Conservatives Hate Job Growth, No Two Ways About It

Reporting on new jobless numbers requires a brief suspension of context. Yes, 192,000 jobs were added in February according to the Labor Department, and adjustments for the two previous months show an additional gain of 58,000 in payroll employment. Now sidle out of the warm embrace of an 8.9 percent jobless rate and realize that since February 2010, this country has added a paltry 190,000 new jobs.

Many economists say the Bureau of Labor Statistics figures suggest the jobs recovery is gaining steam, and private sector reports indicate bigger gains ahead. The labor market is recovering, but that ‘r’ word is intransitive. Grammatically and economically speaking, there’s no direct object. At the current rate of job gains, the employment picture will return to pre-recession levels in 14 years.

Another difficulty in processing the employment picture is the hostility with which many public officials view gains in labor.  Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has committed himself to driving down employment opportunities and wages in his state, and one can’t help wonder if the intentions are nefarious. His budget would cut $900 million in education and destroy the motivation many have in pursuing public sector employment. A bachelor’s or master’s degree holder in the private sector earns $23,000 to $37,000 in total compensation than an equally educated public sector employee. That figure includes pension benefits.

What he’s fashioning is a society that is under-educated and in increasing competition for well paying jobs. That dynamic is advantageous to employers, who then have the bargaining power to offer lower wages since there’s more demand for jobs than there is a supply.

That may sound like something a coffee shop sophist clinging on to hammy leftist conspiracies would say, but given the anti-labor and school voucher agenda of many Republicans, the scenario painted above is more imminent than one would think.

The cost of private school regularly exceeds the dollar value of the voucher allowance. Chad Caldeman, a policy expert at Education Sector, explains that often families must cover the difference or rely on scholarships. Nor do public choice programs indicate classroom success. “Voucher proponents have been disappointed because they haven’t shown academic improvement,” Caldeman says. Based on test scores, students in public schools perform as well as those in private schools. There are non-education factors that shine voucher programs in a positive light. Caldeman adds that student graduation rates and parent satisfaction are higher in private schools. Uprooting the more motivated students from poor performing public schools is also a problem, since the spillover effect a strong student can have on her peers is lost.

State level voucher programs are also prone to graft and corruption. Two years ago the Arizona tax credit program that rewarded donors with dollar-for-dollar matches for contributions made to private school scholarship funds was really enriching schools and its executives. Schools would hike tuition and in two out of three instances fail to direct the scholarship money for their intended purposes.

In Wisconsin, the $900 million cut to education also includes a provision that would limit how much districts could raise taxes to combat rising costs. And earlier in the year, Gov. Walker introduced a series of tax cuts without explaining how he’d pay for them given the $3.6 billion shortfall. The arithmetic is clear—cuts to education mean an under-skilled labor force that has to beg for wages. Throw in the additional pablum in support right-to-work laws that depresses wages and benefits further, and what you get is a very unfriendly labor environment. If there’s doubt Republicans adore low-wage workers, Mother Jones reported this: A Texas bill that would make it illegal to hire undocumented workers would give exemptions to those who hire them as houseworkers.

Wages have flatlined for most workers since the 1970s. Cuts to education are rampant, even if budget crises are the result of very wealthy financiers. And now GOPers who contend they’re for job growth do their share to keep more folks unemployed. Talk about an inauspicious jobs picture.

Mikhail Zinshteyn is a staff writer for Campus Progress. You can e-mail him at mzinshteyn@googlemail.com.

Related Stories

• Student Loan Debt Seems to Rise No Matter What the Economy Does
• Theatre of the Absurd: Former For-Profit College Advisor Takes His Story of Corruption to the Stage
• How Student Debt Impacts Students of Color
• REPORT: The Cost of College Will Soar if Interest Rates Allowed to Double
• Student Debt Bubble Should No Longer Be Ignored