Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > August > 04 > Entry
Unions in education
(Teachers rally near San Diego)
It’s been one of those weeks. I’ve been so focused on Dayton’s big news, I’ve written about almost nothing else on the blog. However, there were a couple very interesting posts out there in the edusphere I wanted to mention, because I thought together they were a fine example of how blogs can, at times, prompt an interesting and honest discussion on a sensitive issue.
If you read blogs regularly, you know there is a lot of shouting and name calling out here, which is why I enjoyed a recent debate between Leo Casey, who blogs for the United Federation of Teachers’s Edwize blog, and Joe Williams, a former education journalist and author of the book “Cheating Our Kids: How Politics and Greed Ruin Education” who blogs on behalf of the New York Charter Schools Association at The Chalkboard.
Joe’s book details several examples of unions behaving badly when it comes to schools, and he kicked off this debate at the end of a long post in which he gently asked some pointed questions about unions:
Does relying on traditional collective bargaining agreements to ensure “respect” take the heat off management to otherwise treat employees “respectfully”??? Does it force the union to constantly make sure the rank-and-filers are as miserable as humanly possible so they will exert angry pressure every time a contract comes up for renewal??? Is this the best we can do for teachers and students?? Is it possible there is a better way to do this??
Back at Edwize, Leo responds with a very personal account of why unions matter for teachers and for kids in his view.
If you’re interested in the debate over unions in education, both posts are worth reading. And kudos to Leo and Joe for tacking an emotional issue with passion but also with level heads.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Schools and Politics
Comments
By Oldprof
August 4, 2006 10:27 PM | Link to this
Too often we rely on the falsity that adversarial processes lead to better outcomes. It leads to false convictions in courts, it leads to warfare in international relations, and in the management-labor venue it leads to intractibility and hard feelings on all sides. Anyone who’s ever been close to a school district on strike will note that many teachers NEVER get over it! But as long as we have management that fails to implement solutions to motivating employees that were widely known 50 years ago (ref. Herzberg), then we’re going to need labor organizations to protect workers from the vagarities and arbitrariness of administrators. Too bad we can’t just go tabula rasa on these issues—y’know, if Charter Schools wanted to innovate in a really crucial way, this could be it, but alas they’ve mostly regressed to the “fire at will” KITA methods of motivating employees.By Mary
August 4, 2006 1:03 PM | Link to this
This debate, spin, and hot air might be partly responsible for global warming, also a threat to students and teachers. While I admire his activism on the asbestos issue, I noticed Casey picked a generally rare and emotional example to defend and spin the unions and their tactics. I would say the vast majority of union obsession is pay and benefits. I noticed an asbestos related work order in our local school budget draw yawns and delays while the football bleachers were being upgraded. The only example I have heard like this in our area was in West Carrollton a few years ago regarding a mold problem. Also, I wonder where else Casey could have worked with a doctorate in political philosophy. The Roosevelt quote is interesting in light of the fact that public employee unions are the fastest growing segment of unionism and we taxpayers cannot afford all their retirement pay and benefits. In the interest of some disclosure, I am a retired public employee never represented by a union.