The NEA and AFT have become giant contenders in the political scene because the of the huge amounts of money raised from members. This power gives the unions an advantage in political races over non-union backed contenders. A case of this is when the Mayor of Washington D.C. was defeated.
When administrations have little flexibility in the way they run their schools it makes for an ineffective school, and in turn lower student achievement. Districts with weak unions were able to do what they saw as right for the students versus districts with strong unions who had little to no room for change.
The national unions like to keep their membership large, to bring in money to use in politics. When charter schools, vouchers and tax benefits are introduced as competition they fight against these measures.
In this study it data sets were examined to determine the effectiveness of collective bargaining in the state of New Mexico. Due to a sunset clause on a collective bargaining law the state went without collective bargaining for several years. It was found that while SAT scores were higher during the collective bargaining year, high school graduation rates decreased.
Again the restrictions placed on teachers by the unions can inhibit the productivity of the school and effect student achievement.
As a large body of members the rigidity of the national unions impedes growth of teachers as professionals. To be treated as true professionals all aspects of the profession need to be on the same page.
The political connections of the unions can cause issues with priorities: students or politicians?
The ability to weed out ineffective teachers is critical to maintaining and growing student achievement.
Now I will introduce to you some resources that I have discovered that debate the pro ’s and con’s to teacher unions.. Lets being with pro ’s. This resource believes that unions encourage teacher effectiveness because unions raise the bar for teachers and require them to meet a certain expectation in order to be apart of the union. Having these standards and teachers joining unions will just encourage effective teacher and student learning.
Having unions encourage partnerships between teachers do this by having the same equal standards required by all teachers across the board. It doesn’ t create animosity between teachers because they are all working towards the same common goals.
Because teacher unions require such a standard for their teachers, it creates a sense of professionalism because it requires teachers to create positive learning environments that encourage student learning. In essence the positive learning environment creates a sense of teacher morale.
Having unions increases productivity in the economy. Simply the work being put in, increases the productivity being put out. Unions encourage this which benefits the economy.
Teacher Unions worry about their teachers and their well being. Unions fight on behalf of teachers to ensure that they are getting the money the deserve for educating our future.
Tenure is granted to teachers that have been teaching for a certain number of years. Teacher unions and the government feel that tenure should only be rewarded to the best quality of teachers and they can only receive this by getting exemplary marks on their yearly evaluation by the administration and district personel.
Teacher unions protect jobs of teachers that might be evaluated by unfair administrators. Unfortunatley some administrators are inexperiened and evaluate teachers that have been teaching for many yearts. Because those teachers still practice their old methods and do not adapt to the new methods of the administration they can receive low remarks on their evaluation. Unions protect teachers from situations like this one and ensure that each teacher is treated profesionally.
Teacher unions ensure that the most qualified teachers are hired.