Teacher Unions – Why the Hate?

By Alan HaskvitzcloseAuthor: Alan Haskvitz Name: Alan Haskvitz
Site: http://reacheverychild.com
About: Alan Haskvitz is a member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame and has been recognized many times as one of the nation's most successful and innovative teachers. Accounts of his students' accomplishments have been featured in books, periodicals, and on national radio and television. He is a classroom teacher with experience at every grade level and every major subject.See Authors Posts (11)
 

National Hall of Fame teacher inductee Alan Haskvitz looks at the reasons for negative feelings about teacher unions, and offers recommendations for improving their image and positive impact.

The news is full of articles expressing hate for teacher unions. From inane comments posted on Yahoo Answers, to newsletters from conservative organizations such as the Fordham Foundation, to TeacherNet’s political chatboard comments, to union members unhappy with the way the union leadership funds political issues, the froth and ferment comes forth in acidic batches.

So how did this come about? Historically, unions have never been popular with business and industry leaders. The reason is simple enough, it is about who gets the power – whether that be how problems are handled, or who gets a raise. Indeed some states, called Right to Work States, have even made it nearly impossible for unions to get a foothold.

Some companies, such as WalMart, have also been accused of making it difficult for employees to form a union. Henry Ford’s hatred of union organizers is well documented and union busting by mine and steel owners is a common theme in any study of the industrialization of America…this hated despite the fact that there is ample evidence that unions and for-profit businesses are not mutually exclusive terms.

During the recent government bail-out, the union was repeatedly cited as a reason that the General Motors and Chrysler were in debt. The unions’ many concessions were seldom mentioned and the fact that the products being made by the companies weren’t what the public wanted to buy was frequently ignored. After all, just because Americans didn’t want to buy a gas hoggish Hummer H2 with its limited interior space, low resale, and weighing so much it was illegal to drive on many residential streets and some older highways (such as the Pasadena Freeway), wasn’t a problem caused by unions.

Teacher unions

There are several reasons that teacher unions have generated negative views even among some of the membership. One of the most prevalent arguments is that unions protect poor teachers and stand in the way of improving schools. The fact that organizations and researchers, such as those from the Fordham Foundation, actively promote the idea that charter schools and union-free schools can help solve America’s educational problems is supported by other conservative think tanks. Frequently unmentioned is that many districts already offer parents a choice of in-district schools to attend, and even offer permission for students to attend schools out of their district. So what is the problem? It is simply that some conservative organizations want schools where teaching unions are not  involved, thus making it easier to remove “bad” teachers and where, they say, the rewarding of good teachers would enhance student improvement.

It is difficult to argue with that belief if a teacher grading rubric were published. How do you tell a good teacher from an inferior one? Is it parent complaints, grades on standardized tests, or compliance with the administration or all of these? Again, the bottom line is that anti-union forces want the administration to have the power to hire and fire as they see fit. In other words, education should be considered a business. Show results or good-bye.

Throwing this quest for higher test scores and pushing charter schools as the saviors of education into limbo is a defector from the conservative ranks. Not just any nay-sayer, but one of the most well respected conservative voices of the past three decades, and that is author, researcher, and past Department of Education official, Diane Ratvich. In her latest book she calmly makes the case that testing and charter schools are not the way to go. Every union leader and teacher needs to read her work, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education.

Steven Rivkin has published research that hints at another area problematic to unions. [continued on page 2]