State Education Priorities Questioned

Guest Column By Clifford F. Eike

I watched Governor Corbett's budget address on PCNTV and have moused around the budget "dashboard" available online studying the various spreadsheets and pie charts and arrived at the same conclusion I held since becoming involved in education issues in U.M. Township in the early and mid-'90's when my own kids were in local public and private schools. Very simply: the only way to shrink the size and burden of State and Local tax burdens is to cut the budget where the greatest appropriations are (as I read it 25% of state expenses are for education). Where is the money? Teacher and administrator salaries and benefits.

For far too long, there has been a cozy relationship between teacher union bosses and legislators on both sides of the aisle. The "big-government party," composed of both "D's" and "R's" has been happy to accept campaign contributions from the PSEA (Pennsylvania State Extortion Assn.) so that once elected or re-elected they would continue the business as usual: funding increases for school districts so the political class could continue enriching both its pockets and power at the expense of private sector taxpayers earning 50 - 60% of what teachers and administrators do while paying significantly more for non gold-plated health plans and having only defined contribution retirement plans rather than defined benefit retirement plans. These retirement plans based on years worked and highest pay earned, are nearly extinct in the private sector. I knew in the '90's that the taxpayer well of generosity would finally run dry, and now it has.

On the administrator side of things, school districts only need so many because of all of the unfunded mandates that come down from Washington whenever they accept federal money that never comes without strings. They are so busy filling out forms and doing studies to send a blizzard of statistics to some other useless bureaucrat in Washington, that not one moment of their time is left to add to the educational experience of the students. If you take a benefit from Washington, you are beholden to the Department of Education! Washington has become the "overseer," and the local districts are its slaves.

As for local School Board members, though some may be well intentioned, entirely too many run for this unpaid office because they wish to use it to further their business contact list, increase their networking ability, or hob-nob with the political class to which they aspire. In few instances can they or do they make the hard decisions necessary to balance budgets when it would mean a teacher strike. The school board members simply don't want phone chains calling them at all hours complaining of Mom or Dad missing a day's pay because son or daughter has no school due to a strike. Besides, their hands are tied by outrageous teacher contract demands that run two to three times higher than the cost of living.

Pennsylvania is now faced with a crisis not unlike Wisconsin and Ohio. Pennsylvania loses population every year to lower tax and "right-to-work" states. Our college grads are much more likely to find better paying private sector jobs outside PA which has become increasingly unfriendly to business due to taxes and over-regulation. Our high school grads can find better paying private sector construction or manufacturing jobs in southern "right-to-work" states like Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, or Texas. Our retirees are much more likely to be pushed from the homes in which they raised their children by oppressive school property taxes and move to a state like FL which has no state income tax and a "homestead" exemption.

To continue as we have without a massive public education overhaul and courageous legislation to that effect, like that recently enacted in WI and OH, or even in NH (which just voted in favor of becoming a "right-to-work" state), will only result in the continued downward spiral of economic malaise and decreased state and local revenues to fund critical public safety programs. Eventually, as has happened in most liberally governed cities, there are fewer businesses, fewer jobs, more crime, and more government dependency. None of these things breeds prosperity, freedom and a fiscally responsible government.

School districts need to be free from the threat of teacher strikes. You must work for the repeal of Act 195 of 1970. Act 88 of 1992 has done little to curb strikes in as much as PA still ranks number one in the nation for teacher strikes. Longer term, collective bargaining by teachers must be abolished because it is not a good-faith negotiation, but a taxpayer and parent shakedown by an omnipotent monopoly. School choice should be available for all children, not just inner city residents. All children, regardless of zip code, ethnicity, or affluence, deserve the best education money can buy. That can't happen however until teachers are willing to be paid based on merit and not on some table of seniority and educational credits in a union contract. Until there is free-market competition for good teachers and students willing to learn, mediocrity and downright failure will continue to reign supreme. Teacher and student quality will continue to be reduced to the lowest common denominator.

We need to teach reading, writing, mathematics, and science (biological, chemical, geological, and physical). We need to return to teaching the students how to think instead of what to think. We don't need the schools training our children and young adults subjects like diversity, multiculturalism, political correctness, and secular humanism. The well paying employers of today and tomorrow are willing to pay for people with knowledge of the former, but only the entry-level employers are interested in the mind-numbed robots with mere knowledge of the latter. It's no wonder private companies move offshore and take the best jobs with them. Sadly, our graduates are only fit for entry level or government jobs where performance doesn't matter, the employer (taxpayer) is faceless and distant, and the pay raises and pensions are secured by the fruits of their neighbor's labor.

In closing, our educational priorities must be reordered from top to bottom. It won't be easy because no worthwhile outcome ever is. But if you have the courage to take on the entrenched interests of a very vocal and sometimes very violent minority (NEA, PSEA, AFT, SEIU, etc.), in support of an increasingly awakening majority of private sector non-union working taxpayers we will support you in surprising numbers. Thanks to the spirit of the Tea Party and many other loosely affiliated grassroots individuals and groups, we will be your shield bearers as you take up the sword to slay the dragon of public sector teacher union bosses.