Two Republican Issues

Jennifer Rubin, in the linked article, asserts that there are two big issues of which the Republicans can take advantage: school choice and union elections.

First, attempts by Chancellor Michelle Rhee to clean up and improve the District of Columbia schools may be blocked by the teachers' union. As far as I can tell, the DC teachers' union has gone along with most of Rhee's moves, including closing schools, firing principals, and reducing central office staff. Rubin asserts that the union intends to stop Rhee from firing bad teachers, and she may be right - this is a critical issue for unions. Rubin thinks Republicans in Congress should support a move to declare a "state of emergency" in the DC schools, so that the union could be overridden.

Second, unions are engaged in a campaign to eliminate the secret ballot from representation elections. There was a measure on the Colorado ballot this year to that effect, but it was soundly defeated. During the presidential campaign, the Obama campaign indicated it would support this kind of measure. Rubin thinks congressional Republicans should make this a key issue in 2009, fighting for the American right to a secret ballot.

I think Rubin may be right on one of these issues, but wrong on the the other. First, voting for a "state of emergency" in the nation's capital because the DC schools are really, really bad is just going to make everyone look ridiculous. The DC schools were bad in 1954, when they were desegregated; they were bad in 1968, when the town was torched; they have been wrong through administrations both Republican and Democrat - so where's the emergency? On the other hand, every time Congress interferes in the District's affairs, the "home rule" advocates get all upset, and people start talking about "plantations."

Sure, I think the DC schools need serious reform, and I think Rhee should have a pretty free hand to do it. But just firing teachers won't do it; the District needs a major teacher re-training program, and forcing bad teachers to go back to school might just get them to quit. The biggest problem with the DC schools is the same for most bad school systems: too many of the teachers came up through the same system they now work in. There isn't any basis for comparison, and most DC teachers have never seen a good school. So something has to be done to let in the fresh air of comparison.

Second, I think Congress should oppose the elimination of the secret ballot in union elections. If the Democrats are so close to the unions that they're ready to allow intimidation to decide elections, the Republicans will lose this one. But it's an issue that resonates with all of us who treasure the secret ballot, and it will place a really bad light on criticisms of the Bush administration's attitude to civil liberties. Finally, of course, the reason for the secret ballot was to prevent employers from intimidating their workers. What makes the unions think that they can out-intimidate the man who signs the workers' paychecks?

But criticizing the Democrats and nibbling at the margins of union power isn't going to bring the Republicans back from the wilderness. They need a new John the Baptist, heralding the coming of a full-scale program of government. So far, they don't have anyone with shoulders that broad.