Who Do Teachers Unions Advocate For?
Dana Goldstein points out that teachers unions aren’t the Galactus of the education system, sucking up all progress and goodness from it. In fact, in a non-trivial number of cases, they are on the side of the kids:
Just as it’s easy to pick out circumstances in which the interests of teachers unions seem antithetical to the interests of children, it’s easy to point to times when the two are in sync. Teachers unions advocate for smaller class sizes. Teacher’s unions advocate for newer, better supplies, from textbooks, to chairs and desks, to cleaner classrooms. Teacher’s unions advocate for more support staff, such as guidance counselors, psychologists to deal with learning disabilities and problems at home, and classroom assistants. All of that is very good for kids.
Dana is right, all that stuff that teachers unions have advocated for is good for the kids. But that’s kind of missing the point. Last time I checked, our education system was for the benefit of the children, not for the benefit of the teachers. I’m not saying that teachers have to get screwed or that their interests should be totally ignored, simply that they should not be the driving force behind any school policy. The fact that the interest of students and the interest of teachers have occasionally corresponded is not evidence that the entrenched, institutional power that unions have – much of which is used to stymie effective reforms – is a good thing for the education system.
This is not to say that teachers unions should be eliminated or anything like that, it’s just that their power ought to be substantially curtailed. That’s because they, because of their organization and governmental support, can leverage a ton of power in debates over education policy. In most union disputes, they are in a “countervailing power” relationship with management, and things generally reach some sort of equilibrium. In schools, however, there is no “students union” who doggedly advocates and organizes on the behalf of students. And as long as that essential fact of our education politics is true, then teachers unions ought to be recognized as a vastly imperfect agent for implementing good policy.
