Two cheers for a Supreme Court victory on pension spiking

Jul 31, 2020
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** School Reopening Petition, Lawsuits and Happy Janusversary!
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CPC’s Parent Union releases petition calling on schools to reopen: Parent Union’s petition ([link removed]) to reopen schools highlights the massive consequences to minority children and families of closed classrooms. It reveals how the best science shows both that schooling is necessary for scholastic and social development and that reopening poses little risk to students and teachers. Sign the following petition here ([link removed]) and let Gov. Newsom know:

As California parents, recognizing the well-documented consequences of school closures on children and families, especially minorities, we call for state and local officials to immediately reopen schools in the state

Happy Janusversary: CPC President Will Swaim has an op-ed ([link removed]) in the OC Register this week highlighting the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision, which struck down as unconstitutional the arrangement that forced government workers to pay union fees for the privilege of keeping their jobs. He highlights CPC’s efforts to quantify Janus’s impact on government union dues:

To quantify the drop in payers to government unions post-Janus, the California Policy Center has been issuing Public Records Act requests to nearly all the government agencies in the state – including counties, cities, and school districts – to ask about the number of union dues payers before and after the Janus decision. We now have records covering about one-third of the state’s public-sector workforce. Our finding: The Janus decision has reduced the number of Californians in government unions by about 13 percent.

CPC joins lawsuit over private school funding: This week, CPC joined a lawsuit ([link removed]) led by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) to ensure that federal stimulus funding meant for all schools also reaches private schools. State officials from across the country are attempting to hijack federal funds meant for all schools to reward their teacher union paymasters. This lawsuit will fulfill the original intent of the CARES legislation: to provide funding for all American schools, not just the ones deemed worthy by special interests and their political puppets.

The OC Board of Education sues to reopen schools: This week, the OC Board of Education voted 4-0 to sue ([link removed]) Gov. Newsom to reopen schools. “We have made the decision to put the needs of our students first by filing this lawsuit,” said Ken Williams, the board president. “The state has failed to address how high-risk students and those without adequate parental support will navigate the coming weeks and months in distance learning.” The LA Times’s coverage of the suit also highlights Will’s white paper making the case for school reopening.

Charter schools sue state over funding formula: This week, a group of California charter schools also launched a lawsuit ([link removed]) against Gov. Newsom over SB 98, the California budget bill addressing spending for K-12 education that denies funding for students newly enrolling in public schools. SB 98 creates a hold-harmless provision that keeps school funding for the upcoming year constant, rewarding district schools that are losing students and punishing charter schools that are attracting them.

California Supreme Court rules against pension spiking: This week, California’s Supreme Court – in a brief moment of sanity – upheld a 2012 ban on pension spiking, where public employees juice their final year pay, on which their pension is partly determined, with overtime, unused vacation, and other benefits. Yet the ruling didn’t explicitly address the so-called California Rule, which holds that pension benefits cannot be reduced for existing workers. CPC contributor Edward Ring explains ([link removed]) why the ruling deserves two cheers:

The ruling this week did not go far enough. But it reinforced earlier precedents that make clear the California Rule will not apply in all cases, and it left open the door to define an “important state interest” in a manner that is broad enough to empower more substantial reforms in the future.

Public servants or overlords? In another contribution for CPC, Ed continues to examine public-sector compensation. In this week’s installment ([link removed]) , he looks at how much more county workers make than their private-sector counterparts. He finds:

The average full-time non-safety employee in San Mateo County made over $160K in pay and benefits in 2019. And while San Mateo County is among the wealthiest counties in California, with a median household income of $114K, the average non-safety county worker still made 1.4 times more than what these high-income households managed to earn. Perhaps more noteworthy... the average county employee makes more than twice the household income ([link removed]) of Riverside County, where the household income averages $64K, and also in San Joaquin County, where the household income averages $61K.

Your guide to California’s ballot measures: On the latest episode ([link removed]) of National Review’s Radio Free California, David and Will offer recommendations on the twelve ballot propositions California voters will face this November — complete with time-saving tips for less ambitious voters.

Whatever happened to following the science? Teachers unions have tried to justify their support for school closures by invoking science. But with the CDC, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Pediatrics all supporting reopening, this position is getting weaker by the day. As CPC contributor Larry Sand writes ([link removed]) in his latest contribution:

So what do the unions have to say about “science” now? In response to the new CDC guidance, all American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten could come up with was that the “CDC may have changed its tone to accommodate President Trump’s whims….” Oh, well. When you see that the science argument isn’t working out, change the subject by invoking the nuclear option – “Trump!”

A useful reminder that more money will never be enough for teachers unions: Teachers unions say they need more money for school funding, but the OC Register editorial board points out ([link removed]) this week just how much more of your taxpayer dollars have gone to schools over the past couple of decades:

For the Los Angeles Unified School District, the EDP 365 [the current expense of education] was $4.012 billion in 1998-99, an average cost per Average Daily Attendance (ADA) of $5,986. In 2018-2019, the EDP 365 for LAUSD was $7.213 billion, current expense per ADA, $15,919.

For Long Beach Unified, the EDP 365 was $461.7 million in 1998-99, average cost per ADA of $5,263. In 2018-19, the EDP 365 was $907.6 million, current expense per ADA of $13,154.

Santa Ana Unified’s EDP 365 jumped from $273.5 million in 1998-99 ($5,058 per ADA) to $625 million in 2018-19 ($13,911 per ADA).

Peak Cancel Culture? Last week, I highlighted how Trader Joe’s planned to change its ethnic food packaging permutations after one random high-schooler from the Bay Area called them racist. I may have spoken too soon. It seems like Trader Joe’s grew a spine. “We want to be clear: we disagree that any of these labels are racist,” the company stated ([link removed]) this week. “Decades ago, our Buying Team started using product names, like Trader Giotto's, Trader José's, Trader Ming's, etc. We thought then—and still do—that this naming of products could be fun and show appreciation for other cultures.” Bravo!

Prediction: Outrage peddlers will adapt their criticism that Trader Joe’s packaging is racist to Trader Joe’s, itself, is racist. I’ll bet a bottle of “Two-Buck Chuck” on it.

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Jordan Bruneau
Communications Director
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])


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