Week in Review: Teachers Unions Attack

Teachers unions and their allies have spent the summer waging a war for their own special interests—from demanding the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars of new taxpayer funding to calling for caps on charter schools and even the defunding of police departments. Some, including the United Teachers Los Angeles union, have even demanded a complete moratorium on private schools.

Now, teachers unions are suing to keep the same aid that they have called vital for their own health and safety out of the hands of their fellow educators.

In question is a portion of the roughly $15 billion that Congress authorized for K-12 education through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. That law explicitly requires the “equitable” distribution of these funds to serve both private and public school communities, but ideologically driven teachers unions that oppose the very existence of private educational choices for parents insist that that money should not go to private schools as the law requires.

That’s why the Goldwater Institute has joined with our friends at the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty to stand on the side of true equity for students, parents, and educators. Read about the Goldwater Institute’s work in this important case.

California’s New Law Is Supposed to “Help” Women. Actually, It’s Denying Them Their Freedom of Choice.

Time and time again, male-dominated governments have condescendingly replaced individual women’s decisions with one-size-fits-all standards. Back in the early 20th century, states imposed minimum wage laws on women workers, purporting to benefit women by ensuring higher pay. But rather than giving women greater opportunities, those laws put many of them out of work altogether. 

It’s happened again in California under the recently enacted SB 826, a law that requires all publicly traded companies incorporated or even just headquartered in California to have at least one female board member — and that quota increases depending on the board’s size. Corporations that violate California’s new quota face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and will be publicly chastened on the Secretary of State’s list of non-compliant corporations.

Our friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging this discriminatory quota on behalf of shareholders who are forced by law to take a candidate’s sex into account every time they vote for board members. This week, we filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit, pointing out that not only does California’s new law unconstitutionally force people to make decisions on the basis of sex, but it also creates a patronizing quota system that harms the women it purports to help. Read more about the issue on our In Defense of Liberty blog.

He Designed Billion-Dollar Buildings, but the Government Wouldn’t Let Him Work

Erskine Gosling is about the last person who should have trouble getting his license as an architect in Arizona.

He’s been doing the job for more than 30 years, designing billion-dollar hospitals and other projects for the federal government. He’s already licensed in multiple states, brings impeccable references and has been living in Arizona for the past seven years. Beyond that, he doesn’t even plan to use his architect’s license to design projects for other people.

But bureaucracies being what they are, Gosling faced daunting piles of red tape and expense when he decided to get an Arizona architect’s license so he could design his own home, utilizing his expertise in creating energy-sustainable facilities.

All that changed when Arizona enacted the Goldwater Institute’s universal recognition law which allows people licensed in another state to quickly obtain an equivalent license when they move to Arizona. Read more about Gosling’s story in a new report by Goldwater Institute National Investigative Journalist Mark Flatten.

Join us for our 2020 Virtual Annual Dinner with Special Guest Dennis Prager

You’re invited to join us for the Goldwater Institute’s 2020 “Virtual Annual Dinner” on Friday October 16, 2020, with special guest Dennis Prager – one of America’s most well-known and respected conservative talk show hosts and writers.

This exclusive, invitation-only event will be streamed live online and will feature critical insights from Dennis Prager about America’s future as we sit on the precipice of the 2020 elections. 

Click here to get your tickets today!