This week, an Idaho state court upheld the “Students Come First” public school reforms. For those of you not up on your Orwellian legislation titles, the “Students Come First” laws reduce collective bargaining rights for Idaho state teachers, introduce a merit pay system, and take money from teacher salaries to put into online classes and more classroom technology. The latter has been the most controversial part of the laws: Many were worried about the effects of the online classes. Others were concerned about Luna’s connections to the company providing the online classes. K12 Inc. was one of Luna’s campaign contributors.
The changes to Idaho teachers’ collective bargaining rights are more worrisome. Teachers can no longer bargain for class size restrictions or for class materials. If a classroom has too many students, or too few books or pencils or art supplies, teachers cannot fight to fix that. Apparently state legislators do not feel that teachers know what their students need. Instead, they can figure it all out from Boise. This is what they mean by “Students Come First”: Students come first to overcrowded, undersupplied classrooms.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Idaho state legislature passed these bills, despite protests from parents and teachers statewide. Idaho Republicans have long been anti-public education and anti-union. A bill that hurts both must have been a dream come true.
What’s more concerning is that the bill was upheld in a state court. The state teachers’ union plans to appeal the decision. The final decision could have wide-reaching consequences. Many similar laws limiting unions’ collective bargaining rights have passed in Republican states. Whatever decisions are finally reached on these laws will set a precedent on labor rights for years to come.
We must hope the law is overturned. Collective bargaining is a vital part of American society. Without the right to form unions and collectively bargain, workers in many sectors of society will see their rights eroded. It is through collective bargaining that we have the 40-hour work week, that we have breaks, that we have safe working conditions. Take the long-time Republican-controlled Texas for example: It has some of the highest worker death and injury rates, some of the lowest worker’s compensation, and a relatively high percentage of its citizens hold minimum-wage jobs. Unions have been attacked for decades in this country, but you only need to look at the working conditions of the Industrial Revolution to understand the necessity of collective action.
Fortunately, Idaho doesn’t just have to wait and watch this decision and its appeals. Union supporters have put measures on the Idaho ballot for 2012 that would repeal the “Students Come First” laws. Every Idahoan should get out and vote for these measures during the election. We need to repeal these laws. We need to protect the collective bargaining rights of our teachers, before a precedent is set that could destroy unionization in Idaho. Once the “Students Come First” laws are gone, we can begin working to improve Idaho public schools, ensure they are properly funded, and protect them from attacks by anti-public education conservatives.
Then our students really will come first.