It was simple to see the Chicago teachers strike as an unfortunate incident that will soon pass. This was their first strike in 25 years. So it might appear that, almost always, collective bargaining works meaning a process between employees and a group of employers aimed at reaching agreements.
The purpose of the Chicago school system and the American school system generally is to educate children.
The teachers unions were in the business of winning better salaries and benefits, protecting job security, pressuring for restrictive work rules and in other ways advancing the occupational interests of their members. These interests were simply not the same as the interests of the students.
And they surely lead, through the exercise of union power, to contracts whose countless formal rules are literally not designed to create an effective organization for schools. They guaranteed that the schools will be organized in perverse ways that no one in their right mind would favor if they just cared about what is best for students.
Because of the rules that unions fight for in labor contracts, district leaders can almost never get bad teachers out of the classroom. Nor can they share good teachers to the schools and classrooms where they can do the greatest good for students. Even the worst teachers get satisfactory evaluations. Also, teachers are paid based on their seniority and formal credits, without any regard for whether their students are learning anything.
And so it goes. This is a school system organized for the benefit of the people who work in it, not for the students they are expected to teach.
The purpose of the Chicago school system and the American school system generally is to educate children.
The teachers unions were in the business of winning better salaries and benefits, protecting job security, pressuring for restrictive work rules and in other ways advancing the occupational interests of their members. These interests were simply not the same as the interests of the students.
And they surely lead, through the exercise of union power, to contracts whose countless formal rules are literally not designed to create an effective organization for schools. They guaranteed that the schools will be organized in perverse ways that no one in their right mind would favor if they just cared about what is best for students.
Because of the rules that unions fight for in labor contracts, district leaders can almost never get bad teachers out of the classroom. Nor can they share good teachers to the schools and classrooms where they can do the greatest good for students. Even the worst teachers get satisfactory evaluations. Also, teachers are paid based on their seniority and formal credits, without any regard for whether their students are learning anything.
And so it goes. This is a school system organized for the benefit of the people who work in it, not for the students they are expected to teach.