The Armstrong and Getty show. You're a bunch of cowards hiding behind our children as an excuse for keeping schools closed. Do you think you're some sort of martyrs because of the decisions you're making when the statistics do not lie that the vast majority of the population is not at risk from this virus. The garbage workers who pick up my freaking trash risk their lives every day more than
anyone in this school system. Figure it out, or get off the podium, because you know what, they're people like me and a line enough other people out there who will gladly take your seat and figure it out. It's not a high bar. Raise the breaking bar. That's funny how one person can have such an effect. I don't know how many times I heard that clippers saw that clip love it in the last forty eight hours. Uh. You know, a guy express seeing what a lot of
people feel, and I just wonder. I was reaching out to a number of people yesterday in the legal community, particularly what what are the policy things around this whole teacher situation. That guy was obviously talking about teachers claiming that we're just trying to protect the kids, and he called them liars and cowards for claiming that the parents, the kids, the In many cases, the administration, the scientists all say open the schools. The teachers unions say no,
we're not gonna Let's talk to Lan he Chen. David and Diane Stephy, fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, hosted the podcast Crossing Lines with lanh Chen. Lani Welcome, our user. I'm doing fine. What a what a compelling clip. I need to hear the emotion and just to hear that, I mean, you know, expressing what a lot of parents around this country feel and sincerely feel. It's not it's not like fake anger. It's just not
feeling frustration. I appreciate his eloquence to yeah, oh yeah, I have. I've had that level of of anger throughout this whole thing about the schooling and everything like that. You're a lawyer, you understand policy, what can be done legally, what can be done policy wise to deal with this situation.
The teachers unions seem to just have all the cards here. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, what you're seeing is that in the public education system, what you are seeing is the product of decades of essentially collusion between school boards, school administrators, and the teachers union leadership. You know, it's not in many cases, it's not rank and file teachers. You know a lot. I know a lot of rank and file
teachers who just want to get back to work. What I do know is that there are a lot of union leaders, a lot of union stooges out there who are only interested in protecting their own jobs, and they're trying to figure out, essentially, how can we do that. And the only way they do that is by being relevant, And the only way that they're relevant, quite frankly, is by pushing back on what is in many cases a common sense and science supported idea, which is, let's get
the schools back open, let's get the kids in. But when you have decades of this that has essentially gone unchallenged in many states, this is what you end up with. I realize that it differs state to state, but what about just firing all the teachers unionized teachers who won't show up to work like Gregan did with the air traffic control. You're paid to do a job. Your excuse
for not doing the job as bogus, so you're fired. Well, you know, what what districts could do if they actually had you know, some courage is essentially to do what what happens in many settings, which is essentially you figure out are there are there replacement teachers, Are there people
who are non unionized you can bring in. But here's the challenge, guys, No school district, I think, well at least not many school districts that I know of, would do that, because the school districts in many cases are run by school board members. And by the way, you heard this clip right, school board members in many cases are supported by the teachers unions. They are in power, They are there because the teachers units, again not universally.
There are some parents and some other community leaders who've taken a courageous stand and said, look, we're gonna go and and stand for election to school boards to stand for the right things, getting our kids equality, education, ensuring that they have the facilities they need, all of the important things that come with a good education for our kids. But in too many cases, guys, too many means people on these school boards are there because of the unions.
They are beholden to them, and therefore they will not vote, They will not vote to do the right thing. They will never vote across the unions, and that's how you end up where you are. One of our fantastic listeners dropped us an email today, Lonnie, I had not known this one of the if not the biggest teachers union
in America, the California Teachers Association. The people who run that union are themselves in a union, a different union, and they have better benefits than the teachers that they represent, which is really a hell of a deal. Uh, talk to us in general about public and floyee unions and why f DR of all people, was against them, and why it's a very dangerous idea. Well, look, you know that the idea of unions is actually something that I
don't oppose. You know, I think that the concept of having unions in the private sector, where you have represented employees engaging in a negotiation with employers, multiple employers, trying to figure out how to improve conditions for workers, that's one thing public employee unions there's no competition in in in the negotiation. You have a single entity. The state government in most cases are local government, whatever it is,
it's government that you're trying to negotiate with. You essentially are hiring people to negotiate against yourselves, because the people paying these workers are tax payers. They're not corporations, their tax payers. So essentially, what you have set up is a negotiation where people are negotiating against the taxpayers. And
that's the problem with public employee unions. Uh, it's not about trying to drive a better bargain with a private sector employer who has freedom of contract, who has the ability essentially to say these are the terms under which I want to hire someone. This is very different. This is people trying to essentially get benefits over taxpayers. And that's the challenge of public employees and that's that's the
reason why people have opposed them. I read a funny thing yesterday that showed that kind of a negotiation with the public sector. Since their negotiation, they're just talking about somebody else's money. We wanted two percent, rays we'll give you three. Let's make it four and part as friends. Yeah. Perfect, So a couple of quick points. Yeah, private industry unions are there as an oppositional force, there to oppose the power of the employer to do whatever they want. And
that's fine, it's freedom of association. It's very American but there is no management in government. I mean, theoretically they're there to represent us, the taxpayers and our interests. But number one, even in the best scenario, they're gonna do what's expedient as politicians. And number two, in a place like corruptive Fornia, for instance, the unions have figured out, wait a minute, we can turn out all of our members, so we'll get our union lawyers elected as government officials.
And so our current union lawyers will be negotiating with the guys who are union lawyers last week, and the minute they're turned out, they're gonna be union lawyers again. Which is why California has an unfunded pension atomic bomb that's gonna go off. Anything you'd like to add on to that or disagree with money, no, I mean that's
that that that's all right. And and in fact you raise a really important issue, which is, you know, you talk about the very generous pensions that many public workers have, by the way, far more generous than what you know pretty much anybody who works in the private sector has, and those pensions have been negotiated, and we continue to kick the can down the road on the obligations that have to be paid on these things you know you
talk about, for example, the healthcare benefits that are provided to UH public employee workers in excuse me, public sector workers in California. Many of those benefits, by the way, are far more generous than benefits provided even under Obamacare. So a couple of years ago, when there was a negotiation between one of these public sector unions and the and the agency where they work, the argument made by these union stooges was essentially this, we don't want Obamacare,
it's not good enough for us. And then the same people go and turn around and you know what they do. They fight for Obamacare. They say, hey, Obamacare ought to be available to more people. And in the hypocrisy of that, the hypocrisy of saying it's not good enough for our people, but it's good enough for everybody else, that's why people get aggravated and they get angry with these public secutories. I don't want to leave people feel being defeated here
on a Friday. So if you were listening wherever there in the country, your kids aren't in school. You want your kids to be in school, all the sciences they can be in school legally or politically, what should people be doing. Can we get a class action lawsuit where all the parents get together and say, Hey, I'm owed something and I'm not getting it? Or are you Are you saying we should just you know, Phil zoom school board meetings or what what should we be doing? Yeah?
I I love the concept of speaking directly to those who are in a position to make change and telling them that that that we've had enough. You know, there's a group that formed recently in California of parents at the grassroots, grassroots movement of parents throughout the state. And by the way, this is not a Republican thing, it's not a Democrat thing. It's parents who are sick and tired of their kids being at home when they should be in school, coming together and and and all they're
doing is they're making their voices heard. They're making their voices heard at the school board level, they're making them heard at the county level, they're making them heard at the state level. And that it's a really important thing. Uh. You know, activism matters. We've seen it over and over again, and this is one example of where you know, yes, could you use the judicial system, Of course you could try. That's going to take years to resolve. We don't have years.
This crisis is happening now, and that's why activism now is so important. Yeah, I think it's got to be marching on the schools peacefully. Of course, it's got to be showing up on mass set to the school board meetings and that sort of thing. And uh, and it's complicating.
A friend of mine who's on a school board was the president for quite a while, said, yeah, the problem is the board in his case, it wants to do the right thing, but the teachers union is constantly threatening to sue the board in the school district and the rest of it. And it's some bloody mouth hardball uh to do the right thing, which is why uh. You know, a lot of the great economic thinkers of all time have said that the worst of all UH monopolies is
a monopoly on education. It's the most dangerous one. And the public school system in the United States has become something like an aggress violent monopoly to the point where they they fight against the idea that you can take your kid out of a bad school and put them in a good one. I mean, it's morally bankrupt, it's
and it's illogical, it's ridiculous. Yeah, it is. And you know, it does come back to this problem that when you're talking about many of these unions, they are able to have an influence over the political process that quite simply is outside. So they are able to reinforce the power monopoly they have, whether it's in state capitals or whether it's in the local school board. They're able to do it in a way because you know, if you look at how much money these unions spend on political activity,
it's staggering, It is absolutely staggering. And the amount of money that they spend, how involved they are, their ability to essentially hand pick the candidates they want, they're able to perpetuate the kind of monopoly that has brought them to a position of power over the last three or four decades. And this is what you end up with. What what what you're seeing now is that is the real fruits of their labor, and I think for the first time, a lot of parents, a lot of voters for seeing
it and they're sick of it. Lanh Chen is the David and Diane Staffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies at the Hoover Institution, host of the podcast Crossing Lines with Lanha Chenlan. He thank you so much for the wisdom. We appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, that was really good. That's
the best thing I've heard this stuff. And meanwhile, you remember assembly Woman Lorrain of Gonzales of Cali, Unicornia, who is the gal who got the infamous A B five through that tried to change all gig workers into permanent employees, from your ubers and lifts, to hair stylists, to X ray technicians, to to musicians and artists and set designers, just everything. And it ruined so many threw so many
people out of work, It ruined hundreds of thousands of lives. Well, she did it because she wants everybody in the union. And she just introduced another bill this week that would clear the way for capital staff people to form a union if they so does. Higher so the government, which is union goons, would have staff that are union goons negotiating with the union goons. One final note I just happen to read this morning. Uh, the and again it's
about corrupt Afornia. But by god, those of you in the other forty nine states followed the horrific example of California at your own risk. Uh. They cited several of the giant union obligations that were sold to the people of California. Oh, let's pay for itself. The employees kick in some money and they do part of their paycheck, they kick into their pension and then we use that money, we invest it, it will grow and it will totally
pay for it their benefits. After a ten year unbroken bull market, a lot of these pension obligations were at fifty percent funded, six maybe sixty five funded. After a bull market that was impossibly uh rich and will never happen again, and yielding yes and it will never happen again, they're at barely funded. What a scam. Well vote or vote with your feet, folks. Here in one of these states arm