Consider what has occurred during an extended period of unprecedented growth in administrative positions and administrative staffing. Our administrations have employed consultants, usually at exorbitant cost, to provide professional guidance on almost every sort of initiative imaginable. Although no one can be have expertise in everything, it seems peculiar, at best, that any major initiative…
Aaron Barlow’s post highlights a major difference between how Progressives and those on the Far Right have sought to address endemic poverty. Progressives have been accused, sometimes with much justification, of being willing to waste millions on wrong-headed “solutions” to poverty. On the other hand, the Far Right has essentially ignored solutions and has turned…
“Rich families are all alike; every poor family is poor in its own way.” Writers on poverty in America might want to inscribe this over their computers. Even those should who, like David Brooks, are anxiously awaiting “a thinker who can describe poverty through the lens of social psychology.” For that’s not going to help.…
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of joining the leadership and some members of the Illinois Conference at their annual meeting in Chicago. I had previously met several of those in attendance, and I had the opportunity to meet in person several others with whom I have corresponded about posts to this blog and…
Writing for the Indianapolis Business Journal, J. K. Wall has reported: “Indiana’s public colleges and universities, spurred by pressure from state lawmakers, are pumping out more graduates than ever. “But in spite of a 20-percent increase in degrees granted since 2010, the education level of Indiana’s younger adults has barely budged, for reasons that aren’t…
This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case related to laws banning gay marriage in about two-thirds of the 13 states who still do not allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. These are maps showing the states that had and had not legalized gay marriage late in 2009 and early…
The most recent issue of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy is available at http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jc. The issue includes two op-eds and four articles. Here are excerpts from each of the op-eds and the first of the articles: Boris, Richard (2014) “From Ivory to Babel to A New Foundation,” Journal of Collective Bargaining in…
The most recent issue of the Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy is available at http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jc. The issue includes two op-eds and four articles. Here are excerpts from the second through fourth articles: Hicks, Steve (2014) “Post-Recession CBAs: A Study of Wage Increases in the Agreements of Four State-wide Faculty Unions,” Journal of Collective…
Declining Union Membership “Over the last three decades, U.S. labor union membership has fallen by nearly half, even though more Americans are actually in favor of unionization. “Some 11% of all wage and salary workers in 2014 were in a union — down from 22% in 1983 after peaking at nearly 35% in 1954, according…
Workers’ Pay Is Still Higher in Pro-Labor States “Under federal law, no one can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment, and the Supreme Court has made clear that workers cannot be forced to pay dues used for political purposes. So-called right-to-work (RTW) legislation goes one step further and entitles employees to the…