March 9, 2011 12:06PM # Unions and Kids By [Andrew J. Coulson](https://www.cato.org/people/andrew-coulson) --- SHARE Over at [Think Progress](http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/08/john-kasich-state-of-state-boos/), a bevy of commenters dispute an anecdote shared in my book *[Market Education](http://books.google.com/books?id=3xi49dmYw0wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=coulson+market+education&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=vb53TaHxCpO2sAPhsO3TBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)*. Here’s what I wrote, in the teaser to chapter 8: > In late October of 1995, officials of the Pepsi company announced at Jersey City Hall that their corporation would donate thousands of dollars in scholarships to help low-income children attend the private school of their choice. The immediate response of the local public school teachers’ union was to threaten that a statewide boycott of all Pepsi products could not be ruled out. Pepsi vending machines around the city were vandalized and jammed. Three weeks later, company officials regretfully withdrew their offer. > > > What are government school teachers’ unions so afraid of? The source article for this episode is of course cited in the book, but here is the [link to that article on the *Education Week* newspaper’s website](http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1995/11/15/11jersey.h15.html). Some of the commenters made the point that policy should not be driven by anecdotes. I agree, which is why I already blogged the evidence that [only private sector competition can control skyrocketing public school spending](https://www.cato.org/ditching-collective-bargaining-wont-control-public-school-costs-heres-what-will/). ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).