dueling monopolies and the War on Drugs

From the AP's Mark Niesse as reproduced in the C-J...

On the one hand, you have the monopoly power of the government schools as producers. On the other hand, you have the cartel's monopoly power as an input provider to those producers.

Economists call this "bilateral monopoly"-- probably, more or less, a draw in terms of bargaining power. (Prospectively, teachers are in a weaker position since they're dealing with the government. But they're more likely in a stronger position since govt is often budget-max and rarely averse to spending an inefficient amount of money.)

On top of that, you have the War on Drugs added to the mix. Very exciting-- at least to an economist! And there's even a connection in the article to Kentucky. What more could you want? ;-)

Hawaii public school teachers signed off on first-in-the-nation statewide random drug testing in exchange for pay raises, but now the state claims the educators are trying to take the money and run.

Since the teachers' union approved the pact nearly two years ago, they've accepted the 11 percent boost in pay while fighting the random tests as an illegal violation of their privacy rights. No teacher has been tested.

The showdown over teacher drug testing arose from the highly publicized arrests of six state Education Department employees in unrelated drug cases over a six-month period....

The union says it didn't consent to truly random drug testing in the contract, which says the parties "agree to negotiate reasonable suspicion and random drug and alcohol testing procedures."

The union's definition of "random" is limited to a pool of teachers who go on field trips, work with disabled children, are frequently absent or have criminal records....

Only a handful of other school districts nationwide require random teacher drug testing of existing employees, many of them in Kentucky....In the Knott County school district in rural eastern Kentucky, one-fourth of teachers have been randomly tested for drugs annually since 2004, when administrators who wanted to drug test students involved in extracurricular activities decided to hold teachers to the same standard....