by Robin Barbetta

Created on: September 11, 2008

Teacher unions are, unquestionably, the bane of our public education system. Unlike other unions, teacher unions proclaim that their efforts are, in large part, on behalf of "the children" as opposed to only their dues-paying constituents. Unions came into existence to protect and assure fair compensation to a vulnerable workforce at the mercy of unscrupulous employers. Initially, unions represented workers in manual labor-intensive jobs such as mining and manufacturing where unsafe conditions were killing people and child labor was standard practice. The premise was simple. For a fee (dues) a worker received a tenacious advocate to fight for his or her economic and personal well-being in the workplace.

Today, unions represent employees in every line of work. When personal safety is not an issue, a union's sole function is to obtain economic benefit (wages, job security, retirement, insurance, paid time off, etc.) for its constituency, period. Of course, teacher unions would have you believe that they are the exceptions to the standard and long-standing role of a union in the workplace. Teacher unions claim they are not just advocating for teachers' wages and benefits, but for the children as well. This claim is akin to a cashier union advocating for both the store's clerks and the store's customers. It is patently impossible for one advocate to fairly represent multiple parties. It is outrageous that teacher unions propagate this falsehood.

Teacher unions consistently denounce and oppose validated measures that would improve our public schools, and thus the quality of education our children receive. Charter schools, vouchers, individual teacher accountability standards, reasonable termination policies and merit pay never even make it to the "bargaining" table. No, teacher contracts are negotiated and settled long before their expiration dates by politicians seeking to obtain or retain the power of their elected offices. Teacher unions are well-financed and well-schooled in how to get what they want for their constituency which consists of teachers, and ONLY teachers. The true advocates for our children, our elected officials, are bought and sold by these unions to the detriment of our failing education system and, more importantly, our children. It is clear that teacher unions possess an absurd amount of influence over our public education system without serving the interests of our children or the system itself. Teacher unions control and corrupt the system out of pure self-interest using the piles of money accumulated through union dues. Simply put, money and power usually corrupt. Teacher unions are flush with both. Our failing public schools are the result of this corruption.

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