Teacher's Unions Are Part of the Disunion in Education

Teacher's unions are under a lot of attack these days.

Is there any reason why they should not be?

They claim to support teachers, mind the best interests of students, and advocate for the needs of the communities they serve. Yet the facts suggest otherwise.

Unions support unions, plain and simple. They claim to ensure that their members have just enough so that they keep paying their dues, when the unions do not have to ask teachers in a school district to join. In fact, they automatically collect their dues right out of the paychecks, whether the teacher wishes to join or not! They even spend the dues on politicians and political causes without the input, let alone approval, of the teachers from whom they stole the money to begin with!

In addition to their outright rapacity, unions do not protect the most vulnerable group of instructors, the new teachers, because the senior-protection clauses in the contract require those "last-hired" to be the "first-fired." When new teachers are inevitably mired in political difficulties with parents or administrators, the union rep on site merely shrugs, saying: "You can be fired for any reason, and there's is nothing we can do about it because that is what is in the contract," which the union had negotiated in the first place.

When a teacher does get tenure (i.e. unmerited job protection), he or she may engage in the most unseemly conduct, whether abusing a student or playing karaoke all day instead of actually teaching, the union will stand 100% by that miscreant because he or she has tenure. Mediocrity sets in really quickly when an employee has guaranteed employment after two years on the site, a devastating outcome for students and dedicated colleagues who do not need tenure in the first place.

Beyond this, unions negotiate exorbitant pension packages and health benefits for their members, which drains the coffers of the state and local communities. There is little surprise that this long-silent constituency is speaking out against having little say in how well their tax dollars are spent, or even whether they are getting their money's worth!

Teacher's unions are a major part of the problem when it comes to resolving the many problems which plague public education, including the need for reforms and accountability for administrators as well as teachers. Fraudulent, deceptive, selfish, and greedy, teacher's unions do nothing for the teachers, they harm students, and they fail the communities which they are supposed to serve.