Unions
Pay attention to the budget of a Rhode Island school district for a few cycles, and you’ll learn that there are two companies providing busing, both with unionized workforces. Districts are obligated by law to provide transportation (including mandatory bus monitors), so the lack of competition leaves them with little choice and leaves the public…
A story in Not the Bee about a teachers union seminar about handling “nice white parents” comes out of Pennsylvania, but one can be sure that Rhode Island unions are talking about how to “limit the power” of “parent groups.” This should be broadly scandalous, which may indicate that most unions across the country have been smart…
Departing Democrat Governor Dan McKee’s administration under the cloud of an influence peddling scandal, former Chief of Staff Anthony Silva is taking with him a $53,000 payout for unused time off, according to Eli Sherman on WPRI. This benefit is always an issue when government employees leave office for some controversial reason, and the public is…
From a GQ Pan article in the Epoch Times: The leader of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), which represents more than 30,000 employees in the nation’s second largest public school district, said in a recently published interview that learning losses during the pandemic are a myth. “There’s no such thing as learning loss,” UTLA President Cecily…
John DePetro and Justin Katz talk about high-profile slip-ups by politicians and political actors.
This exchange from a brief interview with the Boston Globe’s Dan McGowan is enough to prove retired teacher Michael Marra’s new book worth reading: Q: You’re a former schoolteacher who has become disenchanted with public employee unions. Did you start out that way or did something happen to change your mind? Marra: I didn’t start out that…
Brad Polumbo reports for the Foundation for Economic Education: The promised long-term economic benefits from the sweeping $1 trillion expenditure will likely never materialize, according to a new Ivy League analysis. This runs directly against the president’s promises that it would create jobs and stimulate the economy. Indeed, Biden has insisted that the government spending…
John DePetro and Justin Katz take on unprecedented developments in RI government and politics.
William Jacobson is on to something when he suggests, on Legal Insurrection, that the National Education Association of Rhode Island’s lawsuit to stop release of public records in Rhode Island “smells collusive”: Whether there was “collusion” in the sense of active cooperation or not, I can imagine a scenario in which there is no real dispute…
It’s a positive thing that state law requires municipalities and school districts to provide cost estimates for the contracts they’re about to approve (even if they tend to issue them when it’s pretty much a done deal), and it’s good that the state hasn’t tried to slip through a transparency loophole in negotiating its contract…
