Posts tagged school districts
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
Illinois school official sounds alarm over personnel shortage as school begins
August 22, 2023 // The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools conducted an Educator Shortage study and found that 76% of school districts reported problems with staffing shortages. “At first it was a teacher shortage. Then there was a teacher shortage crisis. Then it was a teacher shortage catastrophe, and it just escalates,” IARSS President Mark Klaisner said. Klaisner said some downstate districts are trying to come up with ways to open their schools despite a lack of educators.
A Bandage Approach: Teaching after Retirement
July 26, 2023 // The problem is that allowing retired teachers to come back to the classroom does nothing to address the problem. Let me be clear on what I mean by “the problem.” I am not talking about the problem of teacher recruitment and the number of people entering the profession. I’m talking about the teacher pipeline problem caused by the retirement system itself. It is a system that pushes people out. It incentivizes teachers, principals, and superintendents to retire in their mid-50s. This new provision does not address that issue; instead, it makes it worse. Researchers have long known that defined-benefit pensions, such as those used in the Missouri teaching profession, have two key effects on the labor market. They provide a pull for workers to stay until the peak benefit period, then they push workers out. If a teacher begins working in Missouri right out of college around the age of 22, they will likely hit their peak benefit period around the age of 53. If lawmakers truly want to keep great late-career teachers in the profession, they should revise the system that pushes them out in the first place. The best way to do this would be to move to a new type of pension system where teachers’ retirement plans would continue to accrue wealth as they continue to work through their 50s.
Four states advance bills prohibiting union dues deductions
April 21, 2023 //
Teachers Unions Called For Closing Classrooms; Students Now Facing Mental Health Challenges
April 5, 2022 // Chalkbeat Detroit reported March 14 that the Detroit school district has hired additional mental health staffer to deal with a potential mental health crisis among students who were deprived of the classroom experience and personal interactions during the past two years
Act 10 Savings Tops $15 Billion Since 2011
March 27, 2022 // Before the unions convince you that contributing 12.6% towards health insurance is an unfair and undue burden, think about this. A state employee in Wisconsin pays $2,952 a year for the regular family plan with dental. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average annual worker premium contribution is $6,015 a year. State employees pay roughly half of what the average taxpayer pays for health insurance and the state employee is receiving platinum coverage for that reasonable amount.
Rhode Island Schools Must Remove Unconstitutional Anti-Janus Contract Language
March 18, 2022 // Mackinac Center Legal Foundation demands districts stop forcing employees to pay union dues
Paycheck protection needed to prevent government payroll from funding partisan political activism
January 19, 2022 // But a proposed “paycheck protection” bill would end this practice by prohibiting school districts, and other public employers, from automatically deducting contributions to political action committees out of employee wages.