SACRAMENTO, CA - Those who doubt that teacher unions are the largest obstacle to improving education in California should consider the recent policy proposals of the state's two major unions, the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) and the California Teachers Association (CTA).

On the CFT website, which prominently features the union's resolution against a war in Iraq and a picture of union members marching in an anti-war protest (yes, that will surely improve student test scores), the union sets out its view as to how to deal with the massive state budget deficit. It should come as no surprise that the CFT proposes substantial tax increases.

In a document entitled "Closing the Gap: What CFT Members Can Do About the Budget Crisis," the union proposes a half dozen different tax hikes designed to squeeze up to $12 billion out of California's already overburdened taxpayers. The CFT plan would reassess non-residential property, which would increase property taxes on the state's reeling business community. It would increase the state's top income tax bracket in order to, according to the CFT, "recapture part of the federal tax break for the wealthy." The union would also limit mortgage interest deductions to $50,000 in interest and increase the vehicle license fee, or car tax, to its former high level. Of course, the CFT wants these tax increases in order to prevent any cuts in government education spending.

The trouble is that although the CFT document proposes the tax hikes supposedly to "save public education," the union doesn't tie any of the added tax revenues to improved student performance. If taxes are raised, then perhaps taxpayers would want the public education system to guarantee higher student achievement. Yet, the CFT is silent on any such linkage.

Worse, the CTA, the larger of the two unions, has targeted California's school accountability system. Under the existing system, schools that perform better than expected are eligible for rewards such as teacher bonuses. Low-performing schools that fail to meet their student test-score improvement targets are eligible for the accountability program. These latter schools receive grants to devise plans to improve student performance. If a school continues to fail to meet its test-score targets, then eventually it is subject to a variety of sanctions including: transforming the failing school into a charter school, reassigning teachers, and renegotiating a new labor contract. But such sanctions encroach on union turf.

In reaction, the CTA is sponsoring legislation, AB 356, that would eliminate all sanctions and rewards. The result would be the effective repeal of the accountability system because without consequences for poor performance, there would be no incentive for schools to improve. The victims would be students at failing schools who would continue to receive an inferior education.

The prospect of sanctions has helped spur poorly performing schools to change to better curricula and teaching methods and to focus on meeting the state's tough academic standards. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has many under-performing schools, has adopted a systematic structured phonics reading program that is raising test scores of students in the early grades, especially Hispanics and African Americans.

For the teacher unions, however, education policy is not about children. For them it is all about ideology, power, and self-interest.

Lance Izumi is a Senior Fellow in California Studies at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. He can be reached via email at lizumi@pacificresearch.org.