the rubber rooms costing the city $30 million per year. The teachers in the rubber room continued to receive full salary and their benefits grew with the seniority they accumulated while in the rubber rooms. Psst…it’s for the children.

Another expert in the documentary estimated if only the bottom 5%-8% of teachers could be culled from the schools, the progress improvement would soon put the United States back near the top of the world in educational performance. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if after three years on the job a teacher is guaranteed their job for life, that no matter how motivated, they lose their edge. When the going gets tough, instead of doubling their efforts, they can just say, “the hell with it,” I will get paid whether anyone learns or not, and next year I’ll get a raise.

The counter argument, if they were honest enough to make it, is that the unions are fighting to keep teachers’ jobs in a period of high unemployment. But how many uneducated of our youth will be and remain unemployed for much of their life because of failure factories? Why are high tech companies with jobs crying out for more visas for foreign workers? Because our own schools can’t graduate enough people to do these jobs. This is a national disgrace. Imagine if these children, our children, could graduate high school and actually be able to read and write, put together a coherent sentence, and do basic math.

The solution is not the federal government throwing money at the problem. The federal government should get out of the way. It is the teachers’ unions that are the problem. I ask this question to teachers and no one can seem to answer it. Why would a competent and skilled teacher want to link themselves to an incompetent teacher and be sold to a school district as a package? Anyone? Beuller?

That’s my opinion; I’d like to know yours.  Please comment below.

The Obama administration, having stepped in it with both feet to protect their union backers rather than let two of the three U.S. automobile companies go into bankruptcy, are now weighing the sale of the stock owned by us, in an Initial Public Offering (IPO).  Their plans are to scale back the offering to prop up the price that they might be able to get in the market so that they can ultimately get most of the taxpayer money they spent, back.

“While both G.M. and the Treasury still hope to reduce the government’s stake in the company to less than 50 percent and rid the company of its Government Motors nickname, that goal may not be met, one of the people said,” according to the New York Times.  In saying that, auto analysts are increasingly projecting that the government could get most or all of its remaining $43 billion investment, but it will takes years to accomplish.  Uh-oh.

The rumblings are already starting about GM and Chrysler going back to the old ways of doing business.  What is the saying?  “Never let a good deed go unpunished.”  The unions got major chunks of GM and Chrysler and in return made a number of concessions.   However, having dodged that bullet, the unions are looking to get back what they gave up.  They seem not to realize that the structure of their contract agreements put them at a $2,000 per vehicle disadvantage against their foreign competitors.  Consider some of these comments:

“Over the last half-dozen years or so, the UAW has lost a lot of things it has fought for over its 75-year history.”

“Once we said that our job is to help the companies survive … then it just threw us off task of representing our members’ interests,” he said.
“Bringing the wages, the health benefits, and the pensions of the second-tier workers up to the higher-level workers is the goal that must be embraced,” said Wendy Thompson, a UAW retiree.

And that last woman quoted was retired!  But their fate is tied to the company’s now more than ever because they own a big chunk, right?  The scuttlebutt is that the union plans to sell off its stock and then possibly strike.  So get the American taxpayers to bail the companies out, get a big slice of ownership dropped on your plate, sell it at a profit (since they didn’t pay for it, it’s all profit) to the American public, and then strike to get everything you gave up, back.  This will drive the companies back into the ground and the American taxpayer will get caught holding another bag, courtesy of their government.

Gratitude?  What Gratitude?

President Obama visited his adoring fans at an auto plant to bask in the warm glow of their love.  Now that the companies are not on the verge of collapse, you would think the workers whose jobs you saved would be grateful.  A local Fox News affiliate did a report on that factory and found that the workers, instead of working twice as hard to make the company a success, took their 30 minute lunch break to race to the liquor store and then to a public park, where they could drink and smoke pot before returning to work.  See for yourself right by clicking on the link.

 Busted On The Job.  Makes you want to run out and buy a Chrysler, doesn’t it?  The Times article goes on to point out that GM stock hit it’s all time high of $92.63 in April of 2000.  For us to get all our money back, the stock has to hit an average price of $133.78.  Are you feeling lucky?

If not, remember who got us here.  Remember November

The White House released a list the other day of visitors.  Topping the list, in terms of frequency of visits was Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  If the name of that union is not familiar to you, it is often closely linked to ACORN, the discredited group of community organizers.  So how many visits did Mr. Stern make?  Twenty-two (22).  That’s about once every other week, give or take.

Unions Decline

From a peak, as a percentage of employed workers, of 28.3% in 1954 to a level of 11.5% in 2003, the importance of unions in American life is not what it used to be.  In his recent book, What Americans Really want…Really, Frank Luntz asked this question, which of the following institutions are most important for America’s future? He then gave them a list to choose from.  When he combined their first and second choice percentages here is how it came out:

1. Schools – 51%
2. The Church – 26%
3. Federal Government – 24%
4. The Military – 23%
5. Business – 22%
6. Local Government – 13%
7. The Courts – 12%
8. Financial Institutions – 11%
9. Hospitals – 9%
10. The Media – 4%
11. Police – 3%
12. Unions – 3%

So let’s see…unions are at about 1/3 of their peak membership numbers;  Americans think they are unimportant to America’s future and yet, the president of SEIU is at the White House just about every other week, far more than any other visitor.  How is that for being in touch?  It is hope.  It is change.  But it certainly seems like the wrong direction for America.  Do you feel like President Obama is leading America to greatness, or plotting against it?

Our once proud automobile industry

The government institutes regulations such as CAFE that force the automobile companies to build many cars they can’t sell at a profit for each car they can.  The unions negotiate contracts that pay people who have been let go 90% of their salary and give retirees extremely generous packages.  The automobile companies stagger under this load to the brink of bankruptcy and what happens?  The CEO of GM gets booted out and the government and the unions end up owning the car companies.  In the case of Chrysler the UAW will end up owning 55% of the company if the government’s plan is approved.

Had the automobile companies gone into bankruptcy before the bailout, as this author advocated, the union contracts could have been voided and a new workable deal struck.  But the government said bankruptcy was bad. The government said we had to give the car companies billions of our tax dollars.  The government said, if you automobiles companies don’t accept our deal, you will be forced into bankruptcy.  Huh?

So tell us again, Mr. Obama, how this is not socialism.