This article by John Jenson is an important contribution to advancing the discussion about genuine education reform.
Basically, he starts to contrast professional teacher organizations with the old industrial-age teacher unions in the US. The comments that flow to this blog tell the tale of why associations are so attractive to teachers in these stressful times where pressures for more accountability are mounting.
They amply support the view that teacher unions are far too political, do not necessarily represent the personal beliefs of many teachers, and certainly do little to contribute to the accountability of government-funded public schools.
However, it should be noted, the first two posts on this blog, quick on the draw, try to squelch the notion of choice of association for teachers.
Doug Little rails against “one of the worst pieces of journalism” and goes on to describe how in Canada teachers who are in public systems are not allowed choice of association -- they have closed union shops under provincial statutes. As if this is something to be proud of!
He goes on to say: “What is good for teachers and what is good for kids is by definition the same thing.” Many in Canada, and elsewhere, I’m sure, would dispute that.
Even though Mr. Little identifies his personal website “Education and Politics in Canada” he does not disclose that he has been, or still is: 1) Executive Assistant to the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Association (a teacher union), 2) Editor of their Newsletter, and 3) Official Legislative Observer in the Provincial Parliament. As an active union leader and with these paid positions it is his job to monitor and respond to any attacks, real or otherwise, on his teacher union domain. So, that’s where he’s coming from.
I now want to add to the conversation on this topic. I am a parent, a grandparent, and long time advocate for genuine parent involvement in education. I have found that teacher unions are generally opposed and give lip service only.
Here in British Columbia the central teacher union, the BC Teachers’ Federation with its associate unions is very active politically. Only about 10 percent of the school population attends independent or home schools, thus the BCTF effectively organizes and purports to speak for 90 percent of the teachers in the province. The public teachers have no option to join professional associations, or to ask for rebates for the part of their dues used for political work.

page 2, post by Tunya Audain to John Jensen article: Professional Teachers or Political Union?

Further, the teacher unions in this province have successfully, in a number of school districts, obtained signed pledges from school board candidates to support their agendas if elected (class size, opposition to standardized tests, etc.)..Beyond supporting certain election campaigns, we often have educators actually succeeding in being elected as trustees on school boards. This really puts a kibosh on the notion that it’s the boards that are supposed to fire bad teachers and the unions are supposed to ensure “due process”. There’s a definite conflict of interest here, and we do not have legislation forbidding this.

Even more outrageous is the development of a Masters Program (a cohort development program) at our public Simon Fraser University to begin this fall called: “Teacher Union/Professional Organization Leadership” with the two first lectures given by senior researchers (one an ex president of the provincial teacher union) from BCTF Headquarters. The course will “focus on union and related work… applying organizational, leadership, and educational theories to issues of practice”. Now, tell me, has anyone heard of any such equivalent Masters program anywhere else in the world? Yup, I think BC is a world leader in teacher union power.

There is no question that teacher unions are an obstacle to education reform in Canada. A recent article (Macleans, July 8/09, “Why it’s so hard to fire bad teachers” , Macleans says “that the dismissal process is so onerous, the risk of reprisal from teachers’ unions so great, that ‘most principals find it’s not worth the effort’” quoting a university professor in teacher training.

I agree with John Jenson, author of this article, that “unionism itself is not up for debate, but rather policies that work against good education.” I hope he does a follow-up article on this very topic and adds all the other culprits, not just the unions, for example, the teacher training institutions and school boards that sit like dogs-in-the-manger as obstacles to responsive education today.