Civil Rights Commission vs. Teacher’s Union

I have thought for a long time that the single greatest obstacle to education reform is the teachers unions. It has seemed clear that given a choice between protecting their membership from any stress and doing what is right for their pupils, the NEA would always choose the former. Well, what do you expect me to say? I am a conservative.

But when the United States Civil Rights Commission endorses my view, that's a sign that the union's contempt for the basic mission of its members has become too grotesque even for its Leftist allies to stomach. Consider this language, from the Commissions recent report: National Teachers Unions and the Struggle Over School Reform.

No Child Left Behind requires that the states ensure that low-income and minority students are taught by qualified teachers at the same rate as other students…But the teacher unions have worked tirelessly against this requirement from the very beginning of the ESEA. Despite their insistence on educational inputs as the key to educational success, the unions repeatedly seek to block one of the most important of these inputs – equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers to high needs schools.

The teachers unions "tirelessly" oppose distributing more qualified teachers equally among low income and minority students. Let them eat cake. And consider this:

The NEA has also publicly opposed efforts to equalize school funding, fearing that comparability would interfere with local contracts. "A gut issue for our members is that they are opposed to something that weakens rights they have under their contract, and it is not the federal role to interfere with that," said Joel Packer, Director of Education Policy and Practice at the NEA.

So: given a choice between equal funding for schools with low income and minority students (compared with higher income, largely White student bodies), and protecting union contracts, the NEA's gut cares only about the latter. Its gut. Wow.

So has the Civil Rights Commission been taken over by conservatives? Not exactly. Among its members are Birch Baye, Bill Bradley, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Roger Wilkins, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh. That's the Left.

The teachers unions are all about teachers. They don't give a rotten apple core for their most needy students.

Comments

[Miranda]

Unions have always been interesting to me. While formed to oppose oppressive governments, they seem to have themselves become oppressive mini-governments. It makes you wonder if people are capable of holding positions of power without abusing those positions.

[KB]

Miranda:

I don't think there is anything wrong with Unions in principle. They could be very effective partners in economic enterprises, and sometimes they are. But union culture in the developed world is mostly infected with socialism, which in turn combines with short sighted self interest. That makes them a drag on the economic growth that pays their dues.