Do teacher unions promote education reform?

My son was a unfortunate victum of abuse from a Union Teacher. This mistreatment placed my son in the hospital. He is still being treated today. She got a raise and a new school. I have the bills and a damaged child. Thanks. Abuse was admitted by the school district.

The assumption here is that administrators can make those kinds of decisions. Administrators are just as likely to be duds as any others in the system. Unions slow things down, surely. But they are indispensible in protecting teachers, staff, community, and students from whimsical administrative decisions of all sorts.

I was in construction for 3 years, 15 years in retail management before coming back to education. Yes, tenure is an imperfect system. But the system does protect against the "at will" dismissals of un-tenured dedicated young people that districts hire and fail to guide. For the long hours, demands of the public and the district, and the accompanying pay scale, I can't say teaching is a great career choice today. I average some 55-60 hours a week and get paid half of what I would be making back in business-and all this to get heat from some dude taking a over-long lunch and padding his expense account. And don't start about the "vacations"-they're spent taking classes or doing course work,or teaching summer school. Get real. We're in the trenches-don't knock it until you've walked a mile in my size 13s, Steve.

Can you provide any unbiased information supporting your contention that Charter Schools are successful? I suspect you cannot because it does not exist. Until this information is provided I suggest other readers accept this post for what it is; crude propaganda.

Jobs is 100 % correct. Unions are the main problem with the education system in America today. They hinder the students education. For proof look at the success of charter schools. These schools chose not to have any union involvement and have some of the highest scores. Teacher Unions go on strick during finals just to try and force an immediate end in their favor. This is unacceptable, Unions should not have control over parents Parents should control Unions. They are the ones who should decide the fate of their kids.

Someone earlier said it correctly. Most teacher groups are associations that are required by state law to do the bargaining and discussion. Our group is working toward change by trying to get the Administrators to see the good in reform. They only want to align test and curriculum with out focus on methodology of the teaching or curriculum structure. Working out things like varied time schedules for working, different types of assessment, and variety of places that the learning will take place are all tough discussions while trying to protect the teachers who must create them. I know doctors, lawyers, and engineers have organizations that work to help them too. I don't think those organizations are failing the system either.

Steve Jobs fails to realize that not every state has a teacher's union. Are any of them perfect? Absolutely not. It is typical of people who don't really know much about a subject to latch onto one aspect and think that fixing that one thing will fix everything. Jobs is just feeding his massive ego here.

The issue is truely double edged - unions protect teachers from admins who would make choices based only on $$s, but also make some people complacent and not willing to change. If I had the choice, I would say that while unions certainly help maintain a minimum standard in the classroom, they don't really push people to get further than that minimum. Admin on the other hand is saddled with having to deal with more money choices than anything else, making it hard for them to promote innovation. The other part of the equation is that in many parts of the North Atlantic, teachers and school admin are not very well respected for their work, whereas in other parts of the world, teachers and related staff are highly respected. We have to look into changing that as well. It's hard for people to do the extra bit, when people outside (parents et al) don't even care about the basics of what they do.

Larry Leverett's post, Are Teacher Unions the Problem?, as well as the interesting reader comments made in response to his post are worth considering.