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LANSING—In 1994, it became apparent to many in the Michigan legislature that school districts around the nation were improving quality and saving money by contracting out for services such as busing, custodial work, and school lunches.
Such improvements were held up by one of the biggest opponents such moves, the Michigan Education Association (MEA). For many years, the MEA had successfully blocked school service contracting by keeping it on the list of mandatory collective bargaining topics for negotiating contracts with school districts.
Then lawmakers discovered that the MEA, Michigan's largest union of cooks, janitors, bus drivers, and teachers, had hired private, non-union firms to provide similar services at its own East Lansing headquarters. This undercut MEAs moral authority on the issue.
Lawmakers decided to take privatization of school support services off the list of mandatory collective bargaining topics, thus making it easier for school districts to make deals with private contractors. This spurred a growing privatization trend that has saved school districts money.
But it also has undercut the MEA's dues collection and political power. Now, State Representative Doug Spade (D-Adrian) wants to turn the clock back to pre-1994 and require districts again to negotiate school service privatization with the union in order to reach agreement on employment contracts.
Last term, the same idea died a quiet death in the legislature. And in spite of a stepped-up effort by the MEA to portray privatization in a negative light, the new bill cosponsored by Rep. Spade is expected to fail as well.
The reason: Parents and school districts have seen the results of privatization, and like them. Nether voters nor lawmakers are in the mood to tax themselves for the benefit of the MEA's agenda.
