| Charter teachers and unions |
6/10/04 1:34 PM |
Author:
Bryan Hassel
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Interesting questions about charter teachers and unionization. Teachers unions arose and developed their modus operandi in a very specific historical context: one where there was a single public school employer in every city -- the school district. With just one employer, there was a certain logic to collective bargaining at the district level.
Now in many cities, largely thanks to charter schools, we have a different context -- multiple employers of public school teachers. This gives teachers a different kind of power, hinted at in Lauren's post -- the power to choose a bundle of working conditions / educational conditions from among numerous options. A single collective bargaining agreement that sets work rules, pay, benefits, tenure, etc centrally doesn't fit well with this context.
But that doesn't mean there aren't important roles for teachers' organizations in this new context. ECS released a paper
(http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/49/71/4971.pdf) exploring some of the possibilities, but I'm interested in what discussion participants think of it.
Posted as a reply to:
Teachers by Lenore Tetkowski
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