Don't Scoff
Conservatives and labor find common ground. Can they do it again?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaces No Child Left Behind, unceremoniously ushers Uncle Sam out of a domestic arena like no legislation since welfare reform two decades ago. How in the world did that happen during the hyper-progressive Obama administration?
The conventional wisdom ascribes it to the president’s depleted political capital, bipartisan exasperation with recently departed education secretary Arne Duncan, and Senate committee chair Lamar Alexander's shrewd legislative strategy. But another explanation has gotten entirely too little attention: the collaboration of Republicans and teachers' unions. This ostensibly unlikely partnership contributed to an unexpected bipartisan win. But it also speaks to a deep-seated—some might say deeply buried—bond between conservatism and workers.
Political conditions may have created an unusually propitious opportunity to exploit this attachment. Elections analyst Henry Olsen recently noted how blue-collar anxieties are transforming political coalitions in a number of nations. Across the pond, for example, David Cameron's Conservative party is aiming to rebrand itself the "party of workers." Domestically, the most improbable pair of candidates, billionaire Donald Trump and socialist Bernie Sanders, are demonstrating that working-class votes are very much up for grabs.
But a pending Supreme Court case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, may prove to be the most disruptive and auspicious variable in this equation. It could help untether labor from its progressive moorings and make new coalitions possible.
All of this is occurring alongside conservatives' peaking frustration with the power-consolidation of big government and crony capitalism. If that augurs the right's reinvigorated commitment to decentralization, a key question emerges: Might conservatives see workers and their local organizations as allies?
The story of this new federal education law offers invaluable insights into the roots and implications of Don't Scoff | The Weekly Standard:
