How much should you pay to do the right thing?
The St. Paul, MN school board has recently made some decisions that are ground-breaking, in my opinion. First off, they, along with the Minneapolis and Stillwater school boards, made it a priority to ensure that all school district apparel purchases (i.e. athletic uniforms, t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.) come from sources that absolutely do not use sweatshop labor. This decision came about after several high school student activists made presentations to the boards.
Now, they've also decided to mandate that any bus company wishing to put a bid forward to provide district bussing, must provide their drivers with paid sick leave. Makes sense to me. If a bus driver's sick, let them stay home rather than get a whole busload of kids sick too. Plus, it's just the decent thing to do.
Unfortunately, they just got the bill for their decency. The paid sick-leave requirement is going to cost the district an additional $850,000 above and beyond increases that they've anticipated. This also comes after a $10 million cut to their proposed budget for next year. The one Republican on the Board is getting all twitchy about it. He's also huffy that it will cost roughly $25,000 to make sure district clothing purchases are sweat-free. He says that "it's not the school district's place to micromanage the free market."
Maybe not. And I understand that the price of doing the decent thing is going to make things tight elsewhere. But I have a hard time condemning Board members for trying to do the right thing. Though many legislators are doing their best to change it, schools are not yet the same as private corporations. They serve a much higher purpose than just looking out for the bottom line. They are supposed to not only be educating our children in the core curricular areas, but also teaching them about how to be good citizens. How better to do that than to show them that basic human rights and fair treatment for workers is a priority to you?
Elona Street-Steward, chairwoman of the board, said "we are the epitome of the highest concentration of American values. We do not teach that the exploitation of people's gifts makes for a successful country."
Wow. You don't hear that too often nowadays.
So, how much IS too much to pay for doing the right thing? It's the Wal-Mart dilemma. Sure, you can get things at a lower cost to you personally. But what about the cost to others? How do you quantify it? Sweatshop workers, Wal-Mart "associates" who are treated poorly, and paid worse, environmental problems caused by the corporation, etc. It all adds up.
So, how do you reconcile personal costs vs. societal and global costs?
Now, they've also decided to mandate that any bus company wishing to put a bid forward to provide district bussing, must provide their drivers with paid sick leave. Makes sense to me. If a bus driver's sick, let them stay home rather than get a whole busload of kids sick too. Plus, it's just the decent thing to do.
Unfortunately, they just got the bill for their decency. The paid sick-leave requirement is going to cost the district an additional $850,000 above and beyond increases that they've anticipated. This also comes after a $10 million cut to their proposed budget for next year. The one Republican on the Board is getting all twitchy about it. He's also huffy that it will cost roughly $25,000 to make sure district clothing purchases are sweat-free. He says that "it's not the school district's place to micromanage the free market."
Maybe not. And I understand that the price of doing the decent thing is going to make things tight elsewhere. But I have a hard time condemning Board members for trying to do the right thing. Though many legislators are doing their best to change it, schools are not yet the same as private corporations. They serve a much higher purpose than just looking out for the bottom line. They are supposed to not only be educating our children in the core curricular areas, but also teaching them about how to be good citizens. How better to do that than to show them that basic human rights and fair treatment for workers is a priority to you?
Elona Street-Steward, chairwoman of the board, said "we are the epitome of the highest concentration of American values. We do not teach that the exploitation of people's gifts makes for a successful country."
Wow. You don't hear that too often nowadays.
So, how much IS too much to pay for doing the right thing? It's the Wal-Mart dilemma. Sure, you can get things at a lower cost to you personally. But what about the cost to others? How do you quantify it? Sweatshop workers, Wal-Mart "associates" who are treated poorly, and paid worse, environmental problems caused by the corporation, etc. It all adds up.
So, how do you reconcile personal costs vs. societal and global costs?
posted by Flamingo Jones at 6/20/2006 11:28:00 AM
6 Comments:
However you do it, that's your choice and you live by it. Some people value more bang for their buck over an employee getting sick leave. Some, vice-versa.
Capitalism, however, is not supposed to be people-friendly. And if it is, it's because being people-friendly becomes more profitable than not.
R: "Some people value more bang for their buck over an employee getting sick leave."
Forcing bus drivers to work while sick is to reduce concentration (and thus, safety) and to present a risk of mass contagion, thus reducing students' capacity to learn. That isn't "more bang for the buck," it's foolish nonsense.
Part of the reason schools are doing so poorly is that they are being treated increasingly as profit-generating enterprises, which (as Flamingo noted) is definitely not a good idea. Morale suffers all around when governments and school boards treat their employees as expendable commodity.
Capitalism is intended to be an economic system, not a social one. I applaud the St. Paul school board for taking such bold stances, especially in the face of such drastic budget cuts. There may be some hope yet among the nation of increasingly stingy and radical-right school boards.
"Forcing bus drivers to work..."
Nobody forces anybody to work. That's called slavery. Maybe you should pick up a newspaper and learn about all the new and wonderful things this country has done since the Civil War.
R, you seriously scare the crap out of me sometimes.
Next time you're on MSN, chat with me. I want to know why you say that, but a comments log is no place for that discussion. ;)
I don't use MSN anymore.
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