Blog: LAUSD Occupation -- Big Business for the UTLA

Many Americans are outraged that Wall Street got a bail-out while the rest of us did not.  Through expensive lobbying, back-room deals, and misleading advertising – the perception is that Wall Street writes its own rules that protect it from regulation, down-side risk, and competitive transparency.  Their profit go up with unemployment.  The rule-creating class gets millions while rule-abiding class gets unemployment.  That's all wrong, right?

So then, what exactly are the UTLA and their socialist tag-alongs doing at the LAUSD headquarters these days? What are the goals of “Occupy LAUSD?”  Could the UTLA be following Wall Street itself more closely than they are the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters?  The UTLA is fighting competition, regulation, and transparency: those things that are essential for giving our children jobs, self-respect, and a shot at a decent future.  How are their activities any less pernicious than crimes which the OWS protesters allege?

Read the UTLA’s demands: http://www.utla.net/press/20111021

“Tax the 1% to fully fund schools for our students.”

Profits are soaring and tax payments are falling for the richest 1% at a time when teachers are being laid off and our children are being stuffed into over-crowded classrooms. Everyone must pay their fair share to educate our children.

Yes, we’re in a cyclical downturn and yes, there are layoffs.   But we have more teachers per student than we had 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and 20 years ago.  Are layoffs the reason why our children aren’t learning?

The teacher unions are doing what they do best: manipulating public opinion.  They are channeling economic anxiety to keep focus on recession-driven cut-backs instead of allowing us to talk about how well (not well) we’re spending $6.5 billion per year on operations at the LAUSD.  Remember, because of the UTLA contract, you can’t fire bad teachers or pay young talented teachers more money.  Whether you want higher or lower taxes, if you’re talking about raising taxes instead of reforming the contract, they got you: hook, line and sinker. 

Let’s consider the questions that the UTLA doesn’t want us discussing.  Why are we laying off young teachers?  Why are we laying off great teachers?   Why is nobody asking about the quality of the teachers that we’re laying off?  Why does the LAUSD set quota limits on high-powered TFA teachers from Ivy League schools?  Why did we hire so many teachers over the last 20 years?  Is LAUSD any betterbecause there are twice as many teachers?  Is it really “for our students” or is it “for our dues-payers” that the UTLA wants to “fully fund” schools?  Is there such a thing as “full funding” when there is no limit to the number of members and benefits the UTLA desires? 

Tax the rich campaigns may be popular in down-times but they don't improve school quality.  They are a distraction from the real problems, which is why the teacher unions champion them.

“By the 99%.  For the 99%.  Keep our public schools public!”

We reject the premise that the 1% billionaires – Bill Gates and Eli Broad- should be allowed to seize our public schools by buying seats on school boards that dismantle our schools, lay off thousands of teachers, and then award dozens of public schools to private charters, while denying teachers collective bargaining rights.

The UTLA is suggesting that because Eli Broad and Bill Gates are wealthy, their gains are ill-gotten, they are evil, and the reforms they support are evil.  Putting aside the matter that Gates and Broad provided enormous value in the accumulation of their wealth (Use Windows anywhere?  Live in a KB home?), why did the UTLA parent union (AFT) take $290 million from Gates in 2009?

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/press-releases/Pages/american-federation-of-teachers-statement-on-intensive-partnership-grant-091119.aspx

The insinuation that pro-reform philanthropic donations are like conflict diamonds on one hand or the polo club membership on the other is extremely self-serving.  Why?  Because teacher unions collect compulsory dues; school reformers rely on philanthropy.  Philanthropy is the oxygen of education reform movement that the teacher unions want to snuff out.

After applauding Gates and Broad for their discomfort over watching children’s lives wasted, let’s consider the amount of their investments.  If education philanthropy is ever going to make a dent it must be spent on advocacy not research, and it must increase by an order of magnitude. 

The UTLA raises and spends $30 million/year protecting their monopoly; statewideteacher unions spend over $300 million -- per year.  Nationally, the number is over $2.5 billion, three times more every year than President Obama raised in 2008.  Parents Union, a state-wide reform organization, won’t pull in $2 million this year.  Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) in Los Angeles won’t break a million.  Do you see the problem?

The UTLA doesn’t want you to know that philanthropic giving to educational advocacy is a rounding error on their balance sheets.  They want you to think this is a fair fight and to think of the billionaires as bad guys.  And they don't want the billionaires to start spending real money.  A million or two in Los Angeles doesn't bother them, but $50 million does.  If they can make giving $1 million hard enough, perhaps Gates won't risk the $50 million.

What they don’t want you to think about is why they care so much about losing schools to private charter operators.  Privately managed public school teachers rarely unionize, costing the UTLA $689 dollars per year, $57.42 per month, per teacher.    A single fantastic non-union school could cost the UTLA and its state and national affiliates (CTA, CFT, NEA, AFT) $10,000 per year.  Over 10 years, they could lose more than $100,000 per school.   If reform were to break through, those lost dues could quickly add up to real money.

Consider their worst nightmare: if every school in the LAUSD were non-union, they would lose nearly $30 million per year.  Consider their dream: public policy that outlaws non-union schools.   Isn't that what the "Occupy LAUSD" group wants?  They want all teachers to pay union dues and if demonizing Gates and Broad and pitching tents in front of Beaudry is what it will take, that’s what they’ll do.  $30 million buys a lot of tents, port-a-johns, PA systems, and propaganda trying to confuse the public into believing that non-union schools are instruments of Wall Street oppression.

Don't be fooled.

“Democratic community-based schools: No corporate Wall St. Reform.”

We stand with the 99%: children, parents and teachers who yearn for quality education for all. All stakeholders must be part of the education process and not just the wealthy few who can afford it. Bill Gates and Eli Broad should not be more powerful than all of the parents in Los Angeles.

This UTLA says that Gates and Broad “should not be more powerful than all of the parents in Los Angeles.”   Is that really the problem?   If parents had meaningful educational choices (including non-union schools) Bill Gates and Eli Broad would be spending their money elsewhere. 

That’s not the problem. 

Rich do-gooders are not subverting parent power, teacher unions are.   With the exception of the new and relatively unknown Parent Trigger, parents in Los Angeles have categorically no power at all. Just ask any parent who has tried to replace a teacher or principal.  Good luck with that!

What we are seeing now outside Beaudry is a smoke and mirrors game.

For decades the UTLA has controlled the LAUSD through its annual war chest of $30 million which is conveniently deducted from the pay-checks of 40,000+ teachers (full and part-time) by the district itself.  An estimated 10,000 teachers are “hard-core” activists; they are their standing army.   They’ll fight with you if you support their agenda (more dues payers, less accountability); cross  them and only god can help you.  School reform has no well-funded cavalry or substantial numbers of boots on the ground. 

But the UTLA wants you to believe they do, because creating a bogey-man makes them seem less powerful, more worthy of your sympathy. Don’t fall for it. 

Teacher unions are experienced political sharks who make Wall Street bankers look like two-year-olds in arm floaties. Teacher unions dominate education reformers by more than 20:1 in terms of cash on hands and boots on the ground in every city, including -- I will wager -- New Orleans where they theoretically don't even operate.

This is not a fair fight; far from it. Neither Gates nor Broad have ever beaten the UTLA and nationally their record is weak.  The way they dabble today, they will never make reform stick.  We know from experience that teacher unions are animals that will reproduce from a single cell; only full, state-wide eradication coupled with wall-to-wall school choice, will ever end their domination of education policy. 

When dirty businesses try to monopolize their industries by shutting down competitors we put them in jail.  But that’s exactly what the UTLA is doing: they’re trying to shut down non-union charter schools and make sure that every teacher pays union dues.   They say that they’re fighting to protect “Democracy” when what they’re fighting to protect is their monopoly on teacher labor.  Why aren’t we putting them in jail?

School Board elections are “democratic” right?  So why are 80% of them won by teacher union backed candidates when teachers represent fewer than 1.5% of registered voters?  Ask UTLA stooge Bennett Kayser how “he” won  his District 5 school board campaign? Was it “the people” of Los Angeles, who cast nearly 30% more votes against him at the polls?  Or was it unionized teachers and the parents who believed them, delivering the 6% turn-out election to him through early, absentee ballots?

And what does Wall Street have to do with failing schools in Los Angeles? Nothing.  Wall Street bankers would love our country to be spitting out highly educated workers that could compete in the global labor-market.  The UTLA doesn’t care how children perform; the unmitigated failure of the last 40 years cost them not a dime.  On the contrary, dues revenue is up significant since the 1970s.  Over the last five years, UTLA honchos have been eating better than ever and the CTA has more money for its political cannon than ever.

The UTLA is targeting Wall Street because they’re hoping you forget they’re actually the bad guys.

Nothing has a great impact on students than great teachers and last year, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) investigated barriers to raising teacher quality in Los Angeles. Read the study; it’s fascinating, and damning: http://www.nctq.org/tr3/consulting/docs/nctq_tr3_lausd_06-2011.pdf

The NCTQ annotated its findings to show what changes the Superintendent himself can make versus what authority the UTLA protects for itself through the contract or worse, a state-level law.  The conclusion?   Public school management is mostly ceremonial; even the Superintendent has very little power.  He is just another actor able to talk to but not actually deliver on the promise of public service; those powers have long been held by the teacher unions themselves.  You’ve probably never read the NCTQ report.  The LAUSD has no public relations vehicle for disseminating its findings widely; the UTLA does but it’s chosen not to promote the report. They have a lot to hide.

The UTLA is occupying the LAUSD for sure.  They have for five decades, four decades semi-officially as the exclusive collective bargaining agent.  The only difference is that today they are using the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement as a smokescreen for doing what corrupt business people do: stifling competition and promoting their interests at the expense of the public.  All of their talk about “democratic” processes producing fair outcomes for children is a cruel hoax.  The “democratic” rules they favor protect their labor monopoly.  The protests they favor are those that fool the public while increasing teacher loyalty to their union.  Protesting alleged injustices against teachers does that.

In case you weren’t already fully convinced, the UTLA occupation will be made abundantly clear should the marginally reform-minded school board hold out for meaty contract concessions.  The UTLA will demonstrate that “the public will” (however it is articulated by the current school board) is infinitely less powerful than the labor monopoly they are so anxious to protect. Non-union teachers at non-union charter schools will report to schools where children will learn. 

Union-teachers will strike, play the victims, and shut down the LAUSD.  And they will call this, “negotiation.”  The “barons” of Wall Street will be “green” with envy; they will never have as much power to stop and destroy our lives, as the teacher unions. 

This blog is cross-posted on Anthony Krinsky's Education Blog: http://edobserver.blogspot.com/2011/10/lausd-occupation-is-big-business-...