Are Teachers Unions a Drag on U.S. Schools? Here’s What One Prof. Had To Say About It

Webdog I’m sorry that you had a bad experience with your son’s teacher. You cannot judge all teachers by this one bad apple. Sure there are a few bad apples but I know many more good teaches than bad ones.

A point that is missing is that all states are not the same when it comes to teacher unions. In my state there are no teacher unions. The NEA is not a union and you don't have to belong in order to teach. I do not belong to it because of its extreme liberalism and its support of extremely liberal PACs. The state legislature sets minimum salaries and the local school board may grant salaries above the state minimum.

The process to become a teacher is not easy. Most teacher education programs in my state require a minimum of a 25 on the ACT for admittance. As far as what it takes to become a teacher in my state you must complete to what amounts to a double major one in education and another in a content area. All beginning teachers must have a bachelor’s degree and pass a minimum of 3 competency tests in order to get state licensed. Within 10 years of employment as a teacher they must obtain a master’s degree at their own expense and on their own time which means night classes and summers in a college classroom. There are no sabbaticals in public education. If a teacher wants a higher pay grade then they must complete an additional 30 hours of graduate credit. This does not even include the many hours of professional development that we are required to attend often own our own time and at our own expense.

As for the work day, we have students from 8:00 to 3:00. We have to be on campus by 7:45 and we do not leave until at least 3:45. Most teachers in my building are here until well after 4:00. If you think that is the end of the work day you are sorely mistaken. We have assignments to grade, lessons to prepare, parents to contact, meetings to attend, reports to fill out and many other assigned duties.

We are also faced with the stress of high stakes testing, little funding for additional classroom materials (a lot of time we use our own money), out of date equipment, school violence, bullying, just to name a few. We are constantly bombarded by the almost constant outcry that teachers are not doing their jobs when in reality most parents need to do theirs.

But at the end of the day I can still say I LOVE TEACHING I LOVE MY STUDENTS.

 

Did you know the president of the Washington D.C. teacher's union sends his kids to private school ?

 

Are his kids' s teachers union?