Andrew Coulson's Argument On Teacher Unions

There are many problems in the American public education system today. Some of those include the quality of teachers, who have no real passion for the job, and are only allowed to remain in the position because of tenure privileges. Another issue is the state budgets that are allowed for public schools, with some states investing billions of dollars, and others prioritizing it lower on the list. In hot debate today is standardized testing, and the negative effect that it has on high school education, with the limits it places on teachers and what they have time to teach in the classrooms.

Over the years unions have provided many benefits to union workers through collective bargaining. One of the biggest union forces in the United States is the teachers union. With almost close to 5 million members nationwide, the teachers union is one of the most powerful unions. Through collective bargaining, problems have been created for the public school system which takes place at local school districts; rules have been imposed to create ineffective forms of organization at schools. The rules that are currently in place by collective bargaining are also creating a big disconnection with many public schools, that being the interest of the children. The teachers union is one main role

Dear Chief Justice John Roberts, at the issue in Friedrichs v. California requiring public school teachers to pay dues to a local teachers' union to underwrite the cost of the union's work on collective bargaining. Educators who would prefer not to sponsor the union's other political action in composing each year to stay away from those charges, however despite everything they need to pay for their offer of the representation. A legitimate case now before the U.S. Incomparable Court, Friedrichs versus California Teachers Association, represents a potential risk to the quality of open area unions across the country. The standard of decent amount is the topic being argued. Basically all who advantage from union representation ought to share reasonably

The low pay for our educators is causing many negative effects. New York Times shows that the low income is causing sixty-two percent of teachers to have a second job outside of their teaching jobs. Just to have enough money to support their families and make ends meet. Most everyone decides to college to prevent having these struggles with money, and to avoid having to work multiple jobs, when they get older; however, not when it comes to living off of only a teacher’s income, the struggles to have enough money are interminable. This low pay is also causing most teachers to retire, and find new jobs. New York Times states, “every year 20 percent of teachers in urban districts quit. Nationwide, 46 percent of teachers quit before their fifth year. The turnover costs the

Teacher’s unions are powerful political players that contributed about $19.2 million in the 2012 elections alone (Steinbach, 2013). Union influence and association with Democratic political leaders can hurt intentional and improved charter school growth as the parties become more divided and less willing to compromise on contentious issues.

In my position as a union leader, I have seen teachers fight tirelessly for these causes. Also in this position, I have worked with teachers who do not understand that the role of unions as well as the relationships that they have with their districts must change to survive. This change in relationship status must be made by both the union as well as the district their teachers serve. I am lucky to be a part of union and district that understands this need for change. I have witnessed a shift in the mentality of the people I work with. Someday, I would like to play a role in other districts changing their “us against them” mentality by taking what I have learned about empowering teachers; the people who play the biggest role in educating students and giving them a bigger say in how our students are

For some students, even though they can get high scores in exam, but that’s all they can do. They just memorize the solution and don’t try to understand and absorb the real knowledge behind the exam, for these kinds of students we can’t say that their teachers do well. Comparing with this, some students have really penetrating understanding to the knowledge, their know how to use them even though it can’t reflect on their exam scores sometimes, but their teachers still deserve higher paid. There is no doubt that we can’t tolerate keeping low-performing teachers in classrooms because it hurts everyone, but the method used to evaluate teacher performance should be sophisticated enough to consider all factors that can affect a child’s success in classroom before they can be used to as a standard to punish or award teachers. Chicago strike also evokes a debate toward salary problem. Chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city at $76,000 a year before benefits, compared with the median household income in Chicago is $46,000 (BBC News: para 4). So many people couldn’t understand that teachers rejected a 16 percent salary increase when most occupations are not getting and raises and many people are under unemployment. There are two reasons that CTU still raise salary debate even though teachers already get enough paid. Firstly, CTU considered the law aspect. According to Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act, it is illegal for teachers to strike on all

For the second time in almost 4 years, over 350,000 Chicago Public School Students may not be able to go to school because of the CTU Strike that is currently in progress today (The Washington Post). The issue between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools has not been solved yet due to disagreements about the income received. The Chicago Teachers Union has made offers to school administrations; however, the responses were not in their favor. The union has been in progress of agreeing on a contract “since November 2011, [and the strike that occurred at the time] was the first to hit the Windy City in 25 years” (Liebelson). The issue must have erupted due to a misconception or a realization of problems occurring. Chicago Teachers Union choosing to strike does not affect charter schools since they are not a part of Chicago Public Schools. The issue of school strikes can be fixed by increasing the budgets and providing useful resources to teachers in order to improve the level of education.

There has been a wide range of disagreements about whether or not schoolteachers should have the privilege/right to strike. Some people trust that the privilege to strike should be unrestricted, while others feel that this right must be limited. Therefore, I will argue that the right of public school teachers to strike should be diminished. How being a teacher comes with great success for themselves/students, how they should not leave their teacher profession, and the reminder to being a key

To be honest, I was not fully aware of what unions were or how they operated exactly until having to reading about them with this section. While I was completing the form on 13.2.1, the following statements were the ones that I were very unaware of and needed to do further research on: union wages are not competitive in a global economy, unions are a big help to workers, and U.S. productivity would be much higher if it weren't for unions. There are a few different reasons for why people join unions. Some employees join unions because they are dissatisfied with the work environment, including work conditions, compensations, and supervision while other employees join because they have a desire to have more influence in affecting change in the

I am not a huge fan of unions myself. Part of it is because I am on the Human Resource Management side of things. The other part of it has to do with the instability of it. Although I work for a union, I have seen the process of going through a contract. A lot of the things we are fighting for don’t seem fair to us, because everyone always wants more. Employees want more money, more free time, more chances of getting a promotion, amongst many other things. I believe that everyone should work their hardest to move up in a company, regardless of seniority, age, race, ethnicity etc. If you want something bad enough, you will work hard to achieve it. I feel that unions, although sometimes are good, make it so that the employees protected by the union can get things handed to them. Throughout my education I have been taught to treat employees fairly and to make sure you aren’t breaking any rules or laws, or to play favorites. Although generally easier said than done, it can happen. Like I have previously stated, employers and managers are getting smarter, and learning

According to Coulson (2011), the unions of teachers has helped to drive up the cost of a student in the K-12 school system and to protect even those teachers with low performance. Since 1970, the cost of a student in the K-12 system has raised from $55,000 to $155,000, but the performance of the students have declined since then (Coulson, 2011). Where is the rest of the money? I believe that a teacher need to have a

Since only 13 states are still allowed to strike and 60 percent of the strikes in the last ten years have been in Pennsylvania, the best solution to school striking is to make it illegal (Lange). In order for this to be possible, changes would need to occur in the way schools are run now in Pennsylvania. When teachers feel that they deserve a pay raise, they need to talk to their boss, who is unreachable. This person also does not understand what the teachers do. Their head boss often do not go to college for education. Instead, they major in business. This person does not make for a good person for the teachers to talk to. They do not realize what these teachers do for their students and often never even see the teachers teach. They look at

Teacher Unions have evolved over time and have been essential in education equality and reform. Some now question the motivation behind these unions and whether or not they are now a barrier to reform, rather than a assistant. This paper will explore the evolvement of not only Teacher Unions, but the purpose and motivation behind said unions. Two of the most predominately known unions are American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association, NEA.

Going back to the tenure and teacher union issues, I agree that everyone has the right to unionize in order to protect their self-interests, but the idea surrounding tenure is something that needs to be re-evaluated, and the teacher’s union needs to jump on board in order to get the education system moving in the right direction. The writers hint at a way in which tenure can be changed, and that is by offering rewards for high student grades instead of the current rule of once tenure is reached, a teacher can keep their position regardless of their efforts in the classroom. The way the movie presents this alternative method is by showing a challenge between the teachers of the school to earn the highest student grades on the state test; winner earning a bonus of $5,700. This type of evaluation based on student grades can also be taken to the opposite end of the spectrum, and teachers who have unacceptable student scores should be evaluated on their teaching methods, and if seen