The collective bargaining rights of teachers should be removed

As part of the debate format, in each round one is either affirming one's own case or making a rebuttal. Never both in the same round. This is to save character space. The final round is a conclusion, in which no arguments or rebuttals are made. Each side just makes a case why he felt his arguments were better. If my opponent accepts these conditions then we shall proceed. Definition Collective bargaining – workers do not bargain their salary as an individual, but collectively as an organization, usually through a trade union that represent their interests, using various tactics to obtain higher salaries and benefits, which would fail under individual action. I will use the moral framework of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism states that an action should be taken If the utility, or well being of society, will be improved overall from that action. I concede that removing collective bargaining would harm employed teachers. However in this policy, the benefit teachers obtain are so low in comparison to the utility society would receive that the good outweighs the bad. I will make the assumption that education benefits society. Education teaches students critical thinking and students learn information that can benefit themselves through a higher salary and benefit society as a whole. Schooling is an issue that affects everyone. Everyone has had to go to school at some point in their life and many parents have children in school. A well educated population is necessary If a nation wants to remain a wealthy nation and to uphold the ideas of the republic. I can embark more on why education is important, but unless questioned, I will assume it is a given. I will also demonstrate that removing collective bargaining rights would increase the efficiency of school systems and would allow for school reforms that would improve education. This benefits society since it reduces costs on education and improves education. It will note why collective bargaining in the private sector is vastly different then collective bargaining in the public sector. The collective bargaining power of unions in the private sector is relatively weak. If a labor union demands higher compensation, the private firm may be unable to deliver it, since the polices can bankrupt the firm. This is the reason why only 6.9% of workers in the private sector are privatized[1]. However, labor unions in the public sector are more powerful because they receive compensation from the state. State programs do not compete fairly against private programs. As a result, 36.2% of public employees are unionized[1]. The state can obtain funds from tax payers, offer their services for ‘free', and create laws that either disallow or make it difficult for private companies to enter the market. Private companies can only make a profit If consumers are willing to pay for the product, while the public sector can extract money through force. If one does not want a ‘public good', then he or she has to pay for it anyways or else be thrown in jail. Therefore, since the public sector does not need to worry about bankruptcy and acquiring funds as much as the private sector, labor unions can increase the price of their labor and block reform that will improve education. Teacher unions also have incredible political and social power. If a teacher union decides to go on strike then news media and parents will be in a frenzy. Parents will be upset that their child is not getting an education and it will obtain press coverage. Politicians will be blamed, and possibly lose reelection over the ordeal. Therefore, teacher unions can use strikes far more effectively more than almost any other organization. In terms of political power, teacher unions greatly influence public opinion. For example, many people believe the myth that teachers are overpaid, which I will explain later. Parents, teachers, and celebrities were able to create a huge rallies in Washington DC and Wisconsin to support them[2]. Teacher unions use their fees to pay for politician's campaign fees and lobbying. The National Educational Association has spent over 12 million dollars in Washington from 2008-2010. [3] "Coincidentally" , the NEA spent over twice as much money they do normally during the same time period that school choice movement became big and three well made documentary videos advocating school choice and reform. Even liberal president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, known for dramatically increasing the size of the public sector stated: "The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service," [4] It is a myth that most teachers are underpaid. As John Stossel segment shows, teachers are paid more than the average wage in America. They also enjoy many perks such as pension plans, job security, and summers off. Hour per hour, teachers make more than psychologist, chemists, and physical therapists. People choose a job based on a number of reasons. However, people are free to choice a job that he or she finds most satisfying or pays well. Nobody is forced to work an ‘underpaid' job. If teachers were indeed ‘underpaid' we would expect to see a shortage of teachers and people would not apply to be a teacher. However, If anything there is a surplus of qualified teachers. In some cities, there is a 12:1 ratio between applications and open jobs [5]. These statistics are from BEFORE the great recession. This surplus is bad since potential teachers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to attain a degree in education, only to find that there are no jobs in education. It should also be noted that it is nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher. While in most occupations, If one is bad in one's profession or behaves poorly, he or she is fired. However, due to tenure, the legal fees, amount of steps and length of time it takes to fire a tenured teacher makes the process impossible. Accordingly, approximately only 1 in 1000 of teachers are fired while most other occupations have a much higher firing or turnover rate. For example 1 in every 57 doctors will lose their medical license[6]. Teacher unions have also successful been blocking educational reforms that would improve America's education. For example, school vouchers have been proven to improve children's reading, math and writing comprehensibility however teacher unions are taking measures to make sure these reforms do not occur[7]. Likewise, teacher unions also blocking reforms to use merit-pay. For example, in Washington DC, the school chancellor offered a plan in which teachers could give up tenure-pay for the opportunity to potential earn as much as $144,000 based on merit per year. The union would not even allow the issue to come to a vote. [6] With improvements in technology and access to capital, almost all goods and services have improved since 1970. Modern cars, phones, televisions, and computers have all improved. Many of these products are even cheaper than they were 40 years ago. However, education has become more expensive and test scores have not improved at all[8]. It is because the collective bargaining power is so strong that America has not seen any improvements in education. Removing collective bargaining power would improve schools, and reduce cost on education that taxpayers have to pay through coercion. . http://tinyurl.com...[1] . http://www.youtube.com...[2] . http://tinyurl.com...[3] . http://www.youtube.com...[4] . http://tinyurl.com...[5] . http://tinyurl.com...[6] . http://tinyurl.com...[7] . http://tinyurl.com...[8]