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How Red States Slashed Taxes, Cut Education Budgets, and Nearly Went Bankrupt

By dianeravitch
July 8, 2018 //
16

After the 2010 elections, when anti-tax Tea Party Republicans swept many states, they had a chance to perform a radical experiment. They bet that slashing corporate taxes and individual taxes would be a shot in the arm to their economy, creating new jobs and more revenue. They were wrong. The deep tax cuts reduced public revenues, harmed public services, especially education, and did not produce economic growth.

This article in The Nation explains it.

“Oklahoma isn’t typically a big-spending state, even under Democratic governors. But until eight years ago, Democrats held most statewide offices and maintained some power in the Legislature. Then, in 2010, a number of Tea Party candidates were elected to office. The GOP increased its majorities in the Legislature and, after winning the governor’s race, controlled the entire statehouse for the first time in Sooner history.

“Oklahoma wasn’t the only state that got a fresh coat of red paint. Republicans had full control of just 14 state legislatures in 2010, while Democrats held power in 27. After the November elections that year, Republicans held majority power in 25, including Oklahoma.

“The newly empowered Republicans didn’t sit on their hands; they got to work implementing an extreme anti-tax Tea Party agenda. But now the damage those decisions have wreaked is becoming abundantly clear—not just in underfunded schools and crumbling infrastructure, but in lagging economies and angry constituents. States are supposed to be the “laboratories of democracy,” in the famous phrase of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, putting new ideas to the test. But the Tea Party experiment of drastically cutting taxes in the hopes of sparking economic growth has blown up in lawmakers’ faces.

“Oklahoma legislators had already reduced income taxes back in the mid-2000s, and an amendment added to the state constitution in 1992 makes it all but impossible to raise taxes, requiring approval from a three-quarters supermajority of lawmakers. Lowering them requires only a simple majority.

“The Tea Party experiment of drastically cutting taxes in the hopes of sparking economic growth has blown up in lawmakers’ faces.

“But the politics after 2011 were different. “The Republicans swept,” said David Blatt, executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. “We never had a Republican governor with a Republican legislature.”

“State lawmakers came “out of the gate in 2011 with a pretty regressive, large-scale tax-cut plan,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit, tax-focused research group. Led by Governor Fallin, the Oklahoma GOP wanted to scrap the income tax entirely—a plan that was the brainchild of conservative economist Arthur Laffer, the self-described “father of supply-side economics.”

If we lived in a rational world, everyone would agree that we learned an important lesson. Draconian tax cuts benefit the wealthy and do not produce economic growth. They require government to starve essential services. Unfortunately we do not live in a rational world.

Teachers and parents are angry. Will their anger suffice to throw the bums out?

Categories Budget Cuts, Education Reform, Funding, Kansas, Oklahoma

John Thompson: A Letter to a Young Teacher and Walkout Leader

By dianeravitch
July 7, 2018 //
10

JOhn Thompson, retired teacher in Oklahoma, explains to a young teacher who led the walkout in Oklahoma why unions are still necessary.

A Letter to a Young Teacher Walkout Leader

The New York Times’ Dana Goldstein and Erica Green report that “about 70 percent of the nation’s 3.8 million public school teachers belong to a union or professional association,” but that is “down from 79 percent in the 1999-2000 school year.” The Supreme Court’s Janus decision could mean the loss of tens of thousands of union members (or more) and tens of millions of dollars that would otherwise promote education and other efforts to help our students and families.

The Goldstein and Green report:

The teachers who led the protests first gathered supporters on Facebook, sometimes with little help from union officials. But the state and national unions stepped in with organizing and lobbying muscle — and money — that sustained the movement as it grew. That support could wane if teachers in strong-union states like California or Illinois choose not to pay dues and fees.
The Times cites a 25-year-old Oklahoma teacher, Alberto Morejon, as an emerging leader who has “little loyalty to unions.” Morejon is one of many Oklahoma teachers who expressed frustration when union leaders called off the nine-day walkout.

In my experience, however, most teachers later realized that the unions not only funded the labor action, but quickly became more responsive to the grass-roots movement’s concerns. Now that Oklahoma teachers have pivoted and led this summer’s unprecedented and successful election campaigns, my sense is that teachers understand why unions needed to work with school districts to reopen schools before a backlash occurred. We were then able to keep up the momentum, maintain unity, and commit to political actions.

The Times offers just one example of the reason why a continuing intergenerational dialogue about teachers union and Janus is essential:

“Teachers starting off, the salary is so low,” Mr. Morejon said. Foregoing union fees means “one less thing you have to pay for. A lot of younger teachers I know, they’re not joining because they need to save every dollar they can.”
I sure hope to converse with Mr. Morejon. I very much appreciate his organizing efforts. But I would remind him that the year before the 1979 Oklahoma City teachers’ strike, the Oklahoma average teacher salary, adjusted for inflation, was $13,107. I’d also like to share these recollections.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d16/tables/dt16_211.60.asp

The bipartisan, anti-union, corporate school reform movement took off in the 1990s when “New Democrats” used accountability-driven reform as a “Sister Soldja” campaign. It allowed them to act tough by beating up on traditional allies, teachers and unions. My sense is that reform began with non-educators treating teachers as if we were a mule who needed a club upside the head to get its attention. Angered by educators who didn’t embrace their theory, corporate reformers now seek to knee-cap unions – or worse.

In 2003, the notorious and ruthless Republican consultant, Karl Rove, articulated the scenario that the New Yorker’s Nicholas Lehman dubbed “the death of the Democratic Party.” Rove explained that school reform and the destruction of public sector labor unions could be one of the three keys to destroying the Democrats.

I hope young teachers will read the papers by reformers gloating about the way they defeated unions. After 2011, when Right to Work became the law in Wisconsin, teachers’ union membership dropped from over 80,000 to below 40,000. The decline in union membership after Michigan adopted Right to Work in 2013 was twice as great as the gap between the state’s votes for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. This raises the question as to how much these reformers thus contributed to Trump’s electoral college victory.

After Janus

Neoliberal reformers are crying crocodile tears as they downplay their role in imposing Right to Work on the entire nation’s public sector workers. Peter Cunningham acknowledges:

Corporate power is increasing and income inequality is worsening. Anti-tax politicians are starving governments at every level. President Trump is dividing Americans in ways we could not imagine and reversing progress on important issues from climate change to trade. The Supreme Court has shifted to the right, and with Justice Anthony Kennedy stepping down, the entire progressive agenda is in peril.

http://educationpost.org/after-janus-unions-need-to-give-teachers-a-reason-to-opt-in-and-i-hope-they-give-them-one/

Cunningham admits that “unions built America’s middle class,” and that because they have been decimated in the private sector, “wage growth has been anemic for decades.”
Cunningham says teachers should respond by getting on board with the data-driven campaign to evaluate school outcomes.

The TNTP’s Dan Weisberg also says correctly, “The past six months have shown that teachers no longer need to rely on union leadership to advocate for basics like higher salaries.” Then, he admits that when many legislatures are “freed from the unions’ political clout,” then teachers’ political victories are likely to be preempted or limited.

https://tntp.org/blog/post/how-teachers-unions-could-win-by-losing-janus#2953

Weisberg calls for unions to “get out of the collective bargaining business and become professional associations.” In other words, teachers should go with the Janus flow and give up their due process rights.

It sounds like the long-time union hater would love to support unions – once they became Rotary Clubs.

I want to be clear that I seek an inter-generational discussion, and I’m not criticizing colleagues who are too young to have witnessed twenty years of assaults on teachers and unions. Today’s Millennials are struggling in a notorious “gig economy.” To keep young educators from being reduced to transitory clerks who are even more under-paid, we must learn from recent history. And in Oklahoma, it was the combined passage of “Right to Work” in 2001, as the NCLB Act of 2001 became law, which launched our tragedy.

In my experience during the first years after NCLB and Right to Work, weakened teachers unions and state and local education leaders suffered plenty of defeats but, together, we mitigated the harm. Year by year, however, our strengths – and our professional autonomy – were undermined.

The single most destructive policy that I witnessed was implemented in 2005 when weekly high stakes tests drove 40 percent of our school’s tested students out of school. I attended a meeting that was mostly boycotted by Baby Boomers like me, and I tried to persuade younger teachers to resist. A great young teacher yelled at me, “You are just like my parents! Your generation had unions and could fight back! We can’t!”

Less than five years later, I was at many of the tables when value-added teacher evaluations, the concessions made to compete for the Race to the Top, and School Improvement Grant regulations were imposed. The intent of the new rules was clear; an obvious component was “exiting” Baby Boomers in order to rid districts of our salaries and keep veteran teachers from socializing young teachers into opposing teach-to-the-test mandates.

Our weakened unions had little choice but to continue to work within the system to mitigate the damage done by bubble-in accountability. With the help of another grassroots movement, the Save Our Schools (SOS) campaign, we became more and more successful in defending our students’ rights to a meaningful education. Without our SOS experiences, would teachers have been able to organize this year’s walkouts?

None of these fights are over. We still have to fend off corporate reformers with one hand, as we battle budget cuts with the other. Even if we push back this latest assault on collective bargaining, there is no guarantee that the technocratic micromanagers won’t eventually privatize our schools. But, Mr. Morejon, please remember that without due process rights, we will be incapable of defending our profession. We have a duty to our students to unite and defend the principles of public education and our kids’ welfare

Categories Education Reform, Oklahoma, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Pay

Oklahoma: Pastors for Oklahoma Kids Organize to Support Public Schools and Their Teachers

By dianeravitch
July 5, 2018 //
11

This is a report from the newly organized Pastors for Oklahoma Kids, written by Rev. Clark Frailey.

The good news, he says, is that “The Times, They Are A’Changing.”

This is great news for Oklahoma!

He writes:

When entering the Oklahoma State Capitol near the beginning of the session in February, I had no idea what would be in store for Oklahoma over the course of the next few months: the political upset seen in our most recent primary election, record new candidates filing for office, record voter turnout, and the defeat of numerous anti-public school incumbents.

Tulsa World photographer Mike Simons’s image of Representative Scott McEachin looking at his watch as teachers sought an audience with him to advocate for their students became a symbol of the attitude several political extremists took during the April 2018 school shutdown.

While the majority of Republican and Democrat legislators opened their doors for discussion, time and again we would hear about legislators locking out their constituents or not even bothering to show up for work.

Some legislators even bowed so low as to invent stories of perceived threats by the teachers being present. Think on that for a minute: They wanted us to buy the narrative that the Pre-K teachers who wipe little noses and teach primary colors were threatening to them.

About a year earlier, 50 pastors from across Oklahoma had converged at First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City in an effort to see if our shared concerns about the state of public education in Oklahoma were on the same page. We found common ground in our concerns and Pastors for Oklahoma Kids was formed.

Since then our fledgling grassroots group has expanded to hundreds of faithful and church leaders across Oklahoma that support our work advocating for public school children.

We were blown away when our Sunday night candlelight prayer rally in front of the state capitol following the first week of the walkout in April grew exponentially from our projected 30 to hundreds of Oklahoma’s faithful.

That night we received reports from others in our network that prayer vigils broke out across the state in Ada, Stillwater, Tulsa, and beyond.

While a bit cliche, Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit, “The Times They Are a Changin” keeps playing over and over in my mind. The teachers of Oklahoma sent a message in the first available election following the walkout: the time for games with our kids is over.

Teachers led the good fight but we know they should not stand alone for our kids. Pastors, small business owners, parents, grandparents and anyone who loves their local community need to be involved in the defense of our good community public schools.

For years now, these schools have faced relentless and unwarranted attacks by politicians and outsiders who want to privatize our public schools.

These deep-pocketed outsiders continue dumping thousands of dollars into our local elections to influence good Oklahomans to vote for their nefarious plans. But we are holding fast and remember the core identity and values we all share of community: watching out for one another and investing in the future.

Teachers, parents, and the community sent a powerful message to all current and future legislators: Leave our schools alone. Invest in our future. We are watching you.

The times they are definitely a-changin’ in Oklahoma.

Categories Oklahoma, Supporting public schools

Good News! Oklahoma Court Rejects Referendum on Tax Hike to Fund Teacher Raises

By dianeravitch
June 22, 2018 //
0

After the legislature agreed to raise teachers’ pay, an anti-tax group tried to put a measure on the state ballot opposed to the tax hike to fund the raises.

Today the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the effort to conduct a state referendum on the tax hikes.

OKLAHOMA CITY — A referendum petition seeking to repeal tax hikes used to fund teacher raises is invalid, the Oklahoma Supreme Court said in a ruling issued Friday.

Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! sought to ask voters to repeal House Bill 1010xx, which hiked taxes on cigarettes, little cigars, fuel and gross production.

State Question 799 drew two legal challenges before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

“Upon review, we hold that the petition is legally insufficient and invalid,” the court opinion said.

It ordered SQ 799 stricken from the ballot.

The court ruled that failure to include the little cigar tax in the gist or summary of the petition was problematic.

“What is troublesome is the failure to make any mention (of) one of the five revenue sources at all,” the opinion said.

Without even a brief mention in the gist of all the taxes poised to be rejected, voters are fundamentally unable to cast and informed vote and will not be aware of the practical effect of the petition, the opinion said.

Categories Funding, Oklahoma, Teacher Pay

Oklahoma: Anti-Tax Lobby Pushes for Special Session to Repeal New Taxes to Pay Teachers’ Salary Increases

By dianeravitch
June 11, 2018 //
25

After the massive teacher walkout in Oklahoma, the governor and legislature pledged to raise taxes to pay for higher teacher salaries.

Now former Senator Tom Coburn is leading an anti-tax group demanding a referendum to roll back the taxes. Coburn contends that the state can pay raises without raising taxes. If his group Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! can collect 42,000 signatures by July 18, there will be a referendum. Meanwhile there are legal challenges to the referendum.

Oklahoma Republicans live in a dream world where public services can be funded while the richest individuals and industries in the state get tax cuts.

That’s why some schools in the state operate on a four-day week. The oligarchs of Oklahoma don’t want the children of the state to have a good education. They want teachers who will work for the lowest wages in the nation to teach their children four days a week.

The future will take care of itself as long as the oil and gas industries pay low taxes. Right?

Categories Oklahoma, Students, Teacher Pay, Teachers

Oklahoma: What It is Like to Teach in an Underfunded School

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2018 //
11

Melissa Smith is a teacher at US Grant High School in Oklahoma City and a member of the AFT. She writes here about the effect of dramatic budget cuts on her school.

Unless you are in a school every day, you might not see the results of underfunding education. That is because we open our doors no matter what, and my colleagues and I will do everything we can to make sure our students get the education they deserve. But just because the consequences are invisible doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. Isn’t that the definition of privilege? Thinking something isn’t a problem simply because it might not be a problem for you?

You have probably heard about the recent teacher walkout in Oklahoma. While some of that was about teacher salaries, it was more about the conditions in our schools – conditions that resulted from years of underfunding education.

The Oklahoma City public schools district is the largest in the state, serving about 46,000 students. Because of relentless decreases in funding from the Oklahoma legislature, our district has had to cut almost $40m in the past two years. This has resulted in our fine arts budgets being slashed by 50%, our library media budgets being completely eliminated and district officials being forced to end the school year days early.

Our school system also has 58 classrooms that are “split-level”. This means a teacher is required to teach two different curricula to two different grade levels at the same time in the same classroom. And our teachers do this without the help of a teaching assistant…

Our classes are extremely overcrowded, with 30 and 40 students per class. Some of us don’t even have enough desks for our students to sit in. Coach Aaron McVay, one of our PE teachers, has had classes of more than 80 students. How much learning happens in a class of 80?

Some teachers don’t even have classrooms. They keep their belongings, textbooks and supplies on carts and push them from classroom to classroom, hour to hour. I have been a traveling teacher. Like some of our fellow union members who are adjunct college professors and hold “office hours” in their cars and nurses who travel from school to school, fingers crossed, hoping no one at a school across town will suffer a health crisis, it is almost impossible to be an effective educator while carting your work around…

The cut that hurt most was losing our two maintenance workers, Gerald and Joe, whose positions were eliminated when our district was forced to cut the first $30m in 2017. Gerald and Joe kept our building running. Without them, nothing seems to work. Last August, we had days without air conditioning. It was common for my classroom to reach 90 degrees by 9am. In fact, Cristina Moershel taught her class outside because it was cooler there than in her classroom. Outside. In August. In Oklahoma. She used a dry erase marker on the window to teach calculus while her students sat on the ground.

Our current history textbook is so old that the Oklahoma City bombing only gets a couple of pages in the epilogue
Now, think about how much these problems would be exacerbated if some of this year’s proposed cuts to federal funding were to go through.

Cuts would make it impossible to retain qualified teachers instead of losing them at the rate of almost 400 per month. If there are cuts to federal programs for low-income students or students with disabilities, what else will my school have to sacrifice to provide the services they need? How will these cuts help students graduate and take on the world?

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Oklahoma

Jan Resseger: The Single Best Article About the Oklahoma Teachers’ Strike

By dianeravitch
May 30, 2018 //
9

I had planned to write a post about the excellent article in the New Yorker about the Oklahoma teachers’ strike, but discovered this morning that Jan Resseger, one of my favorite bloggers, beat me to the punch. The article by Rivera Galchen clearly connects the red state anti-tax policies and the underfunding of schools.

She writes:


Watching teachers walk out this spring has startled America in these discouraging times, but nowhere was it as moving as in Oklahoma. The teachers walked out, and, grateful that teachers had figured out a way to expose desperate conditions in the schools, school superintendents and school boards—the management—shut down school for two weeks and walked with their teachers in gratitude. At the statehouse itself the protestors walked into a brick wall. More than just demonstrating what is missing from their classrooms, they showed what decent concern for our children would require of us as citizens and what—across too many of our states—one-party, anti-tax state legislators and governors are quite satisfied to deny.

Rivka Galchen profiles the Oklahoma walkout in this week’s New Yorker magazine. Galchen, who accompanied and learned to know many teachers, reflects on her own experience of the strike and on the lives of teachers she came to know.

Even before the strike when they worried about a possible walkout, members of the legislature proposed a modest raise. But teachers, desperate about the conditions for children in their schools, refused to cancel the walkout. Galchen writes: “Teachers in Oklahoma are paid less than those in West Virginia, which spends forty percent more per pupil than Oklahoma does… In response to the threat of a walkout, the Republican-dominated Oklahoma legislature offered teachers a pay raise of around six thousand dollars a year. It funded the raise with an assortment of tax bills, most of which disproportionately affect the poor—a cigarette tax, a diesel tax, an Amazon sales tax, an expansion of ball and dice gambling, and a five-dollar-per-room hotel-motel tax. The Republicans touted the move as historic, and it was: the legislature hadn’t passed a tax increase since 1990.”

Galchen carefully defines the constraints placed on the state by years of anti-tax governments: “Oklahoma has essentially been under single-party rule for about a decade. The state legislature is eighty percent Republican, and in the most recent midterm elections the Democrats didn’t field a candidate in nearly half the races. Governor Fallin is in her eighth year, and during her tenure nearly all state agencies have seen cuts of between ten and thirty percent, even as the population that those agencies serve has increased. A capital-gains tax break was configured in such a way that two-thirds of the benefit went to the eight hundred wealthiest families in the state. An income-tax reduction similarly benefited primarily the wealthy. The tax on fracked oil was slashed, and when it was nudged back up—it remains the lowest in the nation—the energy billionaire and political kingmaker Harold Hamm, whose estimated net worth is quadruple the budget that the legislature allocates to the state, stood in the gallery of the capitol, letting the lawmakers know that he was watching. Reversing tax cuts is never easy, but it’s almost impossible in Oklahoma. In 1992, a law was passed requiring that any bill to raise taxes receive the assent of the governor and three-quarters of the legislature.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, Oklahoma

A Guide to the Corporations Defunding Public Schools and Opposing Striking Teachers

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2018 //
20

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLE YOU WILL READ TODAY. SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR SCHOOL BOARD, YOUR LOCAL MEDIA, YOUR ELECTEDS. TWEET IT. POST IT ON FACEBOOK.

In the states where teachers have engaged in walkouts and strikes, public education has been systematically starved of funding. Typically, corporate taxes have been cut so that funding for education has also been cut. The corporations benefit while the children and their teachers are put on a starvation diet.

Who are the corporations and individuals behind the efforts to shrink funding for public schools and promote privatization?

This article makes it clear.

It begins like this, then details a state-by-state list of corporations and billionaires backing the cycle of austerity and school privatization.

“The ongoing wave of teacher strikes across the US is changing the conversation about public education in this country. From West Virginia to Arizona, Kentucky to Oklahoma, Colorado to North Carolina, tens of thousands of teachers have taken to the streets and filled state capitals, garnering public support and racking up victories in some of the nation’s most hostile political terrain.

“Even though the teachers who have gone on strike are paid well below the national average, their demands have gone beyond better salary and benefits for themselves. They have also struck for their students’ needs – to improve classroom quality and to increase classroom resources. Teachers are calling for greater investment in children and the country’s public education system as a whole. They are also demanding that corporations, banks, and billionaires pay their fair share to invest in schools.

“The teachers’ strikes also represent a major pushback by public sector workers against the right-wing agenda of austerity and privatization. The austerity and privatization agenda for education goes something like this: impose big tax cuts for corporations and the .01% and then use declining tax revenue as a rationale to cut funding for state-funded services like public schools. Because they are underfunded, public schools cannot provide the quality education kids deserve. Then, the right wing criticizes public schools and teachers, saying there is a crisis in education. Finally, the right wing uses this as an opportunity to make changes to the education system that benefit them – including offering privatization as a solution that solves the crisis of underfunding.

“While this cycle has put students, parents, and teachers in crisis, many corporations, banks, and billionaires are driving and profiting from it. The key forces driving the austerity and privatization agenda are similar across all the states that have seen strikes:

“*Billionaire school privatizers. A small web of billionaires – dominated by the Koch brothers and their donor network, as well as the Waltons – have given millions to state politicians who will push their pro-austerity, pro-school privatization agenda. These billionaires lead a coordinated, nationwide movement to apply business principles to education, including: promoting CEO-like superintendents, who have business experience but little or no education experience; closing “failing” schools, just as companies close unprofitable stores or factories; aggressively cutting costs, such as by recruiting less experienced teachers; instituting a market-based system in which public schools compete with privately managed charter schools, religious schools, for-profit schools, and virtual schools; and making standardized test scores the ultimate measure of student success.”

Keep reading to learn about the interlocking web that includes the Koch brothers, the Mercers, the Waltons, the fossil fuel industry, their think tanks, and much more, all combined to shrink public schools and replace them with charters and vouchers.

By the way, rightwing billionaire Philip Anschutz of Colorado was the producer of the anti-teacher, anti-public education, pro-charter propaganda film “Waiting for Superman.”

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Arizona, Billionaires, Charter Schools, Colorado, Corporate Reformers, Dark Money, Democracy, Education Industry, Education Reform, Funding, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Privatization, Teacher Pay, Walton Foundation, West Virginia

Politico: Why Some States Can’t Raise Taxes to Pay for Schools

By dianeravitch
May 1, 2018 //
22

 

Politico explains why some states can’t raise taxes to pay for education and other public services. Conservative Republicans, obeying their puppet masters at ALEC (funded by the Koch brother, the DeVos family, and major corporations) persuaded voters to change the laws to require a supermajority for any tax increases.

“TEACHER STRIKES HIT STATES WITH STRICT TAX HIKE REQUIREMENTS: In Arizona and Oklahoma – where tens of thousands of teachers have flooded state capitals in recent weeks to demand better pay and hundreds of millions of dollars in education funding – the state constitution makes it hard to raise taxes. Voters in both states approved constitutional amendments in 1992 that require a supermajority – much more than half – of the state legislature to impose new taxes or increase existing ones, as opposed to a simple majority.

“- A major lift in some states: It takes two-thirds of the state legislature in Arizona to impose new taxes or increase taxes. In Oklahoma, it takes 75 percent of the state legislature – one of the strictest requirements in the country. And while supermajorities aren’t the sole driver of education funding woes, critics argue that they lock in tax cuts year after year, making it difficult for states to address education funding shortfalls.

“- “This is a classic example of something that sounds good, but it’s a complete poison pill,” said Nick Johnson, senior vice president for state fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Supermajorities just reduce the power of a state to do what it needs to do.” Johnson said the requirements also allow conservatives to “lock-in” their “advantage into the future.” Florida is considering such a proposal on the ballot this November.

“- CBPP notes that Arizona “cut personal income tax rates by 10 percent in 2006, cut corporate tax rates by 30 percent in 2011, reduced taxes on capital gains, and reduced taxes in other ways over the last couple of decades.” State education funding in Arizona is also down 14 percent since the recession hit, after adjusting for inflation. A coalition of Arizona public school advocates led by a progressive policy group is now pushing for a ballot measure to raise income taxes on wealthy Arizonans to help pay for public education.

“- Conservative organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council have long-pushed for supermajority measures nationwide in an effort to curb “excessive government spending.” Jonathan Williams, ALEC’s vice president for the center for state fiscal reform, argued that supermajorities haven’t prohibited states from taking action when it comes to education funding. He pointed to Oklahoma, where the threat of massive teacher walkouts prompted state lawmakers to pass a rare tax hike in March that would fund a $6,100 pay raise. “When something becomes a necessity, these state lawmakers were able to hit even the most stringent of the supermajority thresholds,” Williams said.”

Categories ALEC, Arizona, Betsy DeVos, Funding, Koch Brothers, Oklahoma

The Teachers’ Strikes Are Just the Beginning

By dianeravitch
April 26, 2018 //
31

 

The spring of 2018 may well be remembered as the beginning of a mass movement by working people against the domination of corporations and the 1%.

The leadership in red states and the federal government have tilted the tax system to favor the very wealthy, while demanding sacrifices from the powerless majority.

The teachers in West Virginia were first to say “Enough!”

But they are far from last.

The ALEC-inspired Republican legislatures killed collective bargaining, and the Supreme Court in expected to hobble labor unions with the Janus decision.

But that’s not going to stop working people from organizing and demanding a fair share of the bounty that they produced.

For all of Facebook’s sins and transgressions, it has nonetheless created a way for voiceless people to organize and act. Teachers and others created collectives on Facebook and used them to mobilize for mass actions.

The teachers’ strikes were organized by grassroots efforts that began on Facebook. Powerless teachers discovered that by acting in concert, they became powerful. They have used their numbers to demand fair pay and benefits and have stood up courageously to legislatures known to be in the pockets of the oil and gas industries and other malefactors of vast wealth.

Piece by piece, day by day, as they lead us, we will recover our democracy. We will rebuild the institutions now under assault by Trumpism and its variants. The names of the leaders are not well-known. They won’t be on the covers of magazines or interviewed by late night TV hosts. They are ordinary citizens who have stepped forward to demand justice, equity, and fairness and to revive our democracy.

 

Categories Courage, Democracy, Equity, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Resistance, Teachers, West Virginia
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