About Us
We are dedicated to building a better future for Canadians by making our economy and society more dynamic and competitive.
- The foremost independent, evidence-based, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada.
- We are objective, independent and evidence-based. We do not lobby for specific interests.
- Funded exclusively through the fees we charge for services to the private and public sectors.
- Experts in:
- Conducting, publishing, and disseminating research;
- Forecasting and economic analysis;
- Helping people network;
- Running conferences;
- Developing individual leadership skills;
- Building organizational capacity.
- Specialists in economic trends, as well as organizational performance and public policy issues.
- Not a government department or agency, although we are often hired to provide services for all levels of government.
- Independent from, but affiliated with, The Conference Board, Inc. of New York, which serves nearly 2,000 companies in 60 nations and has offices in Brussels and Hong Kong.
Heard a bit of this played yesterday on CKNW then sought the full version out on my own. I thought it was fairly accurate in portraying the systemic issue in this debate - a Labour Union which doubles as a Special Interest Group/Political Organization. Now keep in mind he's talking about 'Murica and "Their Broken School System" and to be fair, we are talking about a school system here in BC that has some of the highest standards across Canada for Increasing Graduation Rates, Increasing Post Secondary Enrollment, and declining Drop Out Rates, etc. Another differentiation point is that we have good and open access to some Public alternative Schools and Private Schools, whereas down south total "School Choice" can be dodgy at best often leading to some parents challenging status quo to Home School, which is socially not a good thing for kids imho.
The fundamentals about the Union impact is what is contained here, driven by Data and Science and thus is FACT. This is what is at play - a Union trying to work up from their collective bargaining rights and working down through their political clout in order to be THE AUTHORITY on the School System for the net direct benefit to their UNION and not necessarily Students or Teachers themselves. The benefit of Decreased Class Size and new/rehashed rules on Composition only means 1 thing to the Union - More Teachers employed paying more due to the Union.
The TF can say it's all about the kids till they're blue in the face - it doesn't change the fact that Union Leadership has one audience to appease - the Union members. This isn't to say the Government is without issue, the Government still has to play within the current laws of the day - and the courts still have to reconcile that for the 2 parties until anyone can realistically expect the Govt to go there on Class Size and Comp in the negotiating room - unless Teachers give up on the other demands of "Per Student Funding" that will never get to the Student, such as signing bonus', increased extended benefits and additional "prep time"
Terry Moe doesn't really get into what he perceives as the way out of this issue, you'd have to do a little work on your own to find those videos, in those talks he says the Teachers Unions have gotten to be so strong that it will take some extraneous/outside force to render the unions less powerful, such as the emergence of technology to dethrone teacher's unions from power.
Read Paul Frymer's review of Terry Moe's book on teachers unions. He puts some pretty big holes in Moe's "facts".
Heard a bit of this played yesterday on CKNW then sought the full version out on my own. I thought it was fairly accurate in portraying the systemic issue in this debate - a Labour Union which doubles as a Special Interest Group/Political Organization. Now keep in mind he's talking about 'Murica and "Their Broken School System" and to be fair, we are talking about a school system here in BC that has some of the highest standards across Canada for Increasing Graduation Rates, Increasing Post Secondary Enrollment, and declining Drop Out Rates, etc. Another differentiation point is that we have good and open access to some Public alternative Schools and Private Schools, whereas down south total "School Choice" can be dodgy at best often leading to some parents challenging status quo to Home School, which is socially not a good thing for kids imho.
The fundamentals about the Union impact is what is contained here, driven by Data and Science and thus is FACT. This is what is at play - a Union trying to work up from their collective bargaining rights and working down through their political clout in order to be THE AUTHORITY on the School System for the net direct benefit to their UNION and not necessarily Students or Teachers themselves. The benefit of Decreased Class Size and new/rehashed rules on Composition only means 1 thing to the Union - More Teachers employed paying more due to the Union.
The TF can say it's all about the kids till they're blue in the face - it doesn't change the fact that Union Leadership has one audience to appease - the Union members. This isn't to say the Government is without issue, the Government still has to play within the current laws of the day - and the courts still have to reconcile that for the 2 parties until anyone can realistically expect the Govt to go there on Class Size and Comp in the negotiating room - unless Teachers give up on the other demands of "Per Student Funding" that will never get to the Student, such as signing bonus', increased extended benefits and additional "prep time"
Terry Moe doesn't really get into what he perceives as the way out of this issue, you'd have to do a little work on your own to find those videos, in those talks he says the Teachers Unions have gotten to be so strong that it will take some extraneous/outside force to render the unions less powerful, such as the emergence of technology to dethrone teacher's unions from power.
While not a victory for teachers unions, they avoided what could have been a far more devastating blow. There were hopes among some conservative activists that the court would entirely strike down Abood and institute a right to work standard for public-sector employees across the entire country.
If that had been the outcome, it is possible that hundreds of thousands of teachers would have dropped out of their unions and ceased paying dues, thereby drastically rolling back the power of organized labor in education.
That would have been a major development in one of the few fields where organized labor remains a formidable force. The California Teachers Association, for instance, has over 320,000 members and commands $190 million in dues every year.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/30/h...ot-fatal-for-teachers-unions/2/#ixzz3BiOd7Oku
Well, for instance, he says thatJust read it - http://www.princeton.edu/~pfrymer/pfrymer/Welcome_files/moe_review.pdf - what are the big holes he makes? Not really seeing it.
@Konk - That is the biggest piece of poop of a paper I have ever seen.
His sole arguments miss the point that Teachers Compensation Packages (Salary & Benefits) are tax payer funded. All the way around. He also misses the point that Moe points out just HOW IMPORTANT Teachers are to our society's well being and economy and in the formation of our children, which is precisely WHY reform is needed down south, and the Unions block it for Self Serving Interests.
When he compares the joining of the two Union Top Organizations, which are solely looking out for the same electorate/membership, to Big Business he's missing the point that Moe makes entirely when it comes to political lobby and funding contributions.
Also worth noting some of this content in Moe's arguments and the Review Commentary is irrelevant to our conversation in BC is how BC is a Closed Shop. It's actualy Illegal in ~20 states in the US to operate as Closed Shops/Union Shops. In those 20 states you can join the union or not, or there isn't a union, or you have to pay the dues amount, but can decline membership in the the union (but your ~$700 per year has to be paid to another named charity (Public not Private and Not Religious) by October and all up front instead of garnished and averaged off your cheques all year) In BC we have a Closed Shop- you want to teach in the BCEd system, you MUST join the TF. The ~20 states tend to be the states that are commented on, Border States, Mountain States and the Southeast of 'Murica. The more populated states in the Northeast and Midwest and California tend to have the "Union Shops", "Closed Shops" are actually Illegal in the US except in states where it's prohibited by law (Taft-Harley act of 1947) but this only applies to businesses and organizations carrying out Inter State Trade.
Union Shops means you are required to join the union once hired, Closed Shops means you need to join the union prior to hiring. Open Shops means you can be Non Union or Union and there's flexibility. There's also "Right to Work" States whereby you cannot be forced to join a union to get any certain job, such as in North Carolina.
This is interesting:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...chers-file-lawsuit-over-mandatory-union-dues/
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-...it-Against-Mandatory-Union-Dues-Union-Tyranny
This read is particularly tasty! (and frightening!) http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/30/harris-decision-bad-but-not-fatal-for-teachers-unions/2/
The argument that he goes on to make about better outcomes in fully unionized areas such as Massachusetts vs poorer outcomes in areas like South Carolina where Unions are not monopolistic is what Terry Moe calls a "Dumb Argument" watch to learn why- (fast forward to 4:01 if you don't want to watch it all)
not to mention the 225 million dollar slush fund... errrr.... reserve the BCTF wants the government to set aside to pay out any "grievances" teachers may claim... absolutely diabolical stuff coming out of the BCTF camp...
I think TD is technical director? Mixing arguments here?
I like the idea of Teacher Survival. In this case, we keep the ones we want, and the ones we don't want are forced to work a real job, where you aren't gifted 2 months vacation right out of school.
But don't send them to me...I can't afford to pay people $70K, who work from 8:30-3:00, and demand 2 months vacations every year...