The fat lady, as they say, has sung: the negotiations negotiated, the arbitration arbitrated, the layoffs laid off.

The Clark County School District and the Clark County Education Association were locked in bitter combat for the past school year. An arbitration decision in May favored the union and said teachers must be given contractual raises. The district was subsequently forced, because of financial constraints, to eliminate more than 1,000 positions through attrition and 419 layoffs.

Unfortunately, the political posturing and hyperbolic bluster continue. Negotiations for the next school year have already been declared an impasse, with the decision again punted to an arbitrator. As a result of this mess and the resulting public controversy, a self-styled free-market think tank - the Nevada Policy Research Institute - recently launched a campaign to bring awareness to the fact that the union has only a 15-day annual window in which teachers can cancel membership and thus avoid a $32-per-paycheck - or $768 annual - deduction of union dues.

There's one obvious reason for relatively new teachers to not support the union: self-interest. The union does not represent these teachers. It eats its young, demanding raises for senior teachers at the expense of new teachers' jobs. But the problem is more complex than only the determined pursuits of opposing self-interests. There's no doubt that this is a losing issue, for teachers, for parents, for students. There are two more reasons that teachers should reconsider paying dues... Click here to read the full article.

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