1. Problem with so many partisans at either end of the spectrum is that they can't seem to find a balance. In some sectors of the economy, unions in the early stages did help the average worker. Unions have been useful in lobbying for health and safety standards and workplace safety. Recently, unions have, in many cases, not helped the average worker because they have failed to adapt to the effects of globalization. That is true both here and in Europe.

Unions have not been salutary in the education sector. Schools do not benefit from standardization because each individual school is like a microclimate.

Teachers Unions: Do They Help or Hurt Education Reform ...Yet, the unions are increasingly using collective bargaining to influence the course of school reform. A new book from the Brookings Institution Press, ...
www.brookings.edu/events/2000/0411education.aspx

Some education theorists are tracing the decline of public schools to two hsitorical trends:

a. the rise of teachers unions

b. the fact that very smart and capable women are no longer subsidizing the fields of both teaching and nursing because they have other career choices. In order to attract the best and the brightest, wages have to rise to the level of competance of each individual in the profession.

This really is a very sad story.

Posted by: WVH on May 6, 2008 07:59 AM

2. Don't forget that the dunderheads who insisted it was the union way or else are only doing it "for the children". Gollly, can't you tell these morons only have the kiddies' best interests at heart? This is yet another reason why we need vouchers.

Posted by: Burdabee on May 6, 2008 08:36 AM

3. Liberal Progressives are to the educational body what Progressive cancer is the the cancer patients body....

Posted by: Rick D. on May 6, 2008 08:45 AM

4. Yet another sad instance, of the iron-clad insistance by the socialist far left and their union buddies:
Equal outcomes no matter what, not equal opportunity.

One of the fundamental principals that this country was founded on was that everybody would have an equal shot at success, but by that definition the OUTCOMES would be very different.

And yes: We have to recognize that for the first 87 years after the Declaration of Independence there was the obvious massive INequality of opportunity until slavery was abolished; and inequality of opportunity continued under segregation until the 1964 Civil Rights Act; and no doubt there are still areas that can and should be improved. Never-the-less, the PRINCIPAL of equal opportunity remains, and you cannot sustain that without accepting that the result of true equal opportunity will be UNequal outcomes.

Posted by: Methow Ken on May 6, 2008 09:54 AM

5. MVH: I can't help but notice the sarcasm and it may be appropriate. However, the logical leap to vouchers escapes me.

A call for accountability for the union's stance would make sense. Seeking to open a dialogue about policy and lost opportunities would also seem appropriate. These two options address the specifics of the issue more directly.

Posted by: km on May 6, 2008 12:21 PM

6. Does this not prove once and for all, that the teachers union has absolutely nothing to do with what's good for the children? (and apparently not for the teachers, either---which should cause the members to ask themselves why they are even bothering to be part of this union racket).

Unions suck eggs.

Posted by: Mickey on May 6, 2008 04:13 PM

7. The gal on the radio representing the WEA made a statement the teachers themselves didn't want the money and wanted it to go into a fund that could help the AP program in general. Oh really. Interesting. Couldn't the teachers just take the money then and do that themselves? Lot's of teachers spend some $ on their classrooms and this would give those high performing ones that money.

It seems that the WEA wants the fund so they can do what they wanted with the money....which is waste it or skim their 5% for running the fund.

It shows again that they do not really care about helping the kids, but keeping control.

Why didn't they think of this as a pilot program and see how it turned out? Probably because they are afraid if would be successful and thus hurt their grip on their Monopoly.

Posted by: Dengle on May 6, 2008 04:58 PM

8. Of course how the WEA would distribute the funds is that each deserving teacher would get a letter telling them a donation had been made in their name to the politician of the unions choice.

Posted by: USN RET on May 6, 2008 06:47 PM

9. I heard the head of the WEA on 770 on the way home. She was a horrible representative for the union. Boze kept asking her questions and she not even skillfully dodged it over and over by instead responding with something along the lines of "we think that the money should be controlled locally".

What really needs to happen is we need leadership in olympia letting go of their stranglehold on education. Unfortunately both candidates think it is a role of government to run schools and our money.

Posted by: Lysander on May 6, 2008 09:05 PM

10. Maybe it is time for Mr. Eyman to put forth an initiative to limit the power of the unions or eliminate them altogether.

Posted by: DJ on May 6, 2008 09:29 PM

11. school districts recently packed & shipped 15,000 kids to see the Dalai Lama; (how about THAT freekin carbon footprint!!)

meanwhile, a nearby small private school was on a field trip teaching kids how to make their own simple hot air balloons & then fly them;

you guess the edu-payback value on each project; makes me sick;

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on May 7, 2008 11:34 PM

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