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Why Teacher Unions Are Lucky
Like many others, I have characterized the teacher unions
as a very powerful interest group. Unlike many others,
however, I do not attribute their power to a diabolical
plot. In my view, it is due more to a confluence of factors
that were not fully appreciated during the emergence of
teacher union political power.
One such factor was the ineptitude of conservative
opposition to the union agenda. Thus, although many
conservatives are aware of teacher union power, their
conventional objectives reinforce instead of weaken that
power. The abolition of teacher tenure is a case in point.
As long as it plays a prominent role in the conservative
agenda, its main outcome will be to strengthen the teacher
unions. Inasmuch as the conservatives want to repeal the
tenure laws, and do not propose any organizational
alternative to the NEA/AFT, their badmouthing teacher tenure
serves only to shore up teacher support for the teacher
unions. I say this without prejudice to tenure issues.
Although there are real problems with teacher tenure, the
high priority it receives on conservative agendas is a boon
to the teacher unions.
To take another example, the conservatives spent sizable
amounts in unsuccessful efforts to pass voucher initiatives
in Michigan and California -- two states in which the
opposition was predictably the most difficult to overcome
anywhere in the United States. Why these efforts should have
been made in the most union friendly states is a mystery; I
have always thought that in politics, as in war, athletics,
chess, and business, you should attack your opposition at
its weakest point.
The absence of conservative understanding of union
dynamics is another stroke of good fortune for the teacher
unions. The lack of understanding leads to naive assessments
of the possibilities for union reform, and also failure to
recognize feasible actions that could be taken to counteract
their opposition to reform. The failure is quite
understandable. Conservative analysts do not attend state or
national union conventions or read union publications or
school board/union contracts. And since most education
reporters and editors are more interested in conflict over
sex education or firing of the superintendent than issues
that are much more important although lacking in popular
interest, general public as well as conservative
understanding of union issues is thin indeed.
Perhaps the teacher unions are luckiest in the absence of
interest groups with a comparable stake in K-12 education.
In the private sector, management has a huge stake in
knowing how to deal with unions effectively; the likelihood
is that ineffective managers will pay a heavy price for
their ineffectiveness. Not so in education. Membership on
school boards seldom has any effect on occupational status.
Frequently, causation is the other way around -- membership
on the school board is honorific, like being elected or
appointed to the board of trustees of a college or
university. And we all know what happens when a group of
rotating managers has to cope with a permanent staff; the
power goes to the latter. The presidents of the state
associations affiliated with the NEA, most of whom have term
limits, are much less powerful than state federation
officers in the AFT who are not subject to term limits. In
fact, even in the state education associations, their
executive secretaries were much more powerful than the
officers who were their nominal superiors. Most importantly,
parents per se are not a strong cohesive interest group,
despite conservative persistence in assuming that they are.
Only the prominence of the teacher unions in the
political arena is making a dent in conservative myopia on
the subject. In this arena, the teacher unions are beginning
to face interest groups with equal or greater resources, and
especially in the economic arena, with the ability to make
strategic decisions within short periods of time. As a
result, scrutiny of the teacher unions is just beginning; as
it picks up steam, their luck will run out.
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