Posted by
John R. LaPlante on Friday, September 08, 2006 7:02:47 PM
You can’t spend much time on the subject of public education without understanding that teacher unions are serious obstacles to reform. From school choice to merit pay, they oppose efforts to introduce market discipline and consumer sovereignty.
But Rudolph J. May, president of The Free State Foundation, points out that unionism in education isn’t limited to teachers. Principals have their own union, too. Did you know?
As a story in the Washington Post describes, Martin O'Malley, mayor of Baltimore, recently rolled out a plan to hire new principals for the city’s most troubled schools. It involves hefty signing bonuses—up to 10 times the usual amount.
“Read the story closely,” says May, “and you might be struck by something that perhaps is now so embedded in our government that it often goes unremarked: The extent to which most all of our public servants are unionized. Putting aside the teachers' union, the story refers to the ‘National Association of Secondary School Principals,’ ‘the principals union in Prince George's,’ and the ‘city administrators union.’”
Though the plan could, if properly implemented, benefit children by offering big rewards to principals who can fix schools by shaking them up, a union official responds, not surprisingly, by showing an ignorance (or is it disregard) for economics.
Doris Reed, executive director of the principals union in Prince George's, said “I have a concern that you're labeling the school and the kids in these neighborhoods as so bad that the only way you can get someone to come in is to pay them all this money.”
Let’s see. Your organization has rising costs and declining quality. You want to bring in a leader who can turn things around. And you’re going to be able to do this without offering a financial advantage compared with a less troubled situation?