PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Simon Campbell
State Senator, Robert Mellow, recently touted his bill (Senate Bill 20) in this newspaper as a way to end teacher strikes in Pennsylvania. What the Senator conveniently forgot to tell readers was that his bill has been declared to be unconstitutional at three public hearings in Harrisburg, by attorneys from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (teachers' union) and the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court case precedent and legal testimony from those hearings is available on our website at www.stopteacherstrikes.org.
Mellow's bill is unconstitutional because only police and firefighters can have their contract disputes resolved by compulsory binding arbitration – not teachers. Binding arbitration is anyway a lousy idea for taxpayers because it strips fiscal authority over the cost of the union contract away from the people's duly elected school officials. Mellow's proposal is based on a system used in Connecticut which has the second highest property taxes in the nation.
The real solution to eliminate teacher strikes is the Strike-Free Education Act (House Bill 1369) from State Representative Todd Rock (R-Franklin) because it bans teacher strikes, keeps fiscal authority with elected school officials, and stops retroactive salary payments which lead to budget-busting tax hikes. Unlike Senator Mellow, Representative Rock does not have his election campaigns bankrolled by the teachers' union.
Mellow's bill is a hoodwinking exercise because it cannot become law anyway. Preying on the hopes of parents and taxpayers in order to placate union officials is just politics of the worst lowest kind. By contrast, we thank State Representative Todd Rock for being a true leader in standing up to the abusive power of the teachers' union.
Sincerely,
(Simon Campbell is President of the nonprofit organization StopTeacherStrikes, Inc.)
