“We are witnessing one of the most important struggles in modern America.” Newt Gingrich wrote that this morning, and he is absolutely right. In Wisconsin Americans are viewing a battle that can end in one of two ways: the people of Wisconsin take their state back from the public sector unions, or they fail to do so and watch their state careen off a fiscal cliff.
Governor Scott Walker’s mission must be the mission of every state government. In fact, America needs a National Right to Work amendment to protect Americans from forced unionism no matter where they live. Senator Rand Paul has sponsored the National Right to Work Act in the Senate, which would free 11 million workers from being forced to pay tribute to a union. You can sign the petition to have the bill heard in the Senate here.
It’s important to remember during the fight exactly why unions are bad for America. They prevent competition. As a monopoly on a product (labor), unions bring with them all the bad habits of monopolies, overpricing and inefficiency. As Christian Schneider writes in National Review:
Wisconsin’s teacher-licensure program, which is controlled almost entirely by the unions, strictly limits the number of educators that can compete for public teaching jobs. Teacher tenure, often granted after only three years on the job, makes it virtually impossible to fire a bad teacher. Through its mass opposition to private-school choice programs, the teachers’ union has thwarted competition, thereby protecting its members’ jobs — even in districts like MPS, which boasts some of the worst African-American reading and math scores in the nation.
The teachers’ union limits the number of educators who can compete for jobs, even taking the best educators out of the classroom in favor of those with seniority. Our children, Matt and Becky, as well as Debbie and I went to public school, and we all loved our schools. Today though, it’s an entirely other matter. Not one of our grandchildren goes to a public school. The sad truth is that public school today is not an option in many areas of the country if you want your children to receive even an adequate education.
Teachers’ unions are to blame for much of this failure. Just as crooked union bosses drove Detroit’s auto industry into the ground, misguided teachers’ unions are sacrificing children’s education by building collectively bargained walls against their own accountability.
Getting rid of unions, coupled with a streamlining of the American tax code, would result in overwhelming job creation in America and be welcomed heartily by the large majority of Americans who do not belong to unions
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