JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 OKLAHOMA COUNCIL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Freedom Agenda Letter PERSPECTIVE from the January/February 2019 Brandon Dutcher | Editor President OCPA TRUSTEES Glenn Ashmore | Oklahoma City Lee J. Baxter | Lawton Douglas Beall, M.D. | Oklahoma City Susan Bergen | Norman John A. Brock | Tulsa Larry Brown | Ardmore David Burrage | Atoka William Flanagan | Claremore Josephine Freede | Oklahoma City Ann Felton Gilliland | Oklahoma City Suzanne B. Gilstrap | Eucha John A. Henry III | Oklahoma City Robert Kane | Tulsa Frank Keating | Oklahoma City Advancing Our Mission in 2019 Gene Love | Lawton You hold in your hands the 2019 edition of OCPA’s annual Freedom Agenda. Tom H. McCasland III | Duncan David McLaughlin | Enid With the legislative session under way, our staff is working hard for an Oklahoma Lloyd Noble II | Tulsa where people are free to flourish, workers enjoy a growing and diversifying Mike O’Neal | Edmond economy, children receive a great education, and the burden of government is Andrew Oster | Edmond light. Larry Parman | Oklahoma City Oklahomans in 2019 are good people who are living, working, and serving in Bill Price | Oklahoma City Patrick T. Rooney | Oklahoma City systems that no longer serve them well. Our constitution is an impediment to Thomas Schroedter | Tulsa adapting to contemporary needs. Our tax structure impedes economic growth Charles M. Sublett | Tulsa and guarantees unstable revenues. Our budget process is opaque and short on Robert Sullivan | Tulsa oversight. Our education system is not set up to produce excellence. All these William E. Warnock, Jr. | Tulsa Molly Wehrenberg | Edmond things may (or may not) have worked in the past, but they do not work well now, Daryl Woodard | Tulsa nor do they position Oklahoma well for our future. We believe that public policy should increase opportunities for individuals and families to decide, without manipulation or coercion by government, how to conduct their own lives. The opposite of this is dependency, which is a TRUSTEES EMERITUS natural state for children but not for adults. The very idea of self-government Blake Arnold | Oklahoma City presupposes a government that treats adults like adults. Robert D. Avery | Pawhuska Steve W. Beebe | Duncan Public policy should promote and rely on civil society: families, neighbors, David R. Brown, M.D. | Oklahoma City volunteers, churches, clubs, nonprofits, and more. These are the first responders Paul A. Cox | Oklahoma City of our social safety net. These are the people who are there, already in John T. Hanes | Oklahoma City relationships with people in need. They are best situated to provide help in times Henry F. Kane | Bartlesville of need. They are also easily co-opted or crowded out by government programs Lew Meibergen | Enid Ronald L. Mercer | Bethany that make big promises but seldom fully deliver on them. Daniel J. Zaloudek | Tulsa Public policy should also recognize the essential role of the family in a free society. Policies should support family formation and promote strong families. Parents have the moral right to direct the upbringing of their children, including Perspective is published monthly by the Oklahoma Council how their children are educated and socialized. Government’s role here is to of Public Affairs, Inc., an independent public policy provide recourse when things break down, not to micromanage or co-opt the role organization. OCPA formulates and promotes public policy of parents. research and analysis consistent with the principles of free Implementing this vision would be impossible without you, and I thank you enterprise and limited government. The views expressed in Perspective are those of the author, and should not be for your generous and continued support. construed as representing any official position of OCPA or its trustees, researchers, or employees. It’s an honor to be on your team, Jonathan Small, President 2 PERSPECTIVE January/February 2019 Larry Arnn Arthur Brooks John Bolton William F. Buckley Trey Gowdy May 9, 2019 • Oklahoma City For more information, contact Rachel Hays at 405.602.1667 or [email protected]. George W. Bush Jeb Bush Dick Cheney Dinesh D’Souza Mitch Daniels Artur Davis Jim DeMint J. Rufus Fears Steve Forbes Tommy Franks John Fund Newt Gingrich Jonah Goldberg Greg Gutfeld David Horowitz Mike Huckabee Brit Hume Laura Ingraham Frank Keating Brian Kilmeade Jeane Kirkpatrick Charles Krauthammer Art Laffer Rich Lowry Ed Meese Russell Moore Stephen Moore Peggy Noonan Marvin Olasky Sarah Palin Star Parker Dana Perino Dennis Prager Michael Reagan Paul Ryan Joe Sobran John Stossel Cal Thomas Clarence Thomas Scott Walker John Walton J.C.Watts Allen West Walter Williams Past OCPA speakers are pictured above. By Greg Forster Collective Bargaining Not Worth It for Teachers Oklahoma should follow the example paperwork, unreasonable rules, rigid systems, of other states that are moving away from dysfunctional bureaucracy. In a 2009 study collective bargaining in K-12 education. of national data from the U.S. Department You’ve heard all the arguments that teacher of Education, I compared public and private unions are a special interest that profits from school teachers. Even before Common Core, education policies that hurt kids. Those the difference in teacher working conditions THE ISSUE arguments are right—but teachers have also in schools with and without collective Labor Policy been hurt by collective bargaining. bargaining was dramatic. Private school teachers, unhindered by THE PRINCIPLES I’m not against unions. My wife worked for The freedoms of speech and a union for years, volunteering long hours as the standardization of collective bargaining, association are basic American an employee advocate in company dispute were much more likely to have a great deal principles. Those principles are resolution. She signed up to work for the of control over selection of textbooks and violated when Oklahoma law union when she saw managers mistreating instructional materials (53% vs. 32%); content, gives a boost to one group over workers, and the company violating its topics, and skills to be taught (60% vs. 36%); others. contractual obligations to them. The union performance standards for students (40% was the only effective protection those vs. 18%); curriculum (47% vs. 22%); and WHAT TO DO workers had. discipline policy (25% vs. 13%). Private school • Even though many Oklahoma But collective bargaining and teachers were also less likely to report that teachers are opting out of union representation simply isn’t a good fit for K-12 various categories of student misbehavior membership, they are still forced teachers. Not all types of workers are well- disrupted their classes, and were four times into union contracts. Allow served by unionizing. Doctors and lawyers less likely to say student violence is a problem teachers to vote periodically don’t unionize. The nature of the work they on at least a monthly basis (12% vs. 48%). whether to keep their union, do just doesn’t permit the standardization, It’s true that collective bargaining brings look for a new union, or do controlled processes, and highly specified a moderate increase in pay. The Oklahoma without union representation work outputs that are necessary for collective State Department of Education reports that altogether. bargaining to be effective. in 2016-17, the average high school teacher Teachers are like doctors and lawyers. made $39,319 and the average elementary • Set teachers free from Standardizing the work they do into a school teacher made $37,851. (This was collective bargaining and get rid one-size-fits-all mold creates major headaches before the $6,100 average pay raise teachers of special favors (such as dues for them. But collective bargaining demands got last year.) In the same year, according to collection) for union political standardization, so processes and outputs the Oklahoma Private School Accreditation groups. can be specified in labor-management Commission, the average private school negotiations. teacher salary across all grades was The standardization demanded by $36,947. Similar gaps are typical nationally. collective bargaining is a major factor in While we don’t have state-specific data to all the complaints we’re accustomed to compare benefits packages, from national hearing from public-school teachers—useless data we know public-school teachers get 4 PERSPECTIVE January/February 2019 better benefits. And public-school Oklahoma Teacher Had to Quit teachers have impressive job security protections, which are basically ‘For My Mental Health and Happiness’ unknown in the private-school sector. Yet private school teachers are more satisfied with their jobs, even In a February 13 news story, the Tulsa World reported that 30,000 Oklahoma teachers including the pay gap, because the have left the profession in the past six years, according to a new report from the benefits of freedom outweigh the Oklahoma State Department of Education. And while the report says teacher pay is benefits of standardization. In my one reason why, it also cites other factors, including a sharp deterioration in the work study, I found private-school teachers environment. were much more likely than public- school teachers to agree that they Consider an article posted last year on the website of one of Oklahoma’s leading planned to remain teaching as long edu-bloggers. A former Oklahoma teacher tells why she hung it up: "I had to do it for my as they could (62% vs. 44%). They mental health and happiness," she says. This young woman, who obviously has a heart were less likely to agree that they for children, describes a dysfunctional school system in which the adults won't place only planned to teach until retirement some students in the proper educational setting and/or won't discipline them. "I had a (12% vs. 33%), that they would leave fight every day between students," she says. One particular student, she says, teaching immediately if a job with a higher salary were available (12% would hit the students, pull their hair, hit me, punch me, punch them, etc.