Charter Schools and Unions—One Size Fits All??

Unionization of charter schools seems to be the hot topic these days. A recent NYT article raises the critical question:

“…whether unions will strengthen the charter movement by stabilizing its young, often transient teaching force, or weaken it by preventing administrators from firing ineffective teachers and imposing changes they say help raise achievement, like an extended school year.”

For unions to organize charter schools without weakening them, charter school faculty need to be able to create their own collective bargaining agreements (like Green Dot) that align with the educational philosophy of the school and its staff. This is my fear…You will have public school union leaders, who don’t reflect the actual teaching population in charter schools, advocating for and bargaining on behalf of the charter school teachers. This model wouldn’t work for the charter schools or their teachers. Most teachers in charter schools have chosen their particular school because they buy into the way that school functions, and are willing to do the extra stuff (longer hours, tutoring etc.) because they see that it works, or believe that it can work. For unionization of charter schools to be successful, it needs to allow the school to implement innovative reform strategies and allow teachers to choose both unionization and to work in schools operating under different educational models.

This begs the question of why traditional public schools don’t unionize in this way. Currently many traditional schools are a part of union that negotiates collective bargaining agreements for a large number of schools that vary in many ways, from mission to resources. And these district-wide unions often do not reflect the viewpoints of many reform-minded educators. If more traditional public schools would step away from the one-size-fits-all union structure, you might be surprised at how much teachers would be willing to engage in discussions around reform. Why can’t we have both--- teacher empowerment and progressive education reform? That’s the ideal. Maybe the unionization of charter schools can shed light on ways unions, in traditional public schools, can remain relevant in current education reform debates.

--posted by Marilyn Hylton