Make no mistake: the Janus Decision is a victory for plutocrats and corporations. As Jan Resseger argues here, it is an attack on working people that will weaken them in their efforts to enter the middle class.
It will weaken every public sector unions, not just teachers, but police, firefighters, social workers, and many others. It is a victory for the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, the same people trying to cripple public schools, Medicare, Social Security, and the principle of government of, by, and for the people.
She writes:
“Weakening public sector unions is part of the far-right corporate political agenda. Political economist Gordon Lafer describes the impact of the the Red-wave 2010 election that turned more than half the states all-Republican: “For the corporate lobbies and their legislative allies, the 2010 elections created a strategic opportunity to restructure labor relations, political power, and the size of government… Starting in 2011, the country has witnessed an unprecedented wave of legislation aimed at eliminating public employee unions, or where they remain, strictly limiting their right to bargain… The number of public sector jobs eliminated in 2011 was the highest ever recorded, and budgets for essential public services were dramatically scaled back in dozens of states.” (The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time, pp. 44-45)”
The champagne corks were popping yesterday at ALEC, the Center for Education Reform, the Heritage Foundation, and all the other habitats of the corporate elites.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You are so nice to forward this around. Thanks, Diane.
I think the “red wave” was in part a racist response to an African American president and an ultra conservative response to our economic meltdown. It became a perfect storm when the radical Republicans united with libertarians and the Christian right, many of whom have lots of money with which to dictate policy.
Don’t forget who was in charge when the economic meltdown started in Sept 2008. Not Obama.
I don’t blame Obama at all. When he took office, we were on the verge of collapse. I give Obama full credit for taking us from the brink of disaster. It was one of Obama’s biggest victories. However, his election brought the alt right out of the sewers and into the light. If anything, the left relaxed under Obama while the threatened right organized to defeat the left.
The right wingers have become absolutely insufferable with the Janus decision and not just the corporate elites who financed the assault on public sector unions. Ordinary working people who have swallowed the kool aid are cheering, jeering and celebrating at this right wing victory; these are the very people who will be most hurt by these terrible court decisions. As robber baron Jay Gould said, he could hire one half of the working class to kill off the other half of workers.
In Gordon Lafer’s excellent book, “The One Percent Solution,” he says that the goal of the corporate elites is to lower everyone’s expectations. Unions have to go because they raise expectations.
perfect metaphor for this current political moment: so many have swallowed the kool aid
Well, since labor unions are responsible for all societal and educational system problems in the US now that ed reformers have slayed that dragon public schools should magically improve.
I just don’t know who they use as a punching bag now that they can’t spend 50% of their time on anti-union political initiatives. They’ll have to come up with a new reason they oppose public schools.
It makes it more important than ever for public school supporters to replace our current lawmakers with lawmakers who support our children’s schools.
Public schools lost a powerful and organized advocate. Charter and voucher advocates will continue to be funded and employed by the seemingly endless resources of America’s plutocrats- they have an outsized voice now- that will get more and more inequitable.
I’m weirdly optimistic though. Ed reformers have always assumed the public loathes public schools as much as they do and it’s never been true. As they become more and more of an echo chamber with the absence of ANY public schools that echo chamber effect will get worse, and we’ll see more of things like the massive teacher strikes they minimized and ignored.
“…we’ll see more of things like the massive teacher strikes they minimized and ignored.”
Let’s hope so. I am almost hoping that Bruce Rauner (IL gov) does something so awful that union members from across the state march on Springfield. I guess he had better get busy and arrange nonunion attack dogs since the police may be marching, too.
The best reward for Bruce Rauner is defeat this fall, even though he will be replaced by a billionaire Pritzker.
The concept of common good has been abandoned by the reactionary right (see Ayn Rand). It’s fluffed up when enemies of the common good like Ryan and Scalise are portrayed as moral people. It’s about selfish individualism, cultural and social resentment and creating more gated communities.
I’ve posted this before, but William S. Burroughs wrote their true Thanksgiving Prayer more than 30 years ago:
Ed reform lobbyists drafted proposals to “regulate” online charter schools in Ohio, but if you read the proposals they’re a trick- they’re actually a mechanism that will end any regulation of online charters.
The proposals will function as exemptions to required hours of instruction, thereby allowing online charters to collect public money with no requirements for instruction at all.
“With ECOT closed and other Ohio e-schools still struggling to verify the enrollment numbers used to pay them, state legislators sent a package of proposals to Gov. John Kasich aimed at clarifying the basis for paying the schools.”
I cannot believe they are still trying to hoodwink the public after this massive scandal, but they are.
Their new legislation will be worse than the old legislation. The proposals are DEregulate- they don’t add regulation at all.
This lobby, I’m telling you, they are absolutely shameless. They just finished robbing Ohio citizens and now they’re setting them up to steal more under the guise of “regulation”
The charter problem in Ohio will get worse, but everyone is making piles of money, so no one cares.
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180627/ohio-legislature-sends-package-of-e-school-bills-to-kasich
The Janus decision will make it more difficult to “STAY” in the middle class.