“When School Children Start Paying Union Dues . . ”

“. . . That’s when I’ll start representing children.” Al Shanker, President, American Federation of Teachers.  The quote has been a model of teacher union goals since the 1960’s. In 2011 Professor Terry Moe’s Earthquake book, “Special Interest” Teacher Unions and America’s Public Schools,” explained how teacher unions do not represent the interests of children.  (Professor Moe is an expert on teacher unions, serving as the William Bennet Munro professor of political Science at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a member for the Hoover Institution’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education.)

In Santa Ana, the school board gave teachers a raise that boosted pay by $32 million. School Board member Cecilia “Ceci” Iglesias, the dissenting vote on the layoffs, argues that the board caved in to demands of union leadership — and ignored the obvious declining enrolments that ultimately led to the pink slips. Older teachers will keep their raises, while young ones get laid off first. It’s no secret that unions put the interests of longtime workers above newbies.