"The power of teacher unions to block reform must and can be weakened."
"The teacher unions assert that the impact of unionization has been beneficial to teacher welfare and student achievement," observes Myron Lieberman, chairman of the Education Policy Institute and author of a new book called The Teacher Unions. "The first claim is doubtful: improvements in teacher welfare are marginal, and have come at the expense of other needs, such as better facilities and instructional materials. The impact on student achievement," Lieberman continues, "has been negative, despite union claims to the contrary."
In an interview in a recent issue of School Reform News, published by the Heartland Institute, Lieberman identifies teacher unions as "the major obstacle to market-oriented education reforms such as school choice and contracting out. They are also opposed to lowering the terminal age of compulsory schooling, homeschooling, and other reforms that are urgently needed." This opposition should not surprise anyone, says Lieberman. After all, "teacher unions were established to promote teacher welfare, not educational achievement. It would be remarkable," he insists, "if an organization established to redistribute income to teachers turned out to be optimal for increasing productivity."
Lieberman argues that the best way to combat these obstructionists is "to weaken the teacher unions financially so that they can no longer intimidate school boards and legislators. The ways to achieve this are: to reduce union revenues; to eliminate tax-payer subsidies that the unions receive but which should never have been given in the first place; and to impose on the teacher unions the same reporting and disclosure requirements imposed on private sector unions under the National Labor Relations Act."
Lieberman recommends restrictions on agency shop fees, "probably the most important source of union revenues after membership dues. These are fees paid to the union by non-members who do not want to join the union," he explains, "and the fees are often clearly excessive. Legislation is needed to remedy this situation." He also notes that "the NEA avoids at least $1.4 million in property taxes on its tax-exempt building in Washington DC -- an exemption no other labor union enjoys and which should be repealed."
Myron Lieberman urges termination of such taxpayer subsidies to the teacher unions as "time off with pay to conduct union business, payroll deduction of union dues, PAC contributions at no cost to the union, and taxpayer funding of pension contributions to [union] staff who are teachers on leave from school district employment." Lieberman also argues that "unions should be required by law to provide to their members on a regular basis reports and disclosures concerning union assets, income, expenditures, and so on, just as private sector unions are required to do."
Take away their taxpayer subsidies and make them accountable to their own membership, and the unions will soon find that they can no longer afford to hold teachers, students, and parents in contempt. Better yet, privatize the entire public school system -- and we'll soon see an educational renaissance in America.
