A punch? Maybe not. But here are 10 reasons why teachers’ unions deserve to lose.

August 3, 2015 Matt Rooney Uncategorized 13

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Governor Chris Christie’s CNN interview continues to elicit strong reactions, Save Jerseyans, and the problem with this controversy, as with similar incidents, is that most folks are focusing on the style points. It’s among the regrettable byproducts of our presidential politics, cultural decline, and hyper-politicization of the education industry. But those are topics for another post…

What about the substance?

Let’s revisit, briefly, what these teachers’ unions are all about and objectively decide whether they deserve to exist (I’m not pulling any punches):

Apple10) The union establishment’s demands are as unrealistic as they’ve been fiscally ruinous. NJEA members will donate $126,000 to pension and health benefits over 30 years but stand to collect $2.4 million in return. Who thought this was a good idea??? Are all of the calculators broken in Trenton? Of course not. It’s all part of an elaborate, decades-old double-whammy of vote buying and problem avoidance. Instead of hating Chris Christie, teachers should direct their ire to the politicians on their own union’s campaign season payroll. They did it.

9)  Their chosen tactics are disgusting. Wisconsin’s recent experiences were horrific, and the physical/verbal violence perpetrated by Big Labor’s storm troopers was 100% one-sided.

8) The system these unions ferociously protect is failing our country’s most vulnerable children, especially those students living in poorer, minority-concentrated school districts. Click here to check out my lengthy run-down of Camden High School’s plight (catalyzed by a give-and-take with my liberal friend of Inky fame Kevin Riordan) for the uncomfortable truth.

7) American Teachers’ unions = Democrat Party affiliates. After self-preservation, the teacher union establishment is primarily concerned with protecting the Democrats whose policies protect their power. A good faith union would avoid colluding with one political party or the other, pursuing and prioritizing the best interests of its membership and their children. Not the teacher’s unions; in this state and most others, and certainly nationally as Chris Christie pointed out, they function as a Democrat Super PAC. The American Federation of Teachers has already endorsed Hillary Clinton before either party held its first debate!

6) Dues tied up in waste and hypocrisy… so teachers lose, too: The NJEA collects a 9-figure annual sum in teachers’ taxpayer paycheck-derived dues; its regular and political arms spend many millions more in lobbying and both direct and indirect campaigning activity to influence public police. What do its members have to show for it???

5) Therefore, these unions have a financial incentive to protect bad dues-paying teachers at the expense of the education system. Much has been written on this topic but John Stossel did a particularly good job of illustrating how difficult it is to purge the suck; it’s a crisis that’s turned even hardened union veterans against the tenure-centric system.

4) …making it harder for good teachers to earn more. The most egregious example of this phenomenon occurred in D.C. during the last-2000s. Here’s the story.

3) So unsurprisingly, given the choice, most teachers don’t want to participate in unions. Participation in Wisconsin’s public sector unions, including teachers’ unions, has plummeted after Scott Walker’s reforms became law. “If you do a good job, everything will take care of itself. The money I’d spend on dues is way more valuable to buy groceries for my family,” one Wisconsin educator explained.

2) For all of these reasons, quite frankly, they don’t give a damn about your kids. Don’t take my word for it: “Well, you know, uh, life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that.” That’s recently retired NJEA Executive Director, Vincent Giordano, who earned $550,000 annually when he went on TV a few years ago and callously dismissed the plight of New Jersey children stuck in failing, NJEA-protected schools.

1) And then there’s this:

Q: “If there were a high quality schools that did not have unionized teachers … would you be for it?”

A: “No.”

_________

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8440 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

13 Comments

  1. Force union members to hire their fellow union members when they have a job to get done: fix a toilet, replace an electrical outlet, change a window, etc. Their screams will be heard in the middle of the forest even when no one is there.

  2. Seeing the world through conservative eyes, teachers’ unions deserve to lose because investing in public education is another nail in the coffin of conservatism.

    Republicans love to claim that public schools are a breeding ground for liberal propaganda. In a way, it’s true since being educated and enlightened to ANY degree is to the left of republicans.

  3. The NJEA leaders invest in themselves and their politics. So many tax dollars for schools and yet, we can’t seem to actually provide the children with supplies, and an education. Democrats like to think they are “for the people”. In fact, Democrats are for Democrats. Sooner people start realizing this, the better

  6. Right, join the chorus of right-wingers like the Koch Brothers who decry government subsidies yet receive $185 million in government subsidies. Republicans are for Republicans. Sooner people start realizing this, the better. Can’t help the Nazi storm trooper reference?

  8. Chris Christie and other conservative union busters love to regurgitate over and over how they’re attacking the union, not the teachers. It’s not because they’re idiots, it’s because they’re liars who know what they’re doing and know that it’ll resonate with misinformed, miseducated people who have never been in a union and have no idea how they work.

    The teachers ARE the union and it’s those teachers who elect leadership they believe will best help them advocate for the wages and benefits they want. Therefore, Christie IS in fact attacking teachers.

    A union is only as strong as its members. If Christie wants to punch the teachers’ union in the face, he wants to punch every public educator in the face whether he chooses to admit it or not.

  11. You missed the obligatory “We are the 99%” reference in his profile pic indicating he’s an Occupy grifter, which makes him a three-strikes-your-out left-wing cretin.

    Don’t you wish they’d come up with something new every so often? Hearing the same tedious treacle time after time after time again is so boring.

Comments are closed.