January 12, 2011--Teachers Unions

We had barely said hello to our new neighbor, ____ of FOX News fame, when he launched into a discussion about the current political scene. Since I expected we would see things from very different perspectives, I had planned to talk about the weather.

After he said, "Isn't this a piece of paradise?" without a modulated transition he continued, "I'll tell you one thing that's a certainty after last November's elections."

Realizing there was no way to avoid talking politics I asked, "What's that?"

"With so many new governors having just been elected, a majority of them Republicans, with almost all states deep in fiscal crises and with state legislatures now overwhelmingly conservative, we will see them looking at new ways for their states to declare bankruptcy without having to default on their bonds."

"That would be some trick," I said.

"But a necessary one," he said. "Mainly so that under the rules of bankruptcy the states, which are in fact already in a form of bankruptcy, can renegotiate their collective bargaining agreements with their municipal unions." In spite of my liberal self I nodded. "It's ridiculous and unsustainable that police and firemen and bus drivers and sanitation workers and teachers can retire after 25, 30 years on the job at pretty much full salary with all their health benefits paid for for life by taxpayers."

"As we get to know each other," I said, "we will find many things to disagree about, but this may turn out not to be one of them." He smiled at me. "I could tell you lots of stories about how teachers unions in Newark and Los Angeles and New York thwarted efforts to bring about effective reform, funded by the Ford Foundation where I was responsible for education policy and grant making, because some of the things we wanted to pay for would focus on helping their teachers learn different, more effective methods and ask them to do some things in new ways."

"Tell me one story."

"Well, in Newark, for example, we wanted to fund after-school tutoring for their most at-risk students and needed union approval to provide it. They were OK with this but required that we hire their teachers to do the tutoring. At $60 an hour!" ___ was grinning. "I told the head of the union that we were doing this in other cities, Houston among others, and were hiring education majors from local universities at $10-15 an hour. He said that he wouldn't allow that. I told him that that would mean no tutoring for Newark students. He said, 'So be it.'"

"Incredible but no surprise. Listen, I've got to run. I'm doing the Hannity show tonight, but from what I am sensing the public is aware of these kinds of things and the time is approaching that for fiscal as well as effectiveness reasons these unions have to be taken on."

I watched him on Hannity that evening and in fact we have many things to disagree about, including how to think about responsibility for the recent massacre in Tucson.

Then yesterday on Morning Joe, I saw former Washington, DC superintendent of schools Michelle Rhee. She and Joe Scarborough as well spoke about how the teachers union in DC attempted to thwart all her efforts at reform. Especially her moves to dismiss ineffective teachers and pay more to those who were producing measurable results.

"The contract required that everything be done by seniority," she said ruefully, "school and class assignments, layoffs when there, as now, had to be cutbacks. The work rules were such that it was almost impossible to hold anyone accountable for results or implement new approaches. None of this would be allowed in business. In fact, quite the opposite."

This brought to memory stories my mother used to tell about efforts to unionize teachers in New York City back in the 1950s. She was and is quite liberal and had been a firm supporter of the union movement for garment workers and others back in the 20s and 30s, but as an experienced and effective first grade teacher she resisted all organizing efforts.

She said that teachers were not "workers" by traditional union standards but rather "professionals," and it wasn't in her view appropriate for professionals to unionize. She knew from personal experience that there were many things that needed changing--most of the teachers at the time were women who, if they became pregnant, were required to take two years off without pay and teachers were often subjugated to arbitrary assignments and even termination by principals who were essentially all-powerful in their buildings. But still, she said at the time, "If we unionize it will be the end of the schools as we know them."

Thinking about my conversation with my new neighbor, my mother's experience, and my own work in school reform, as I said to ____ the other day, "I'm an anti-municipal-union liberal."

The union model was developed for industrial unions--for steelworkers, miners, and railway and assembly line workers--for workers who essentially did versions of the same job and where skills and effectiveness were not as diverse as among teachers. When all coal miners were doing essentially the same thing and where working conditions were arbitrary and frequently unsafe, it made sense to bargain together, to arrange things by seniority, and to pay everyone the same wages.

But this is not true for teachers and the industrial model that still characterizes teachers unions is not appropriate for teachers but more important for the children they serve.