Newsday had a splendid exposé on the enormously oversized impact teachers unions have on our school boards and school district policy.
Amazingly, almost 40% of candidates serving on our school boards are either teachers or former teachers. And their presence has been bolstered in large part by a concerted effort by the teachers unions by recruiting more teachers to run, training them for their campaigns, and funding them significantly. Since only 10% of the voting population shows up at these elections, the organized teachers unions have a disproportionately large impact on the outcome of these elections, and ultimately on the budgets that are passed every year.
School expenses comprise approximately two-thirds of an individual’s property tax bill on Long Island and the largest segment of the budget is for personnel — salary, benefits, and pension costs for teachers.
When it comes to negotiating new contracts, the school board members who were financed by the teachers unions are sitting across the table from the same teachers unions they’re supposed to be negotiating against. It is an awful conflict of interest. Some have labeled it “legalized bribery.”
While the ultimate solution would be to prevent candidates for school boards from accepting money from the teachers union, due to the conflict of interest, such legislation is unlikely to pass.
However, there are two other measures that can be taken to bolster the impact that taxpayers and average parents can have.
One is to elect superintendents directly from the people. The second is to create an island-wide political party that recruits candidates under the banner of being the non-teachers union candidate.
Electing the superintendent directly by the people would match a face to the ultimate budget and tax rate implemented by the school board. To open the field to more candidates, the position should be more properly labeled School Governor, who would oversee all school district matters and have a single vote on the board with other board members. He or she can also hire a deputy who would need to possess all the qualifications of our present superintendents or county budget directors. They ultimately would be accountable to the elected School Governor who is directly accountable to the voters.
A city budget is matched to the face of the mayor. A town budget is matched to the elected supervisor and a county budget to the county executive. But no such accountability presently exists on the school board level.
School boards are comprised of five to seven individuals who run for office on a rotating basis. Few people even know the names of the people on the school board, let alone matching their name and face to the budget that is ultimately produced.
Directly electing School Governors would establish a sense of accountability to the public. Putting forth a budget that increases the budget by 7%, or even pierces the cap, could be political doom for that superintendent, who presently is appointed by a majority of the board, but would now have to face an election.
Next, there must be a concerted effort by taxpayers across Long Island to develop one unified political party that can be seen by voters as the contrast to the power of the teachers union.
Our two-party system on a national and state level gives voters a clear choice of different platforms. No such dichotomy exists on the school board level. School candidates don’t run under a political party banner, so it’s almost impossible for voters to get a feel for the ideology of that particular candidate. And that’s just how the unions want it.
A local political pollster who has advised many school board candidates said that an insurgent group in a school district can defeat the teachers union once by catching them by surprise if there’s a salient political issue of the moment. Ultimately, however, the teachers union will regain control because the interest of the average taxpayer will wane, while the professional operatives of the teachers union will stay laser-focused.
Each election in a smaller district starts off with about 1,500 automatic votes for the school board candidate of the union. They have a network of teachers and followers throughout the district who will vote nearly 100% of the time.
Casual voters need to know who the counter to the union is. They shouldn’t have to do hours of research to find out who’s going to defend their tax dollars and who’s going to prevent pornography, critical race theory and controversial gender studies from being pushed onto their kids.
There’s a reason our taxes on Long Island are so high, and a good part of it is the extraordinary strength of the teachers unions. The counter balance is to create more accountability by electing superintendents directly, and by creating a new party that gives voters throughout Long Island a clear choice on how their schools will be run in the future.