lazy, greedy “educators”
John Michener
Not content with a massive raise, lazy, greedy educrats still walk out on kids.
1. Lazy, Greedy Educrats
2. How to Fix Education
1. Lazy, Greedy Educrats. Last week the legislature passed the largest tax increase in state history ($447 million), and it will affect everyone in the state either directly or indirectly through taxes on income, the oil industry, gas, diesel, cigarettes, hotels, and church camps. We previously linked to the wrong votes. Here are the correct House votes and Senate votes. On June 26 please vote against every legislator who voted Yes for these monstrous tax hikes on us all.
All of this new funding is supposed to be for education, so one would think the teachers would be happy. But many districts are still walking out for one or more days this week. As an example of what many superintendents are saying, Sean McDaniel, the Mustang Superintendent said, “The bills passed are not close to being sufficient… Today I surveyed the teachers and they have spoken. They are not prepared to return to work… This raise provided to teachers is the largest raise in the history of Oklahoma… While this is all good news, the package does not represent the entirety of what the OEA asked for or what schools and teachers need and deserve… The majority of the respondents of the survey have let us know they want to continue the fight and we will support them and stand with them… We will continue to poll our teachers and I will continue to send updates. When we have a sufficient percentage of teachers that say they will return to the classroom, then our schools will reopen.”
2. How To Fix Public Education, by Paul Blair. Have you ever spent an entire afternoon playing Monopoly with your family…but before long, the game becomes kind of miserable and everyone ends up mad at each other? That shouldn’t come as a surprise. The game is called Monopoly for a reason.
Teachers work for an [education] monopoly that is controlled by the state. Having a monopoly on a product or service only works for the owner of the monopoly and no one else. Customers must pay whatever price the monopolist demands; employees must work for whatever the monopolist is willing to pay; and the owner has no reason to improve his product because there is no competition. Neither the customer nor the employee has a choice, and the only ones benefiting are those at the top of the monopoly…
Consider our current situation in Oklahoma. Our history includes HB 1017, the largest tax increase ever to “fix” education. Then there was legalized horse racing, bingo, casinos, the lottery, liquor by the drink, and [recently] ball and dice gaming was passed. In every case the reason was to pay the teachers. So, where is the money?
The most important part of education is the classroom. The classroom and the teachers should be funded first. So why aren’t they? Oklahoma has a state minimum wage for teachers, but each district is free to pay their teachers as much as they like. Amazingly, there is always money for countless superintendents, deputy superintendents, press boxes, and football stadiums. It is not a revenue problem; it is a priority and management problem.
For some reason we never see the Department of Education or Joy Hoffmeister threatening to strike. Apparently, their funds are getting through. The $52 million in salaries for 500 district superintendents seems to be getting through as well since they never threaten to strike.
Why is it teachers are the only group in the state always complaining about wages? Because they work for a monopoly controlled by state.
By the way, what government agency actually works efficiently? Department of Motor Vehicles? Department of Health & Human Services? Social Security is bankrupt. The Affordable Care Act caused my premiums to quadruple! So why do we trust the government to run education efficiently?
There is an easy fix. Free the teachers. Let me share a real example. In 1980 the minimum wage in the NFL was $30,000 per season. Players worked for a monopoly. They either played for the team that owned their rights for the amount that team was willing to pay, or they changed careers. In 1982 the USFL was created, which brought competition. By 1985 the average salary in the NFL jumped to $212,000 per year. Then in 1987 players became free agents and they could choose to market their services to any team. Last year the average salary in the NFL was $2.4 million per year. In 45 years teachers’ salaries have increased only three times, but NFL salaries have increased 80 times.
Here is the solution. Instead of handing $13,240 per student to the State Department of Education and trusting them to manage it (which they obviously aren’t doing well), put that money into an educational savings account controlled by the family (it’s the people’s money anyway) that could only be spent on education. Then let all schools, public and private, compete for the best teachers and compete to earn clients (students) by the quality of their product. If parents want their children to be taught social justice, climate change, and transgenderism, they can send their kids to those schools. For parents that prefer quality reading, writing, arithmetic, real science, and history, they can send their kids to schools that emphasize those classes. The quality of education will be fixed overnight, and parental control will be returned.
Public schools should excel as they already have the facilities, buses, and personnel. The only way they don’t win is if they don’t provide a product the parents want at a price that is competitive.
Teachers will immediately have choices. When a known great teacher is on the free market, he/she might demand $100,000 in the first year. Great teachers will be paid great, good teachers will have a financial incentive to become great, and average teachers will be motivated to improve.
If students don’t ride the bus, or play sports, or if they decide to bring their lunch from home, then they will save money. Any money left in their education account can be rolled over. If students graduate high school with money left in their ESAs, then they can use it for college or trade school, reducing needs for student loans.
The teachers win. The parents win. The students win. Colleges win. The only ones that lose will be the unions who are constantly stirring seeds of dissatisfaction to justify their existence, educational bureaucrats that will no longer have a reason for existence (can’t each school district choose its own curriculum and manage its own affairs?) and politicians that won’t be able to use the teachers as a tools for their next big tax increase or pet project to raise revenue…
With the passing of HB 1010, the people of Oklahoma are angry, as their will has been ignored. The poor and middle class will be paying more at the pump. The middle class will suffer as they can’t write off their mortgage insurance, and the life blood of Oklahoma (energy) will be punished with higher taxes.
The teachers will celebrate for the short term, thinking they’ve won something, but it won’t be long until…the union will have the teachers spitting mad again and ready to walk out on the kids. Where will the legislature turn next? Perhaps they’ll legalize prostitution, so they can tax it. After all, it’s for the children.
Pastor Paul Blair is a former state senatorial candidate, former NFL player, and the Director of Reclaiming America for Christ.
The views expressed in this email are the personal opinion of John Michener and do not necessarily reflect the views of OCPAC, its leadership team, or its members…although they should. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Authorized and paid for by Oklahoma Conservative PAC, PO Box 2021, Edmond, OK 73083.