National View: Chicago Teacher Strike

So the teachers in Chicago have gone on strike after the city and the union failed to reach an agreement on some key issues, among them teacher evaluation and job security assurances.  As NPR points out, this particular strike may very well indicate what sort of future unions in general can look forward to.

For me, this highlights just how out of sync teachers unions are with the reality of today, not unlike how out of touch the United Auto Workers were in the early 2000's and up until the Federal gov't had to bail out GM.

Public schools are broken.  There aren't many people who have worked with a recent high school graduate, or tried to teach them in a college setting, who will disagree with that statement.  American children are still some of the worst-ranked in the world.  Our technical and science jobs are being filled by foreigners being flown in from half-way around the world, because our graduates can't cut it.

My problem with the teachers unions is they've dug the battle lines around the teachers, all teachers, even the ones not doing their jobs.  Any discussion of change is shot down without discussion.  Teachers unions have adopted a very Republican attitude of "NO!" without offering alternatives.

That's not good enough for my tax dollars.

If I don't do my job (which often involves teaching some 18-year-old how to apply basic math or reading comprehension in a real world setting), I will lose my job.  If I do my job well, I'll get a 4 percent(ish) raise.  I'm having a hard time seeing what's wrong with the deal Chicago offered.

This is not to say unions should just roll over and accept everything.  School districts are notorious for trying to cut costs at teacher and student expense.  Higher class sizes, unfair pay, inadequate supplies and facilities have all been seen over and over--they're WHY the unions exist in the first place.  I count plenty of teachers among my friends and family, and I'll be the last person to say a poor word against them, or to suggest they should deal with elected officials on a one-on-one basis.

But this combative, uncompromising stance isn't helping anyone.  It's why Kasich was able to paint such a compelling nasty picture of teachers in the Senate Bill 5 fight. Like so many other things in our society right now, the old model does not work.  We need to find a better way to protect everyone's interest and serve the larger good.