Working on that article turned me into a critic of teachers unions, as Peters knew it would. Sadly, nothing that has happened in the ensuing 42 years — including, most recently, the unions' insistence that schools be shut down during the pandemic — has caused me to change my mind.
In the 1970s, when I first started writing about teachers unions, the main issues they fought with school districts about were work rules. After a series of strikes in the early 1960s, teachers won the right to collective bargaining, which allowed them to negotiate for higher pay; for limits on the number of hours they worked; for due process rights for teachers; and more. They also gained a great deal of political power by aligning themselves with the Democratic Party.
Without question, teachers deserved to make more money — they still do — but the work rules turned out to be terribly damaging to public education. Those "due process rights" made it impossible to fire bad teachers. Seniority rules put length of service over merit and talent — and often drove good young teachers out of the profession. Limiting the number of hours a teacher had to be in the building meant that students who needed extra help never got it.
The most glaring example of the perversity of the work rules was the infamous rubber room in
Almost every reform effort over the last 40 years has been an attempt to either sidestep teachers unions or force them to accept different work rules that would result in better performance. Teachers hate being evaluated on the basis of test scores — admittedly a crude tool — but until the testing of students became mandatory in the early 2000s, teachers weren't evaluated at all.
The rise of charter schools was an explicit attempt to bring in young idealistic teachers who were not part of teachers unions — and were willing to go the extra mile that too many unionized teachers weren't. That so many parents of underprivileged children tried desperately to get into charter schools spoke volumes about what they thought of their local public schools.
Across the country, annual test scores have been flat or down for most of the 2000s (though to be fair, high school graduation rates have increased in many districts). And even though the test scores are supposed to give school administrators insight into teachers' competence, it is almost as impossible to fire a bad teacher today as it was 40 years ago. To put it bluntly, thanks to the power of the unions, schools are being run for the benefit of the teachers, not the students.
And now there's the pandemic. In March, moving to remote learning was a reasonable decision. Nobody knew how the virus would affect children, how deadly it would be or even how it was spread. Teachers were scared, and so were parents. We also didn't know how deficient remote learning would turn out to be, especially for poor kids who lacked computers and broadband access or whose parents were unable to help them with their schoolwork.
We know a lot more now: in particular, we know that keeping schools open is one of the least dangerous — and most important
— things a society can do. As my Bloomberg Opinion colleague
Yet notwithstanding the scientific consensus — namely, that closing schools does far more harm than good — teachers unions
in many big cities have simply refused to go back into the classroom, claiming it's too dangerous. Public schools didn't reopen
in the fall in
And then there's
Rather, it was because to get the
Was there any science behind the 3% threshold? No again. It was an arbitrary number designed to satisfy the union. Given how safe the schools have proved to be, it is clear that de Blasio should never have agreed to those terms. But it is equally true that the union could have looked at the evidence and decided to waive the 3% benchmark in the interest of their students. They could have followed the science. Instead, the teachers chose a path that may be better — or at least easier — for them, but which will inflict further harm on a generation of students who may never recover.
I've read that President-elect
Schoolchildren, especially the most disadvantaged ones, need someone who will look out for their interests first and reform public schools, not consolidate power for the teachers' unions.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Joe Nocera is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune.
Previously:
• 07/20/20: COVID-19 has the power to break the sports world
• 07/20/20: And the littlest state shall lead the way on covid-19
• 07/09/20: If it turns out that billion$ for out-of-work Americans were diverted by fraud
• 05/22/20: Lockdowns haven't proved they're worth the havoc
• 11/16/18: Nothing lasts forever, not even the mighty Sears