Unions And Public Schools

An anthology of more than 60 articles documenting the history and the how-tos of social justice unionism. Together, they describe the growing movement to forge multiracial alliances with communities to defend and transform public education.

Why are America's public schools falling so short of the mark in educating the nation's children? Why are they organized in ineffective ways that fly in the face of common sense, to the point that it is virtually impossible to get even the worst teachers out of the classroom? And why, after more than a quarter century of costly education reform, have the schools proven so resistant to change and so difficult to improve? In this path-breaking book, Terry M. Moe demonstrates that the answers to these questions have a great deal to do with teachers unions—which are by far the most powerful forces in American education and use their power to promote their own special interests at the expense of what is best for kids. Despite their importance, the teachers unions have barely been studied. Special Interest fills that gap with an extraordinary analysis that is at once brilliant and kaleidoscopic—shedding new light on their historical rise to power, the organizational foundations of that power, the ways it is exercised in collective bargaining and politics, and its vast consequences for American education. The bottom line is simple but devastating: as long as the teachers unions remain powerful, the nation's schools will never be organized to provide kids with the most effective education possible. Moe sees light at the end of the tunnel, however, due to two major transformations. One is political, the other technological, and the combination is destined to weaken the unions considerably in the coming years—loosening their special-interest grip and opening up a new era in which America's schools can finally be organized in the best interests of children.

Teachers, Unions, and Collective Bargaining in Public Education addresses the most important aspects of the collective bargaining system.

Teacher Unions and Social Justice is an anthology of more than 60 articles documenting the history and the how-tos of social justice unionism. Together, they describe the growing movement to forge multiracial alliances with communities to defend and transform public education. Book Review 1: “The fight for justice – the fight for educational justice – is achieved by community wins. As more unions join forces with their communities to engage in social justice unionism the community will win, and we need a playbook. Teacher Unions and Social Justice… is that playbook. It’s packed with ideas, strategies, and the voices of change from across the nation from people who are protesting, marching, striking, organizing, creating, and demanding the schools our students deserve.” -- Bettina Love, Professor of Teacher Education, University of Georgia, Co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network Book Review 2: “..this book is centered in strategy. It recommends building coalitions between unions and communities to demand investment in public schools. In the book’s vision, a union’s identity goes beyond its leaders…to promote and publicize the members’ collective action on cultural and community matters of concern." -- Foreword Clarion Reviews Book Review 3: “Teachers Unions and Social Justice creates a clear roadmap for building and wielding the power working people need to restore our social contract, by using common-good bargaining to build solidarity that extends beyond our workplaces and into our communities.” -- Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA

A former US Secretary of Education addresses the crisis in public schooling and the role teachers’ unions have played in its decline. Something is terribly wrong with America’s public-school system. For decades, we have seen test scores slide or stagnate—today, fewer than twenty percent of our nation’s twelfth graders are proficient in math, and our students rank near the bottom in science and math among the industrialized nations of the world—and achievement gaps persist or widen. So who’s responsible for the ongoing failure of our education system? In The War Against Hope, former Secretary of Education Rod Paige pulls no punches in his critical analysis of America’s crisis in the classroom. Without question, the greatest impediment to meaningful school reform is the enormous, self-aggrandizing power wielded by the teachers’ unions. In this vital, well-documented book, Paige takes an unflinching look at the power-hungry union leaders who have consistently placed their ambitions ahead of the needs of the teachers and the students whom they claim to serve. He also traces the history of the National Education Association (NEA) from its humble beginnings as an advocate of education excellence to its early radicalization by left-wing ideology. The War Against Hope is a disturbing account of the corruption, greed, and skewed values that have assaulted our schools, betrayed our teachers, and forsaken our children for far too long.

In The Future of Our Schools, Lois Weiner explains why teachers who care passionately about teaching and social justice need to unite the energy for teaching to efforts to self-govern and transform teacher unions. Drawing on research, her experience as a public school teacher, and as a union activist, she explains how to create the teachers unions public education desperately needs. Lois Weiner is a professor at New Jersey City University and has been a life-long teacher union activist who has served as an officer of three different union locals. She is the author of The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and their Unions: Stories for Resistanc e .

Examination of the effects of collective bargaining of public education teachers in the USA - covers trade unionization, working conditions and wages, esp. Wage differentials with nonunionized workers, labour disputes, the effect on teaching standards and student performance, labour contracts, resource allocation. Bibliography, graphs and statistical tables.

Ask people whether teachers unions are good or bad for education and you are likely to receive a wide variety of opinions. A 1998 Gallup Poll asked whether teachers unions helped, hurt, or made no difference in the quality of education in U.S. public schools. Twenty-seven percent responded that unions helped, 26 percent that they hurt, and 37 percent that they made no difference (10 percent of those surveyed said they did not know). Although teachers unions were first organized in the nineteenth century, and collective bargaining has been a fact of life in most communities since the 1960s, the body of literature evaluating the impact of teachers unions on American education is surprisingly small. Conflicting Missions? helps close the knowledge gap by providing a clear, balanced analysis of the role of teachers unions in education reform.The volume emerges from a 1998 conference organized by the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University. The contributors represent a broad array of disciplinary backgrounds and methodological approaches, including some of the unions' harshest critics and most loyal supporters. In examining the relationship of teachers unions and educational reform, the authors approach the subject from several directions. They ask whether unions affect educational productivity, most notably in terms of student achievement. They analyze how teachers unions function as professional organizations concerned with the occupation of teaching, as institutional actors defending interests within a bureaucratic system of education, and as political actors wielding influence on legislation and elections. Reflecting a variety of perspectives and opinions, Conflicting Missions? offers a balanced analysis of a controversial topic. It is a useful starting point for readers who want to discover the complexity of teachers unions and their influence—both positive and negative—on the national effort to improve America's schools.

Collective bargaining in the public schools of the nation has its legal roots in the industrial labor model fashioned in the 1930s out of labor strife between union organizers and private businesses. This industrial union labor model was transplanted almost wholesale into the public sector over fifty years ago when teachers, fire and police personnel were granted the legislative right to collectively bargain their wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment in most states. What impact has this industrial model had on public education and on the relationship between teachers and administrators? Labor Relations in Education explores unions and collective bargaining in the public schools of America. The history of the laws, the politics of the response to collective bargaining and unions, and the practices of bargaining and managing a contract are explored in this volume. Changes that may move labor relations into professional relations and away from the industrial labor union model and diminish the schism that exists between educators are discussed. A fully developed simulation is included to employ the practices and concepts discussed in the book.

"Examines the history of teachers unions--their rise to power and the organizational foundations of that strength, use of collective bargaining and involvement in the political process, and unions' response to expanded use of technology in the classroom to teach children, and consequences for America's public schools"--Provided by publisher.