This is a crucial difference between release-time provisions negotiated by private companies: In the private sector, unions are not effectively on both sides of the negotiation table. Collusion between the employer and the employees union is inherent in public-sector unionization, particularly because public-sector employers and employees have congruent interests in increasing government budgets.

Release-time provisions have existed for 40 years. What is new is a willingness to call attention to them and contest them, a willingness born of the pressure the recession has put on municipal budgets. Just as a recession has the benefit of making private enterprises more conscious of efficiencies, it makes governments less cavalier about expenditures.

Until now, Wisconsin has been ground zero in the spreading desire to reconsider the costly prerogatives of public-sector unions. In January, however, a series of bills were introduced in the Arizona Legislature to end release time and even end collective bargaining.