Union vendetta hurts students

A sure sign that a messy divorce is slipping toward mutually assured destruction: One party, motivated by irrational vindictiveness, blows up the other's ability to earn money that would benefit both.

It's an appropriate analogy for the rift between the Clark County Education Association and the Clark County School District. Right now, the teachers union and the country's fifth-largest school system are making the split of actors Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger look cordial. On Monday, the union refused to support the district's application for a $40 million federal Race to the Top grant, which would have created 46 jobs and new programs at campuses with poor English proficiency, as well as expanded teacher training. Without the CCEA's backing, the application is dead.

That teachers unions were given veto power over these grant applications in the first place is an indictment of the Obama administration. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he supports education reform, yet he grants the organizations most opposed to reform and accountability the ability to block them? Talk about having it both ways. The Los Angeles teachers union killed a Race to the Top grant, too.

The grants require the creation of more rigorous evaluations for teachers and administrators. Such changes already are well under way in Nevada, thanks to a new law approved last year and Washington's waiver of No Child Left Behind standards. Under a new evaluation process, student performance data will be used to measure teacher effectiveness.

State teachers unions have opposed such accountability measures from Day One, so they aren't about to sign off on them now, even if doing so could put more teachers in classrooms. The CCEA refused to participate in the application process despite multiple invitations from the school district, and despite the attendance of more than 1,600 teachers at various stakeholder meetings through the summer and fall.

There is still time for common sense and cooler heads to prevail. Tuesday had been the deadline for all grant applications, but because of the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, that deadline has been extended to this afternoon. On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval offered to personally mediate the CCEA-CCSD dispute and "get this done for our children." As of Thursday, there was no signal that union leaders were interested in leaving their bunker.

This dispute is completely out of hand, and it is getting worse with each passing month. The teachers union simply won't bargain in good faith with the school district, which can't meet the union's demands for ever-more-generous salaries and benefits without eliminating jobs. The Legislature determines the school district's operating budget, and Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Sandoval last year approved largely flat funding levels for the current biennium. Earlier this year, an arbitrator sided with the union's demand for automatic "step" raises, which resulted in the loss of 1,000 teaching positions. The teachers' contract for this year is headed to arbitration, as well.

It must be pointed out that while a grant undoubtedly would help Clark County schools, federal money isn't "free." It's funded by debt we all must pay back eventually, with interest. We'd much rather see Washington let us keep our tax dollars here, to use as we see fit, rather than make us jump through hoops and submit an application to get some of them back. Federal intervention in state public schools is a failed three-decade experiment that needs to be dialed back.

That said, taxpayers, parents and businesses are sick about their inability to hold anyone directly responsible for what's happening to our schools. Why would anyone support higher taxes and improved education funding if the bad-faith CCEA can hijack the process at every turn?

Make no mistake, the teachers union and the school district are still married. It's a dysfunctional, ugly, awful marriage. But parents who've been involved in a deteriorating relationship know that, in the interest of their kids, at some point they have to calm down, find common ground and figure out a constructive way to move forward as partners. If they don't, the kids suffer. If they don't, one party can lose custody.

It's time for the CCEA leadership to grow up or get out.