Students Stop Teachers Union From Killing Their Education

A heartwarming story of courage as high schoolers wrest their band, and volunteer teacher, from the jaws of the teacher union doomsday machine.    Volunteers are the last thing unions want to see in any field.  Volunteers take away an opportunity for union officials, not only to milk the taxpayer, but to add a new forced-dues payor to their membership rolls.

Dave Duffy has the story in Back Woods Home News.There are few victories sweeter in life than that of young teenagers triumphing over organized mean-spirited adults in positions of seemingly absolute power. This is a story that comes out of my own home town of Gold Beach, Oregon. It pits the high school band, consisting of 15 teenagers ranging in age from 15 to 18, against the powerful local teacher’s union that tried to shut the band down because their unpaid volunteer band director, who everybody agreed was doing a good job, did not possess an Oregon teaching credential.

As far as the kids were concerned, it was simply a matter of wanting to play music. They had nearly won the District Festival competition last year under the same uncredentialled band director, and they figured they had a good chance of winning it all this year.

Bravo to the Gold Beach High School Band, and bravo to their unpaid volunteer teacher. Together, with just a little help from the private sector, they just defeated the bully in the schoolyard.