Teachers vs. the Union
Don’t confuse the city’s teachers with the teachers union bosses. That’s one key message of the charterschool rally coming Wednesday to Foley Square. And the point will be clear as day, even if no one says the word “union” — for it will come from teachers themselves.
A thousandplus charter teachers plan to march. Like the families of the 100,000 kids in city charters, these teachers have voted with their feet: They believe in the charter model — public schools that are privately run and largely free of union handcuffs.
They see how charters put the kids’ interests before adults’, and how that’s meant huge gains for students — poor, minority kids — the union once claimed are ineducable.
Before charters, notes NYC Charter School Center boss James Merriman, anyone who wanted to teach in city public schools had to work for the system: “Now teachers, like families, have the chance to find the school that is the right fit.” It’s “progress,” he says — even if the teachers union’s leaders “won’t ever see it that way.”
Charters’ impressive results require enormous sweat, toil and commitment. But these teachers will do whatever it takes to help kids succeed — a stark contrast to what the union stands for.
Remember, the point of the union is to advocate for teachers, not kids. It fights for better pay, benefits and work rules to improve its members’ lives.
Fair enough. But the union also hates these alternative schools, especially successful ones, because 90 percent of city charters are unionfree. And that’s an existential threat: The more nonunion charters, the smaller the union’s ranks — and its political power.
Dedicated charter teachers want folks to know the union doesn’t speak for everyone. They’re hoping that message gets through, in particular, to Mayor de Blasio — who’s put his union pals ahead of kids.
Yes, lots of hardworking, effective teachers work in the regular system. They often believe in their schools as much as charter teachers believe in theirs. And many back their union 1,000 percent. But teachers aren’t a monolithic group. If de Blasio won’t put kids first, at least he should listen to teachers — that is, all teachers — and not just union bosses.