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http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/JennniferRobackMorse/2005/10/24/172511.html

Join Arnold
By Jennifer Roback Morse

Oct 24, 2005

Columnist, Townhall.com


Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has placed his name and prestige at the
service of reforming California politics. He has personally promoted
four initiatives which will have the effect of reducing the influence
of special interests in politics and promoting fiscal responsibility.
Not surprisingly, the current owners of California�s political system
are in an uproar. So much so, that they may be willing to bankrupt
themselves to defeat the Governor. 
 
The State Council of the California Teachers Association (CTA) voted
in June to levy an additional $60 per year per teacher, for the sole
purpose of defeating Arnold�s initiative campaign. According to Carlos
Moreno, the CPA who manages the financial operations of the teachers�
union, the CTA took out a $14 million loan, on which they are
currently paying interest. They are counting on the income stream from
the increase in dues to repay this loan. 

 Here�s the kicker: they have already spent all of the money they
expected to take in from this dues increase, for the next three years.
The union has applied for an additional $40 million line of credit.
Repaying this money would also require the income from the increased
dues. 

 So what are these ballot initiatives the teachers unions are
bankrupting themselves to oppose?  Proposition 74 will change the
length of the probationary period a teacher must work before being
granted tenure. Currently, teachers have a two year probationary
period. Proposition 74 would change that to a five year period during
which a school district can choose not to rehire a teacher without
giving specific reasons. Arnold�s team calls this the �Put the Kids
First Act.� The California Teachers Association refers to it as the
�Punish the Teachers Act.� 

CTA  says this measure is unnecessary. �California teachers are not
guaranteed a job for life, which means they don�t have tenure.�  (I
suppose they mean that under some circumstances, school districts can
down-size and lay-off teachers.)  �All teachers receive after a
two-year probationary period is the right to a hearing before they are
dismissed.�  

 What they don�t tell you is how onerous and costly that dismissal
process can be. According to the Legislative Analyst, writing in the
California Voter Guide: �Regardless of the reason for a dismissal, the
dismissal process ... consists of about a dozen stages.� It can take
years to dismiss an unsatisfactory teacher, as the CTA surely knows. 

 Very few Californians have the job security of a tenured teacher. I
used to have that kind of security, when I was a tenured professor at
George Mason University. The justification for university tenure is
that it allows scholars the freedom of inquiry necessary to pursue
unconventional or controversial topics in their research. But this
academic freedom justification does not apply to elementary and
secondary school teachers. They are supposed to be teaching a pretty
standardized curriculum to young students in their formative years.
Lifetime tenure is a bad idea at the university level: it is an even
worse idea at the elementary and secondary level. Extending the
probationary period to five years is not the end of the world for a
competent teacher. Good teachers surely know of cases where the tenure
system protects poorly performing teachers who are an embarrassment to
their profession. 

 Proposition 75 is called �the Paycheck Protection Act.�  This act
requires the public employee unions to obtain the members� written
consent before using any of their dues money for political purposes.
Under current law, the employees must make a written request if they
object to their money being spent for political purposes. In other
words, this initiative would change the presumption of who decides
what happens to the union dues, and who has the burden to obtain
permission. 

 The unions say that without this money, they could not adequately
defend their interests. According to the official Voter Guide, �This
year, our kids� schools have been under attack by initiatives paid for
by big corporations. Some would permanently cut annual school funding
by $4 billion. Prop 75 would limit teachers� ability to fight such
harmful proposals in the future.�  Notice that they admit that many of
their members would choose to opt-out of contributing their dues for
political purposes. This completely undercuts their claim that
�members can already withhold their dues.�  They can see perfectly
well that they will collect less money. 

 No wonder they are in a panic. The $60 annual dues increase has
already been spent. If they lose the paycheck protection measure, they
will lose their privileged access to that stream of revenue. The
California Teachers Association are engaged in  high-stakes gambling
with their members� money. 

 The CTA and other unions have used this money to create attack ads
against the Governor. You can say what you like about the Governator.
But the fact is: he is not in politics for the money, the fame or the
glamor. He could have all that in Hollywood, without a no-thanks,
crappy job in Sacramento. His package of initiatives gives California
its best chance for real reform in a generation. We need to seize it.