Teacher Union Officials Pushing Harder on Charters

This should come as no surprise to anyone who observes teacher union power tactics. While teacher union officials have long and loudly voiced their opposition to charter schools, they have quietly welcomed any chances to unionize them.  Almost 50 years ago, then-NEA president George Fischer claimed that, in 10 years, NEA teacher union officials would control who enters, stays and leaves the education field.  While teacher union officials have never quite reached that goal, they certainly have a stranglehold on education that is second to none.

With the Janus v. AFSCME decision expected to be handed down next month, teacher union officials are scouring the pantry for more ways to organize teachers, and the rise of charter schools gives them a fertile field.  The “blind alley” of charter schools is that those which are private schools, are subject to the National Labor Relations Act, which makes it much easier to organize union membership than public charter schools.

Kate Hardiman has the story in the Washington Examiner.

Now, with charter teachers in numerous states pushing to unionize, these schools are backsliding to resemble traditional district public schools. As of the 2016-2017 academic year, over 11 percent of charter schools permitted unions and 62 percent of all unionized charters were within four states: California, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Ohio.

Moreover, a concerted push exists today for even more charter school unionization efforts. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of unionized charters in California increased from 122 to 245, from 9 to 32 in Illinois, and from 36 to 48 in Maryland.