Speaker 1: The Armstrong and Getty show. You're a bunch of cowards
Speaker 1: hiding behind our children as an excuse for keeping schools closed.
Speaker 1: Do you think you're some sort of martyrs because of
Speaker 1: the decisions you're making when the statistics do not lie
Speaker 1: that the vast majority of the population is not at
Speaker 1: risk from this virus. The garbage workers who pick up
Speaker 1: my freaking trash risk their lives every day more than
Speaker 1: anyone in this school system. Figure it out, or get
Speaker 1: off the podium, because you know what, they're people like
Speaker 1: me and a line enough other people out there who
Speaker 1: will gladly take your seat and figure it out. It's
Speaker 1: not a high bar. Raise the breaking bar. That's funny
Speaker 1: how one person can have such an effect. I don't
Speaker 1: know how many times I heard that clippers saw that
Speaker 1: clip love it in the last forty eight hours. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, a guy express seeing what a lot of
Speaker 1: people feel, and I just wonder. I was reaching out
Speaker 1: to a number of people yesterday in the legal community,
Speaker 1: particularly what what are the policy things around this whole
Speaker 1: teacher situation. That guy was obviously talking about teachers claiming
Speaker 1: that we're just trying to protect the kids, and he
Speaker 1: called them liars and cowards for claiming that the parents,
Speaker 1: the kids, the In many cases, the administration, the scientists
Speaker 1: all say open the schools. The teachers unions say no,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna Let's talk to Lan he Chen. David
Speaker 1: and Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at
Speaker 1: the Hoover Institution, hosted the podcast Crossing Lines with lanh Chen.
Speaker 1: Lani Welcome, our user. I'm doing fine. What a what
Speaker 1: a compelling clip. I need to hear the emotion and
Speaker 1: just to hear that, I mean, you know, expressing what
Speaker 1: a lot of parents around this country feel and sincerely feel.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not like fake anger. It's just not
Speaker 1: feeling frustration. I appreciate his eloquence to yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I have. I've had that level of of anger throughout
Speaker 1: this whole thing about the schooling and everything like that.
Speaker 1: You're a lawyer, you understand policy, what can be done legally,
Speaker 1: what can be done policy wise to deal with this situation.
Speaker 1: The teachers unions seem to just have all the cards here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, unfortunately, what you're seeing is that in the
Speaker 1: public education system, what you are seeing is the product
Speaker 1: of decades of essentially collusion between school boards, school administrators,
Speaker 1: and the teachers union leadership. You know, it's not in
Speaker 1: many cases, it's not rank and file teachers. You know
Speaker 1: a lot. I know a lot of rank and file
Speaker 1: teachers who just want to get back to work. What
Speaker 1: I do know is that there are a lot of
Speaker 1: union leaders, a lot of union stooges out there who
Speaker 1: are only interested in protecting their own jobs, and they're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out, essentially, how can we do that.
Speaker 1: And the only way they do that is by being relevant,
Speaker 1: And the only way that they're relevant, quite frankly, is
Speaker 1: by pushing back on what is in many cases a
Speaker 1: common sense and science supported idea, which is, let's get
Speaker 1: the schools back open, let's get the kids in. But
Speaker 1: when you have decades of this that has essentially gone
Speaker 1: unchallenged in many states, this is what you end up with.
Speaker 1: I realize that it differs state to state, but what
Speaker 1: about just firing all the teachers unionized teachers who won't
Speaker 1: show up to work like Gregan did with the air
Speaker 1: traffic control. You're paid to do a job. Your excuse
Speaker 1: for not doing the job as bogus, so you're fired. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, what what districts could do if they actually
Speaker 1: had you know, some courage is essentially to do what
Speaker 1: what happens in many settings, which is essentially you figure
Speaker 1: out are there are there replacement teachers, Are there people
Speaker 1: who are non unionized you can bring in. But here's
Speaker 1: the challenge, guys, No school district, I think, well at
Speaker 1: least not many school districts that I know of, would
Speaker 1: do that, because the school districts in many cases are
Speaker 1: run by school board members. And by the way, you
Speaker 1: heard this clip right, school board members in many cases
Speaker 1: are supported by the teachers unions. They are in power,
Speaker 1: They are there because the teachers units, again not universally.
Speaker 1: There are some parents and some other community leaders who've
Speaker 1: taken a courageous stand and said, look, we're gonna go
Speaker 1: and and stand for election to school boards to stand
Speaker 1: for the right things, getting our kids equality, education, ensuring
Speaker 1: that they have the facilities they need, all of the
Speaker 1: important things that come with a good education for our kids.
Speaker 1: But in too many cases, guys, too many means people
Speaker 1: on these school boards are there because of the unions.
Speaker 1: They are beholden to them, and therefore they will not vote,
Speaker 1: They will not vote to do the right thing. They
Speaker 1: will never vote across the unions, and that's how you
Speaker 1: end up where you are. One of our fantastic listeners
Speaker 1: dropped us an email today, Lonnie, I had not known
Speaker 1: this one of the if not the biggest teachers union
Speaker 1: in America, the California Teachers Association. The people who run
Speaker 1: that union are themselves in a union, a different union,
Speaker 1: and they have better benefits than the teachers that they represent,
Speaker 1: which is really a hell of a deal. Uh, talk
Speaker 1: to us in general about public and floyee unions and
Speaker 1: why f DR of all people, was against them, and
Speaker 1: why it's a very dangerous idea. Well, look, you know
Speaker 1: that the idea of unions is actually something that I
Speaker 1: don't oppose. You know, I think that the concept of
Speaker 1: having unions in the private sector, where you have represented
Speaker 1: employees engaging in a negotiation with employers, multiple employers, trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to improve conditions for workers, that's
Speaker 1: one thing public employee unions there's no competition in in
Speaker 1: in the negotiation. You have a single entity. The state
Speaker 1: government in most cases are local government, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: it's government that you're trying to negotiate with. You essentially
Speaker 1: are hiring people to negotiate against yourselves, because the people
Speaker 1: paying these workers are tax payers. They're not corporations, their
Speaker 1: tax payers. So essentially, what you have set up is
Speaker 1: a negotiation where people are negotiating against the taxpayers. And
Speaker 1: that's the problem with public employee unions. Uh, it's not
Speaker 1: about trying to drive a better bargain with a private
Speaker 1: sector employer who has freedom of contract, who has the
Speaker 1: ability essentially to say these are the terms under which
Speaker 1: I want to hire someone. This is very different. This
Speaker 1: is people trying to essentially get benefits over taxpayers. And
Speaker 1: that's the challenge of public employees and that's that's the
Speaker 1: reason why people have opposed them. I read a funny
Speaker 1: thing yesterday that showed that kind of a negotiation with
Speaker 1: the public sector. Since their negotiation, they're just talking about
Speaker 1: somebody else's money. We wanted two percent, rays we'll give
Speaker 1: you three. Let's make it four and part as friends. Yeah. Perfect,
Speaker 1: So a couple of quick points. Yeah, private industry unions
Speaker 1: are there as an oppositional force, there to oppose the
Speaker 1: power of the employer to do whatever they want. And
Speaker 1: that's fine, it's freedom of association. It's very American but
Speaker 1: there is no management in government. I mean, theoretically they're
Speaker 1: there to represent us, the taxpayers and our interests. But
Speaker 1: number one, even in the best scenario, they're gonna do
Speaker 1: what's expedient as politicians. And number two, in a place
Speaker 1: like corruptive Fornia, for instance, the unions have figured out,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, we can turn out all of our members,
Speaker 1: so we'll get our union lawyers elected as government officials.
Speaker 1: And so our current union lawyers will be negotiating with
Speaker 1: the guys who are union lawyers last week, and the
Speaker 1: minute they're turned out, they're gonna be union lawyers again.
Speaker 1: Which is why California has an unfunded pension atomic bomb
Speaker 1: that's gonna go off. Anything you'd like to add on
Speaker 1: to that or disagree with money, no, I mean that's
Speaker 1: that that that's all right. And and in fact you
Speaker 1: raise a really important issue, which is, you know, you
Speaker 1: talk about the very generous pensions that many public workers have,
Speaker 1: by the way, far more generous than what you know
Speaker 1: pretty much anybody who works in the private sector has,
Speaker 1: and those pensions have been negotiated, and we continue to
Speaker 1: kick the can down the road on the obligations that
Speaker 1: have to be paid on these things you know you
Speaker 1: talk about, for example, the healthcare benefits that are provided
Speaker 1: to UH public employee workers in excuse me, public sector
Speaker 1: workers in California. Many of those benefits, by the way,
Speaker 1: are far more generous than benefits provided even under Obamacare.
Speaker 1: So a couple of years ago, when there was a
Speaker 1: negotiation between one of these public sector unions and the
Speaker 1: and the agency where they work, the argument made by
Speaker 1: these union stooges was essentially this, we don't want Obamacare,
Speaker 1: it's not good enough for us. And then the same
Speaker 1: people go and turn around and you know what they do.
Speaker 1: They fight for Obamacare. They say, hey, Obamacare ought to
Speaker 1: be available to more people. And in the hypocrisy of that,
Speaker 1: the hypocrisy of saying it's not good enough for our people,
Speaker 1: but it's good enough for everybody else, that's why people
Speaker 1: get aggravated and they get angry with these public secutories.
Speaker 1: I don't want to leave people feel being defeated here
Speaker 1: on a Friday. So if you were listening wherever there
Speaker 1: in the country, your kids aren't in school. You want
Speaker 1: your kids to be in school, all the sciences they
Speaker 1: can be in school legally or politically, what should people
Speaker 1: be doing. Can we get a class action lawsuit where
Speaker 1: all the parents get together and say, Hey, I'm owed
Speaker 1: something and I'm not getting it? Or are you Are
Speaker 1: you saying we should just you know, Phil zoom school
Speaker 1: board meetings or what what should we be doing? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I I love the concept of speaking directly to those
Speaker 1: who are in a position to make change and telling
Speaker 1: them that that that we've had enough. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a group that formed recently in California of parents at
Speaker 1: the grassroots, grassroots movement of parents throughout the state. And
Speaker 1: by the way, this is not a Republican thing, it's
Speaker 1: not a Democrat thing. It's parents who are sick and
Speaker 1: tired of their kids being at home when they should
Speaker 1: be in school, coming together and and and all they're
Speaker 1: doing is they're making their voices heard. They're making their
Speaker 1: voices heard at the school board level, they're making them
Speaker 1: heard at the county level, they're making them heard at
Speaker 1: the state level. And that it's a really important thing. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, activism matters. We've seen it over and over again,
Speaker 1: and this is one example of where you know, yes,
Speaker 1: could you use the judicial system, Of course you could try.
Speaker 1: That's going to take years to resolve. We don't have years.
Speaker 1: This crisis is happening now, and that's why activism now
Speaker 1: is so important. Yeah, I think it's got to be
Speaker 1: marching on the schools peacefully. Of course, it's got to
Speaker 1: be showing up on mass set to the school board
Speaker 1: meetings and that sort of thing. And uh, and it's complicating.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine who's on a school board was
Speaker 1: the president for quite a while, said, yeah, the problem
Speaker 1: is the board in his case, it wants to do
Speaker 1: the right thing, but the teachers union is constantly threatening
Speaker 1: to sue the board in the school district and the
Speaker 1: rest of it. And it's some bloody mouth hardball uh
Speaker 1: to do the right thing, which is why uh. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the great economic thinkers of all time
Speaker 1: have said that the worst of all UH monopolies is
Speaker 1: a monopoly on education. It's the most dangerous one. And
Speaker 1: the public school system in the United States has become
Speaker 1: something like an aggress violent monopoly to the point where
Speaker 1: they they fight against the idea that you can take
Speaker 1: your kid out of a bad school and put them
Speaker 1: in a good one. I mean, it's morally bankrupt, it's
Speaker 1: and it's illogical, it's ridiculous. Yeah, it is. And you know,
Speaker 1: it does come back to this problem that when you're
Speaker 1: talking about many of these unions, they are able to
Speaker 1: have an influence over the political process that quite simply
Speaker 1: is outside. So they are able to reinforce the power
Speaker 1: monopoly they have, whether it's in state capitals or whether
Speaker 1: it's in the local school board. They're able to do
Speaker 1: it in a way because you know, if you look
Speaker 1: at how much money these unions spend on political activity,
Speaker 1: it's staggering, It is absolutely staggering. And the amount of
Speaker 1: money that they spend, how involved they are, their ability
Speaker 1: to essentially hand pick the candidates they want, they're able
Speaker 1: to perpetuate the kind of monopoly that has brought them
Speaker 1: to a position of power over the last three or
Speaker 1: four decades. And this is what you end up with.
Speaker 1: What what what you're seeing now is that is the real
Speaker 1: fruits of their labor, and I think for the first time,
Speaker 1: a lot of parents, a lot of voters for seeing
Speaker 1: it and they're sick of it. Lanh Chen is the
Speaker 1: David and Diane Staffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies
Speaker 1: at the Hoover Institution, host of the podcast Crossing Lines
Speaker 1: with Lanha Chenlan. He thank you so much for the wisdom.
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, that was really good. That's
Speaker 1: the best thing I've heard this stuff. And meanwhile, you
Speaker 1: remember assembly Woman Lorrain of Gonzales of Cali, Unicornia, who
Speaker 1: is the gal who got the infamous A B five
Speaker 1: through that tried to change all gig workers into permanent employees,
Speaker 1: from your ubers and lifts, to hair stylists, to X
Speaker 1: ray technicians, to to musicians and artists and set designers,
Speaker 1: just everything. And it ruined so many threw so many
Speaker 1: people out of work, It ruined hundreds of thousands of lives. Well,
Speaker 1: she did it because she wants everybody in the union.
Speaker 1: And she just introduced another bill this week that would
Speaker 1: clear the way for capital staff people to form a
Speaker 1: union if they so does. Higher so the government, which
Speaker 1: is union goons, would have staff that are union goons
Speaker 1: negotiating with the union goons. One final note I just
Speaker 1: happen to read this morning. Uh, the and again it's
Speaker 1: about corrupt Afornia. But by god, those of you in
Speaker 1: the other forty nine states followed the horrific example of
Speaker 1: California at your own risk. Uh. They cited several of
Speaker 1: the giant union obligations that were sold to the people
Speaker 1: of California. Oh, let's pay for itself. The employees kick
Speaker 1: in some money and they do part of their paycheck,
Speaker 1: they kick into their pension and then we use that money,
Speaker 1: we invest it, it will grow and it will totally
Speaker 1: pay for it their benefits. After a ten year unbroken
Speaker 1: bull market, a lot of these pension obligations were at
Speaker 1: fifty percent funded, six maybe sixty five funded. After a
Speaker 1: bull market that was impossibly uh rich and will never
Speaker 1: happen again, and yielding yes and it will never happen again,
Speaker 1: they're at barely funded. What a scam. Well vote or
Speaker 1: vote with your feet, folks. Here in one of these
Speaker 1: states arm