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The problems you experienced go beyond teachers unions. Dumping "problem" kids into one school is a recipe for disaster and communities are not served by that k

The problems you experienced go beyond teachers unions. Dumping "problem" kids into one school is a recipe for disaster and communities are not served by that kind of thing at all (except those that dumped off students, although I would argue those communities aren't fixing their underlying problems). Administrator heavy, top down approaches that override community and teacher autonomy are a bad thing in general, and the obsession with testing over standard lessons and homework is a huge problem with the way the public education system is run. Ultimately teachers as a professional class deserve a union. We see in other places and countries that the unions do not serve as an impediment to a quality public education, so we have to ask ourselves what is really going on with current systems and unions that make the situation so shitty (esp. in New York state).

PaulHoule 13y ago
I'm not saying that teachers shouldn't have a union, but from my perspective it is part of the problem rather than the solution more often than not. For instance, they opened a charter school in our district which seems to be an honest effort to provide a safe (bullying free) environment for the high school and there have been two people associated with the union who have just been consistently hateful trying to shut it down.
- king_jester 13y ago
  The charter school movement is one of those things that draws strong opinions. Initiatives to provide safe school environments are good, but privatized charter schools have a lot of downside in terms of how a community, parents, and teachers can retain control over how education happens. In New York state in particular, there has been a strong effort to close public schools and open private charters, which in my opinion is the wrong way to fix problems with public education. The disagreement over charters isn't just a union thing, although public educators would be upset to see the system they work for dismantled instead of repaired.

PaulHoule 13y ago

I'm not saying that teachers shouldn't have a union, but from my perspective it is part of the problem rather than the solution more often than not. For instance, they opened a charter school in our district which seems to be an honest effort to provide a safe (bullying free) environment for the high school and there have been two people associated with the union who have just been consistently hateful trying to shut it down.

king_jester 13y ago
The charter school movement is one of those things that draws strong opinions. Initiatives to provide safe school environments are good, but privatized charter schools have a lot of downside in terms of how a community, parents, and teachers can retain control over how education happens. In New York state in particular, there has been a strong effort to close public schools and open private charters, which in my opinion is the wrong way to fix problems with public education. The disagreement over charters isn't just a union thing, although public educators would be upset to see the system they work for dismantled instead of repaired.