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A Suggestion For The Legislature

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

This year, the state legislature really should look at the state’s goals and consider the evidence as to what works before spending money or passing more regulations.  Here are a few examples.

Education:  Is the goal to please the teachers’ union or to provide a better education for children?  If the goal is to please the union, then increasing teachers’ salaries will achieve that goal, but legislators should not pretend that it will improve education for the children.  If the goal is better education for children, then the state has many options that will provide substantial improvement in results without spending more money.  One option would be to allow students to select any public school in the state they want to attend and have the state money follow them to that school.  Another option would be to provide a voucher system that would allow students to purchase an education at any school of their choice, public or private.  Another option would be to create a tuition tax credit, so individuals or businesses could donate to a scholarship fund to pay students’ tuition at any school of their choice.  Any of these options would create competition in education, giving families more choices and improving educational outcomes for all children.  So, the choice is clear for the legislature.  Does it want to curry favor with the union, or does it want to improve education for children? 

          A tax credit bill has been filed.  House Bill 231 http://www.kentuckyvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=42668  It will be interesting to see whether all those legislators who claim to care about education actually will support it.

Economic development – Every imaginable arrangement for spending money is claimed to be a tool for economic development.  However, in most cases, economic development would improve if the state stopped trying to tinker with the economy, spent less money, and left more money in the hands of the people to invest or spend as they chose.  While building convention centers, arenas, and horse parks certainly achieves the goal of spreading money around and allowing politicians to curry favor with politically powerful friends, it drains the resources from private sector investors and is a net loss in terms of economic development.  If the goal really is economic development, it is far better to leave the money in the hands of investors who are risking their own money and therefore are more likely to be more careful and more successful than to take it away from the productive people and give it to politicians, who have an entirely different agenda.   

Right to work – Governor Fletcher has proposed a right to work law in Kentucky, which would allow workers to work in a business without forcing them to pay union dues.  Union bosses understandably oppose such a move, since it would reduce their power, so they will argue loudly that this type of legislation is anti-worker and pro-business.  However, legislators again need to decide what their goals are and look at the evidence.  If the goal is to improve the situation for workers, then the legislature will enact a right to work law giving workers more options and more freedom.  However, if the goal is to curry favor with unions, it will not.  It is time to give up the Marxist rhetoric that divides business management and workers and recognize that both workers and businesses benefit from freedom.

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