Jefferson County school board member pushes union interests

Proposal would inflate school construction costs


We have written before here, here, and here about misguided efforts to insert Project Labor Agreement (PLA) restrictions into school construction contracts.

Basically, PLAs needlessly drive up the costs of school construction by locking out bidding from less costly non-union labor.

Now, FOX-41 reports that the latest attempt to insert a PLA into a construction contract just occurred in Jefferson County when Jefferson County School Board member Larry Hujo tried to get pending construction at the Valley High School restricted to union labor only.

Why would Hujo want to take this position, which would divert money that could benefit schools into the pockets of union labor bosses?

According to election finance records the Bluegrass Institute recently obtained by open records request from the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, the Better Schools Kentucky PAC – the Jefferson County Teachers Association PAC – provided over $120,000 in 2008 to Mr. Hujo’s school board race with what are called “Independent Expenditures” (Don’t look for these expenditure records in the on-line information from the Registry – you have to open records request this data). And, current events in places like Wisconsin make it plain that various unions definitely cooperate with each other.

It is difficult to impossible for a non-union candidate for the school board in Jefferson County to prevail against such huge PAC investments.

This raises a very serious concern. Does the current system provide the union too much control in Jefferson County Schools? Inquiring minds want to know.

Fortunately, in this particular case, Mr. Hujo’s costly PLA proposal went nowhere. Apparently, even though a number of other board members in Jefferson County also get union money, they still recognize that educating children comes first. Good for them!