Waiting for union reform
There’s this unbelievable willingness to turn a blind eye to the injustices that are happening to kids every single day in our schools in the name of harmony amongst adults.
-Michelle Rhee, Waiting for Superman
I’m applying for work at Columbia University in the hopes of getting a free education. I’ve submitted quite a few applications but because many jobs are restricted to members of certain unions, I am unable to apply even though I’m qualified for the positions. I expressed annoyance to my mom and to my chagrin she labeled me a Republican, suggesting I go to Wisconsin and help out. She also stated that unions were the only things keeping people from working for slave wages and breadcrumbs. “Bullshit,” I mumbled and since I didn’t know much about unions, I only had one line of defense, “Waiting for Superman.”
Let me begin by saying, I’m not an expert on unions. I am not against unions. My annoyance was more panic, related to being unemployed than some grand statement on the state of unions in America. For the record, I think groups are great. However, I still think the teachers’ unions, in their stubbornness, as portrayed in Waiting for Superman are giving the Republicans just the fuel they need to wage this kind of war.
One of the kids featured in the Waiting for Superman documentary doesn’t like school, or so he says. Upon further investigation it appears he struggles with reading, he’s not receiving help from them on either end. As one of many public school students who were slighted throughout the course of their educations, I find it hard to believe there are laws that protect some of the teachers who were responsible for imparting knowledge to me and thousands of other kids. It’s a sad thing to see kids lose the desire to learn and it is often no fault of their own. I could see my own classmates move from being really engaged with instructors to competing amongst themselves to doing just enough to get by. Of course, the students have a role in this. It certainly helps for a kid to have a personal standard to live up to, but it is hard to keep such a resolve in the “dropout factories” called educational facilities.
As a parent, my mom felt entitled to her anger. Of course, she knows all too well the range of schools; the good to the terrible. And teachers who often times have to deal with an array of problems beyond the classroom are often taxed as well but they still have a responsibility. No teacher should sleep in class (as my math teacher did throughout 7th grade) and be allowed to keep their job. Unions should support and advocate for, but not protect those who aren’t remotely qualified for their positions. Waiting for Superman called it “the dance of the lemons” where unqualified teachers are moved around with the hope they will be effective somewhere else.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDimQ48IsHc
My mom’s anger wasn’t about this, as she refuses to watch the documentary. She was more concerned about Democrats and since she loves Rachel Maddow, I’m pretty sure this is what she was watching.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nAZb-WrMJI
Thanks Rachel. I get the political fuckery of the Republicans and how doing away with unions would virtually spell the end of the Democratic Party and quite possibly a number of workers’ rights. The Republicans have their corporations, why can’t we have our unions? They have their own dance of the lemons, except they usually make a lot more lemonade than the average teacher. But the principle is the same–fuck the consumer, the student.
I typically believe the best way to deal with any flawed structure is to do away with it completely. Which is why I think the Egyptians are on to something. However, I do know this is pie-in-the-sky thinking and that smaller steps and/or regulations would probably benefit us all and do less harm than trying to start from scratch. Republican’s self- (and selfish) interest has been enabled by the stubbornness of teachers’ unions unwilling to make regulations necessary for the greater good.
I close with a link to Andrew Rotherham’s piece in Time Magazine that offers a few tips on what teacher reform could look like.
You shoul have listened to your mom. Waiting for Superman is a powerful documentary, and it does make it seem as though labor unions are to blame for poor schools. But these claims fail to withstand even the most cursory scrutiny. If unionism prevents academic progress, than why do the Finnish education system (virtually 100% unionized) consistently outperform the US education system? What about the backers of this new “education reform” movement? Where are they getting their money? From the billionaires who own Walmart, Microsoft, and KP Homes- all companies with poor labor relations and a vested interest in busting unions.
There are five states in the country that don’t where teachers do not have collective bargaining. None of these states are in the top 40 in NAEP performance. In states where public employees do not have the right to collectively bargain, wages for workers in both the public and private sector are below the national average. Unions are the only force in America advocating for workers. Without them, we wouldn’t have weekends, 40 hour work weeks (or overtime), vacation, health and safety laws, or benefits. Far from being wallowed in corruption, labor unions are democratic and particpatory institutions. They may have their flaws, but if we were to throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater, we’d find ourselves wishing we hadn’t silenced the only voice advocating for working people.
I hope you take some time to listen to your elders, and educate yourself about the importance of unionism in the United States.
Best regards,
Rich
You shoul have listened to your mom. Waiting for Superman is a powerful documentary, and it does make it seem as though labor unions are to blame for poor schools. But these claims fail to withstand even the most cursory scrutiny. If unionism prevents academic progress, than why do the Finnish education system (virtually 100% unionized) consistently outperform the US education system? What about the backers of this new “education reform” movement? Where are they getting their money? From the billionaires who own Walmart, Microsoft, and KP Homes- all companies with poor labor relations and a vested interest in busting unions.
There are five states in the country that don’t where teachers do not have collective bargaining. None of these states are in the top 40 in NAEP performance. In states where public employees do not have the right to collectively bargain, wages for workers in both the public and private sector are below the national average. Unions are the only force in America advocating for workers. Without them, we wouldn’t have weekends, 40 hour work weeks (or overtime), vacation, health and safety laws, or benefits. Far from being wallowed in corruption, labor unions are democratic and particpatory institutions. They may have their flaws, but if we were to throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater, we’d find ourselves wishing we hadn’t silenced the only voice advocating for working people.
I hope you take some time to listen to your elders, and educate yourself about the importance of unionism in the United States.
Best regards,
Rich
hey rich,
thanks for your comments and for the additional information about unions. i’ll be sure to brush up however let me clarify a few points.
first, my mom went to school in the glory years of education when the nation wasn’t covered with dropout factories. she and i don’t disagree that the teachers’ unions need major reform and that is more what i was trying to impart with my blog and less so about thinking they should be abolished. i thought i was clear on that matter.
as for the many rights that have been gained through unions. bravo! it still doesn’t change the many problems we face with ridding our schools of under-performing teachers. geoffrey canada talked in the movie about how it was impossible to even bring up teacher’s unions at the table. why is that so? can a conversation be had? there has to be some middle ground.
as for the conclusion of my conversation with my mom. she told me i was “preaching to the choir” as she and i shared the same views particularly as two people who tried desperately to navigate poor educational institutions in my formative years. of course, she felt less on attack mode against unions and felt more invested in the democratic process of unions.
unfortunately, we are busy being grateful for the work week that we aren’t looking at what work is being done in that week. i was recently terminated without cause. my job has an at-will clause which means they can fire me if they don’t like my hair and i have no legal standing. forget unions, why is an organization/workplace even allowed to have this type of statute on the books? perhaps unions shouldn’t be the only force for workers. are there any alternative structures we could implement? is there a way to constitutionally change what is fair work in america? is it safe to have one type of system advocating for people? are there more permanent changes that could be made?
no need to throw the baby out with the bath water, but there are some important issues arising from what is happening in Wisconsin. and just because i’m not running behind the Republicans screaming bloody murder doesn’t mean i side with them or that i miss the importance of unions. but it also means i would be foolish to overlook some of the flaws of unions even if i understand their history.
again, thanks for your comments.
hey rich,
thanks for your comments and for the additional information about unions. i’ll be sure to brush up however let me clarify a few points.
first, my mom went to school in the glory years of education when the nation wasn’t covered with dropout factories. she and i don’t disagree that the teachers’ unions need major reform and that is more what i was trying to impart with my blog and less so about thinking they should be abolished. i thought i was clear on that matter.
as for the many rights that have been gained through unions. bravo! it still doesn’t change the many problems we face with ridding our schools of under-performing teachers. geoffrey canada talked in the movie about how it was impossible to even bring up teacher’s unions at the table. why is that so? can a conversation be had? there has to be some middle ground.
as for the conclusion of my conversation with my mom. she told me i was “preaching to the choir” as she and i shared the same views particularly as two people who tried desperately to navigate poor educational institutions in my formative years. of course, she felt less on attack mode against unions and felt more invested in the democratic process of unions.
unfortunately, we are busy being grateful for the work week that we aren’t looking at what work is being done in that week. i was recently terminated without cause. my job has an at-will clause which means they can fire me if they don’t like my hair and i have no legal standing. forget unions, why is an organization/workplace even allowed to have this type of statute on the books? perhaps unions shouldn’t be the only force for workers. are there any alternative structures we could implement? is there a way to constitutionally change what is fair work in america? is it safe to have one type of system advocating for people? are there more permanent changes that could be made?
no need to throw the baby out with the bath water, but there are some important issues arising from what is happening in Wisconsin. and just because i’m not running behind the Republicans screaming bloody murder doesn’t mean i side with them or that i miss the importance of unions. but it also means i would be foolish to overlook some of the flaws of unions even if i understand their history.
again, thanks for your comments.
Oh, the paternalism, Rich! I thought this was the Black Youth Project site, and here we have (yet again) someone telling a young person to “listen to [their] elders.” Sigh. Kudos to the blogger for not ripping you a new one and for instead listening and responding to your arguments…
Unfortunate framing of Rich’s position aside, I wanted to add this to the conversation:
Invocations of the Nordic Miracle just aren’t appropriate as we think about the realities of the US public education system. There’s plenty to love about what’s happening in those places, but the fact is this: they have tremendous social welfare systems, meaning that children and their parents have all sorts of support (including generous paternity in addition to maternity leave, shortened work weeks for working parents, state subsidized quality childcare) that we don’t have here (and let’s not even get talking about the relative homogeneity of their populations).
Even thinking nationally, teaching is absolutely not the same kind of job everywhere, and what is necessary to move kids forward is also not the same everywhere. Go ahead and play adult union politics in public schools in Westchester (and Norway and Finland and wherever)– even if the schools aren’t stellar, you still have many parents at home who can fill in the gap, either because they themselves have had great educations or because they have generous work-schedules that allow them to devote the time necessary to help their kids, or because they have enough money to pay for supplemental tutors and such– but do that in East New York and it’s another story. This is not an anti-union position (mine, nor the anonymous blogger’s, I presume), rather one that asks whether unions in education help or hinder as we move toward the ultimate goal, which is ensuring that every kid can receive a quality education. Yes, we need to be concerned about the rights of teachers as workers, but we also need to be equally (if not more) concerned about their impact on their children in their classrooms.
That said, I was a teacher in a non-union state (Georgia), and the same dynamics were at play because there were tenure provisions in place for all of us after only 3 years of teaching. I saw appalling things in the elementary school where I worked, and every year received at least one 4th grader in my classroom who didn’t know how to read (forget even basic phonemic awareness– we were at square one). While I’m no supporter of corporate interests in education (I was equally appalled that Coca-Cola had a contract with Atlanta Public Schools, and there were sodas on the lunch line), I’m also not going to throw the “education reform” baby out with the bathwater. We need to ask some hard questions about how we’re going to address the tremendous (and growing) inequalities in educational access in this country, and running screaming from any critique of teachers’ unions’ (not *all* unions– listen well!) policies as well as the workers’ protection provisions that enable ineffective teachers to stay in classrooms will never allow that conversation to take place.
Oh, the paternalism, Rich! I thought this was the Black Youth Project site, and here we have (yet again) someone telling a young person to “listen to [their] elders.” Sigh. Kudos to the blogger for not ripping you a new one and for instead listening and responding to your arguments…
Unfortunate framing of Rich’s position aside, I wanted to add this to the conversation:
Invocations of the Nordic Miracle just aren’t appropriate as we think about the realities of the US public education system. There’s plenty to love about what’s happening in those places, but the fact is this: they have tremendous social welfare systems, meaning that children and their parents have all sorts of support (including generous paternity in addition to maternity leave, shortened work weeks for working parents, state subsidized quality childcare) that we don’t have here (and let’s not even get talking about the relative homogeneity of their populations).
Even thinking nationally, teaching is absolutely not the same kind of job everywhere, and what is necessary to move kids forward is also not the same everywhere. Go ahead and play adult union politics in public schools in Westchester (and Norway and Finland and wherever)– even if the schools aren’t stellar, you still have many parents at home who can fill in the gap, either because they themselves have had great educations or because they have generous work-schedules that allow them to devote the time necessary to help their kids, or because they have enough money to pay for supplemental tutors and such– but do that in East New York and it’s another story. This is not an anti-union position (mine, nor the anonymous blogger’s, I presume), rather one that asks whether unions in education help or hinder as we move toward the ultimate goal, which is ensuring that every kid can receive a quality education. Yes, we need to be concerned about the rights of teachers as workers, but we also need to be equally (if not more) concerned about their impact on their children in their classrooms.
That said, I was a teacher in a non-union state (Georgia), and the same dynamics were at play because there were tenure provisions in place for all of us after only 3 years of teaching. I saw appalling things in the elementary school where I worked, and every year received at least one 4th grader in my classroom who didn’t know how to read (forget even basic phonemic awareness– we were at square one). While I’m no supporter of corporate interests in education (I was equally appalled that Coca-Cola had a contract with Atlanta Public Schools, and there were sodas on the lunch line), I’m also not going to throw the “education reform” baby out with the bathwater. We need to ask some hard questions about how we’re going to address the tremendous (and growing) inequalities in educational access in this country, and running screaming from any critique of teachers’ unions’ (not *all* unions– listen well!) policies as well as the workers’ protection provisions that enable ineffective teachers to stay in classrooms will never allow that conversation to take place.
The reason why bad teachers or bad any kind of employee keep their jobs is because management doesn’t do their job. The union cannot defend incompetence, if management does their part.
The reason why bad teachers or bad any kind of employee keep their jobs is because management doesn’t do their job. The union cannot defend incompetence, if management does their part.