The Sunvitational is hosted by The University School on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. Each year, the tournament features the best of the best competition from across Florida and around the country. In addition to the competition, the tournament features a seminar series that provides students and coaches an expert look at several issues involving speech and debate. In this video, Patrick Toomey, a former debater for Durham Academy and now coach for Trinity Prep in Florida provides a look at the newest trends in the most popular debate activity in the country.

The Sunvitational is hosted by The University School on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. Each year, the tournament features the best of the best competition from across Florida and around the country. This year was no different as over 90 teams from 6 states vied for the championship. The final round of the tournament featured Nova High School’s Spencer Orlowski and Vanessa Rodriguez on the pro against Atlantic Alex Cohen and Zachary Zlatev. The final round video includes commentary from judges in the 4-1 decision for Nova High School.

Pro Case

Resolved: On balance, government employee labor unions have a positive impact in the United States.

This month’s debate is centered not around unions themselves – but rather around government employee labor unions such as firefighters’ or teachers’ groups. These groups together account for just over fifty percent of the American labor union pool, and their effects are a matter of controversy. Since the resolution questions their effects on balance, the question is not whether there exist potential positive or negative impacts, but whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We argue that this is the case.

1) Government Employee Unions have superior access to critical information.
It is our contention that this information’s value to society exceeds the supposed costs of the higher wages for which labor unions are able to lobby – the reasoning for this parallels any other justification for taxation. Just as taxes support services essential to a functioning society such as police and fire coverage, social costs for the support of our safety and enjoyment are acceptable. There are two supporting warrants for this assertion.

1. The employees experience the civic duties firsthand. In a non-unionized environment, the information provided by employees must move vertically: up through official channels at the discretion of managers who may or may not fully appreciate the importance of information brought to them. Unions allow information to move laterally instead. This means that a union helps those serving the public to share information with those serving the public, as well as to more quickly bring up matters of concern such as inefficient resource allocation or improper training of incoming employees. This is important, and the public should value the ability of a union to make everybody more efficient.

2. Unions are excellent aggregators of information. Aside from the lateral movement itself, the nature of unions to look out for their own members motivates such groups to conduct surveys and to gather information more quickly than public management would on its own. This aggregation of information also allows the aforementioned laterally dispersed knowledge to come from a single advocate: when one firefighter learns that his or her community is hazardous, they speak with one voice. A union standing behind said firefighter can bring a wide catchment of resources to bear and effectively lobby the public with such information, making our everyday citizens more informed about the government which serves them.

2) Government Employee labor unions improve the well-being of members throughout the community. Both employee and citizen are better off under unionization as the employee retains critical job security and the citizen is more effectively cared for by intelligent and concerned members of government. This warrant is also supported by two further sub-points.

1. The employees themselves need protection. It’s easy to look at the anti-union literature which complains of supposed cronyism and to assume that unions are, in fact, greedy. As always, perspective matters when evaluating the merit of labor unions. These groups are made up of a substantial number of real citizens, and they deserve their own interests to be represented as well – given that they are subject to the whims of political figures promising enormous slashes to the budget, a union balances the populist rage which threatens their very job security.

2. The employee unions incentivize civic participation. A simple principle of economics is the rule of supply and demand. In a nutshell, a part of the rule explains that the higher price offered to those that would supply a good or service, the more that people will choose to provide that good or service. Thus, when the public sector labor union “raises the price of labor” within government, it has the effect of drawing a larger talent pool to work in government. Absent unions, bureaucracy pays little and understandably, can’t draw top talent. Unions, by protecting the wages of those who run our cities, give more reason for our top innovators to enter into the public service.

It is often easier to measure the direct effects of labor unions in terms of dollar prices, but the value they generate for our community is vastly greater once a good depth of consideration is granted them. Despite the media controversy that would paint a labor union as selfish and self-serving, it is anything but. Please let your ballot reflect the noble goals of these groups – and support their aim by recognizing their right to exist.

Con Case

Resolved: On balance, government employee labor unions have a positive impact in the United States.

This month’s debate is centered not around unions themselves – but rather around government employee labor unions such as firefighters’ or teachers’ groups. These groups together account for just over fifty percent of the American labor union pool, and their effects are a matter of controversy. Since the resolution questions their effects on balance, the question is not whether there exist potential positive or negative impacts, but whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We argue that this is not the case.

1) Government Employee Labor Unions improperly allocate resources. This sole contention of the negative is centered around the assumption that the purpose of government is the redistribution of resources in a manner which best serves the public good. In order to best serve the public good, the efficiency of the government office is paramount. Labor unions add unnecessary costs which impact to fewer items available on the budget and higher costs to the taxpayer.

1. Labor Unions increase the cost of public services. The reason for the existence of labor unions is that the employees within them believe that they can collect more resources together than alone – the people from whom a union collects resources are taxpayers. In other words, public services which ought to spend taxpayer money on taxpayer services instead allocate funding to an anti-competitive collusion by workers who deliberately sidestep voter authority to raise their own wages.

2. Labor Unions in Government are not checked by the profit motive. Simply put, when a private company is unionized, negotiations with union members is always limited to profit concerns. When Boeing negotiates with its members, the bottom line is an important matter for both sides, as union members don’t want to demand so much that the organization fails. In government, deficits are possible and the profit motive isn’t a check on union demands. The only check is political viability, but the labor union’s ability to lobby in political campaigns makes it difficult to keep spending fully in check.

3. Labor Unions are existentially opposed to efficiency. This is not to say that labor unions have not been supportive of minor tweaks such as inventory reorganizing – however, since a labor union wants to protect the jobs of its members, such a union is naturally at odds with the restructuring of an organization. The nature of a labor union is to support leadership which protects its members, and the result is that bureaucracy is protected above its goals. Even worse is the immeasurable lack of investment in public management alternatives, since the power of labor unions is sufficient to deter even a serious attempt at organizational restructuring.

4. Labor Unions create a political cost to what should be a nonpolitical action. It really isn’t a novel idea to suggest that the public resources should go to the public. Even if labor unions could hypothetically justify the increase in wages for their own members, adding a political dimension to the public sector by creating a voting block and holding public services ransom with threats such as a general strike politicizes the most important of services, tying up resources in legal battles and using taxpayer funds to lobby for an increase in funding from taxpayers. This political conflict is not justifiable – government is already too political.

In conclusion, we the con recognize that labor unions may have some positive effect – but the effect is reserved largely for the members of the unions themselves and at the cost of the general public’s well-being. This is no justification for the vast costs imposed upon us, and thus warrants your ballot’s consideration today.

DebateChamps is the high school forensics superstore. As a member of the SpeechGeek family of forensics website and resources, DebateChamps provides a wide selection of speech and debate products in one place. With twelve vendors offering products to meet your needs in every major forensics event, DebateChamps is your one stop speech and debate shop. More information online at http://www.debatechamps.com.

The West Los Angeles District of the NFL qualified two teams to the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Kansas City. The following individuals will represent West LA in June:

Lena Melillo & Rachel Warner from La Reina High School
Jacob Borcover & Cameron Silverberg from Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies

Congratulations to all of the competitors!

DebateChamps is proud to support the NFL and Rupe Scholars with sample research. If you like what you see, feel free to check out our website. With 12 forensics vendors in one store, we’re the one stop speech and debate shop.

Public Sector Unions and the Clash with Government

Compiled by Sarah Spiker

State budgets cannot deficit spend like the federal government, which leaves states in a financial pinch. Many are turning to government employee labor unions to start cutting fringe benefits and decrease costs. Multiple states have utilized a number of measures. This week’s articles provide two sides to the debate by providing articles that both show how public sector unions are helping (advising) public policy and acting as a barrier to a solution. On one end, you have the anti-union lobby who (as expected) will denounce labor unions in any form, even if the union is in the public government sector. On the other hand, labor unions have increased pays or fought off cuts in pay for essential services like teachers. Try attracting good teachers when the pay gets worse than it already is!

http://seattletimesnwsource.com/html/opinion/2011444222_guest26baldwin.html

Highlights:

• Examines Washington State’s  employee unions
• Argues that the public unions are interrupting the state budget process
• “four unions… dominate and dictate public policy”—is this fair?
• “It’s a never-ending — and toxic — unsustainable cycle, and our state is paying the price.”
• Supports arguments that public sector unions have too much political power

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704059004575127991641216702.html

Highlights:

• 17 states have made cuts by changing public union benefits
• States are also bargaining with their labor unions to either cut salaries or force employees to contribute more to pensions
• “Unions  have priced themselves out of a job.”  –specifically firefighters, police officers, librarians and city employees
• “Nationwide politicians looking for budget cuts are confronting politically powerful unions that represent state and local government employees—15% of U.S. workers and organized labor’s biggest stronghold.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/30/AR2010033003810.html

Highlights:

• Provides multiple viewpoints on Obama’s evaluation of public and private sector contracts
• Public labor unions have supported the effort
• Unions are one of the key agencies being consulted in the public sphere to push the Obama Administration to bring back public sector contracts

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2010/03/29/daily45.html

Highlights:

• New York government labor union members received a 4% hike in payrates (despite recession!). As the most unionized state in the nation, they provide a critical view of how the government union-state government partnership unfolds
• “The pay raise adds $400 million to the state’s annual payroll expenses. There are 196,375 workers on state payroll; 94 percent of them are unionized.”
• Government union workers earned $5.49 more than their private worker counterparts
• “The scheduled pay raises hit as Gov Paterson and state legislators continue to tangle with a budget deficit of $9.2 billion. Paterson wanted unions to give up the pay raise as a way to help the state balance its budget.”
• Public sector benefits have increased three times faster than the private sector
• “All public employees are a critical part of our state government. They deliver essential public services and, for that, they deserve our respect…”
• Unions were able to broker a deal with the state to avoid jobs cuts and unemployed state workers

http://www.thetruthaboutplas.com/2010/04/01/project-labor-agreements-disguised-union-entitlement/

Highlights:

• This website includes a variety of links about PLAs or Project Labor Agreements with unions. The website argues that PLAs provide additional entitlements to unionized groups
• One of your arguments may be that government unions unfairly compete with the private sector
• Obama’s recent executive order may stir up more debate on this area, so keep an eye out for upcoming articles

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/03/31/courting_trade_unions/

Highlights:

• “PLAs help ensure that state money goes to companies that pay the prevailing wage, comply with unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation laws, and don’t hire undocumented workers.”
• “Imposing PLAs means non-union Massachusetts construction workers will, through their taxes, help fund projects where they have no real chance of being hired.”
• Non-union workers constitute about 80 percent of the state’s construction force, which means that 20% of the unionized state workers get the advantage

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/Governor-to-NYers-Demand-Tough-Choices-89630097.html

Highlights:

• “Labor unions and public schools are among the most well-protected special interests in the Legislature. The state’s teachers unions and other public worker unions spend millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions, particularly in election years like this one.”
• Public unions are standing up against state budget slashes to government sector jobs arguing that “None of us, including the Legislature, will benefit from a budget that appears to substitute election-year window dressing with real fiscal reform…”

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/89716432.html

Highlights:

• Teacher unions in local schools in Indiana are forgoing pay raises in the face of deficits
• “The disadvantage is that at some point our salaries and benefits are going to become so unattractive that we can’t get good quality people to come into education…” You could argue that high wages for teachers increase the quality of the employment and thus serves a public benefit. Unions, as an extension, would be serving the public good. This argument is not articulated in the article, but could be the start of further research into arguments for the quality of applicants in public good projects.

DebateChamps is the high school forensics superstore. As a member of the SpeechGeek family of forensics website and resources, DebateChamps provides a wide selection of speech and debate products in one place. With twelve vendors offering products to meet your needs in every major forensics event, DebateChamps is your one stop speech and debate shop. More information online at http://www.debatechamps.com.

Women & Minorities in Healthcare

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/03/study-finds-health-disparities-among-women-in-los-angeles-county-.html

• Women are more likely to “have limited access to healthcare and struggle with chronic diseases”
• African American women had higher mortality rates for many chronic diseases
• White women are diagnosed with breast cancer more often, but African Americans die from breast cancer at higher rates
• Latinas have the poorest health, least access to healthcare, lack insurance more often, and have higher mortality rates from diabetes

Minority Income Inequality

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100312/OPINION02/3120321

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10068/1041225-84.stm

• Holding for sex, African Americans have less wealth than Caucasians
• Single black women in the U.S. have a median wealth of just $5 (total amount of a person’s assets, including cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate, minus all debts)
• Single white women (36 to 49) have median wealth of $42,600
• Married or cohabiting black women have median wealth of $31,500
• Married or cohabiting white women have median wealth of $167,500

Education-Partial Success

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/higher-education/higher-ed-gender-gap-seems-sta.html

• Gender gap has decreased for most racial minorities, except for Hispanics
• Could support the idea that affirmative action is effective
• Question to ask: Why  haven’t programs improved opportunities for Hispanic women getting into college?

Case Study-Indiana

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20103120352

• Black unemployment is twice as high as white unemployment
• Black income fell in comparison to whites since the recession
• Lack of education contributes to unemployment gap
• Labor market discrimination in hiring practices (white males preferred)
• Highlights Purdue’s affirmative action policies in awarding contracts
• Call backs for jobs: 15% black, 25% Hispanic, 31% white

DebateChamps is the high school forensics superstore. As a member of the SpeechGeek family of forensics website and resources, DebateChamps provides a wide selection of speech and debate products in one place. With twelve vendors offering products to meet your needs in every major forensics event, DebateChamps is your one stop speech and debate shop. More information online at http://www.debatechamps.com.

DebateChamps is proud to support the NFL and Rupe Scholars with sample research. If you like what you see, feel free to check out our website. With 12 forensics vendors in one store, we’re the one stop speech and debate shop

While researching this week, I came across a Detroit News Article that contrasted the ideas of equal dignity and equal results. Today, affirmative action advocates try to create equal numbers: they contrast the stark divisions in college enrollment, income, wealth, and healthcare for minorities and privileged classes. However, the article challenges that viewpoint, arguing that the original intent of affirmative minority policies was in a search for equal dignity when it says: “The fight for equal dignity… was derailed by a quest for political clout and bling.”

Social Cosmetics, as the article describes the term, is based in the idea of equality through numbers. It compares the numbers of Whites v. Blacks v. Hispanics v. Native Americans v. Asian Americans in home size, education, income, wealth, power, etc and asks: are the numbers equal? The numbers will never be equal. Although the numbers do point out disparities, living solely by the numbers can make individuals miss out on the original intent of affirmative action policies. The article specifically discusses justice which should be helpful for debaters on both sides. White commentary on Obama during his presidential race identified, according to the article, a lack of respect and dignity for minorities.

There are a substantial number of articles out there that indicate that affirmative action policies make minorities appear weak. Women are respected because they are not perceived as reaching positions of power on their own. Blacks find difficulty in getting hired after college because employers think someone just “passed” them through school. If the Con team can prove that the process of affirmative action undervalues the individual minority, then affirmative action is not justified through the lens of dignity. Pro teams may frame the argument to suit their purposes as well: minorities are not valued and affirmative action is needed to increase their visibility and therefore the dignity and respect paid to them. This article would make the basis of an interesting framework argument that disputes affirmative action’s underlying ideology: pursuit of equal outcomes v. pursuit of equal dignity as a way to create a just principle for or against affirmative action.

In closing, I will leave you with the most powerful line in the article: “Disadvantaged blacks are generationally doomed until we recognize that social mobility flows from the expansion in tandem of dignity and freedom, not from pursuing the siren songs of riches and power.”

DebateChamps is the high school forensics superstore. As a member of the SpeechGeek family of forensics website and resources, DebateChamps provides a wide selection of speech and debate products in one place. With twelve vendors offering products to meet your needs in every major forensics event, DebateChamps is your one stop speech and debate shop. More information online at http://www.debatechamps.com.

DON’T BLAME TEACHERS UNIONS FOR OUR FAILING SCHOOLS from Intelligence Squared US.

Teachers unions: They’re powerful, they’re defensive, and they’re stubborn. And if it seems their leadership places a premium on protecting its members – above all other interests – we should not be surprised, because protecting jobs and wages is what unions were created to do.

And there’s the rub, say critics who argue the unions are shielding too many teachers who do their jobs poorly – teachers who should be replaced, for the good of the children. Indeed, so central is good teaching to good learning, some say it’s the unions as presently constructed – more than anything other factor – that are undermining America’s schools.

But can it really be that simple? In a ranking of whom to blame for what’s wrong in America’s classrooms, do teachers unions really come before slashed budgets? Or crumbling infrastructure, broken homes and the influence of narcotics? Do bad teachers so outnumber good ones that the union represents a collection of educational misfits?

The question comes down to a decision: do we need to reform the unions before we do anything else , and if we do, is that the fix that will once again make US public education the model system it once was?

FOR THE MOTION*
Kate McLaughlin has been an elementary teacher in the Lowell, Massachusetts public schools since 1999. She is currently a mathematics coach working with both teachers and students from kindergarten through fourth grade. In addition to her full-time teaching assignment, she serves as the executive vice president of the United Teachers of Lowell #495, a local of the American Federation of Teachers.

Gary Smuts is superintendent of the ABC Unified School District, known throughout the state of California as a leader in educational planning and innovation. He began his teaching career in 1972 at Pius X High School in Downey, CA, and for eight years, served as principal of Cerritos High School. In 1998, Smuts was appointed director of curriculum and instruction for the ABC Unified School District, where he served in several positions before becoming superintendent in 2005. He was recently named 2009 Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.

Randi Weingarten is president of the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. She was elected in July 2008, following 11 years of service as an AFT vice president, and has launched major efforts to place education reform and innovation high on the nation’s agenda. Weingarten served for 12 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 nonsupervisory educators in the New York City public school system.

AGAINST THE MOTION*
Terry Moe is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a member of Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He is an expert on educational policy, U.S. political institutions, and organization theory, and in 2005, received the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Prize for Excellence in Education. Moe is co-author of Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education (2009).

Rod Paige is a life-long educator and former U.S. Secretary of Education (2001-2005). As secretary, Paige was an unstinting advocate of student achievement, employing “best of breed” solutions to achieve results towards the Department’s goal of raising national standards of educational excellence. He has previously served as dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University, and as a trustee and then as superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, the nation’s seventh largest district.

Larry Sand began his teaching career in New York in 1971. Since 1984, he has taught elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, including English, math, history and ESL at Webster Middle School in Los Angeles, where he also served as a Title 1 coordinator. Recently retired, he is the president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information to teachers that they will not get from their school districts or unions.

Rethink your point of view with Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2US), a live debate series in New York City. Intelligence Squared U.S. is a public charity supported by individuals and foundations who share our mission of raising the level of public discourse on the most critical issues of the day. Launched in 2006, IQ2US can be heard on over 200 National Public Radio (NPR) stations across the country, and seen on the Bloomberg Television network. From global warming and the financial crisis, to Afghanistan/Pakistan and the death of mainstream media, IQ2US brings together the world’s leading authorities on the day’s most provocative issues. Witness an exciting battle of ideas, wit, and persuasion as the experts on both sides challenge your convictions. Best of all, your vote decides who has carried the day.