By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

LAS VEGAS – An unruly mob of union teachers proved so disruptive at last night’s Clark County (Nevada) school board meeting that order was only restored after board members threatened the teachers with arrest.

The teachers, members of the Clark County Education Association, were protesting the school board’s decision to eliminate 1,015 teaching jobs. The mass layoffs are directly linked to the district’s $60 million deficit, and the union’s refusal to forgo scheduled pay raises.

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An arbitrator recently ruled that the district must give the pay raises, and school officials had warned the union they can only afford the raises by laying off 1,015 teachers. It was about the most ridiculous ruling imaginable, but it was what the union wanted.

But when board members made the layoffs official at last night’s meeting, the union members behaved like children who suddenly realize that their behavior has consequences. And like children, they threw a collective tantrum, interrupting their pathetic union chants (“Save our teachers! Save our kids!”) only long enough to yell and curse at school board members, who were forced to exit the meeting room.

Order was somewhat restored after board members returned and threatened to have teachers arrested, reports KTNV.com.

But the childishness didn’t end there. CEA President Ruben Murillo Jr. charged district officials with using “voodoo math” and demanded they find “alternative sources of revenue,” which of course means higher taxes.

Murillo’s arrogant suggestion that taxpayers should do with less so teachers don’t have to is matched only by his appalling ignorance of basic economics.

Out of all 50 states, Nevada has been hit hardest by the Great Recession. The Silver State not only has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, but its property values have plummeted. Murillo can demand more money all day long, but where’s it going to come from? Isn’t there a single economics teacher in the entire CCEA who can explain this to the union president?

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Other unions in the district agreed to concessions. Only the radical teachers union refused to cooperate, and now its members are paying the price.

The union’s stubbornness and naiveté will end up costing students, as well. KTNV.com reports that classrooms will each have two to three more students, to compensate for the loss of the 1,015 teachers. On top of that, all of the district’s 175 “literacy specialists” are being let go.

So the entire Clark County community will pay for the CCEA’s childish ways.

Actually, it’s more accurate to say the community is experiencing the consequences of Big Labor being allowed to control its school system. The ugly result was on full display at last night’s school board meeting.