Posted by Joseph Y. Calhoun, III

One issue that our country needs to address if we ever expect to compete in a globalized market is education. The public education monopoly has produced miserable results even as we’ve thrown more and more money at the problem. Reform is necessary but the teacher’s unions resists anything that will lessen their power or subject their members to competition. That isn’t just my opinion. The general counsel of the NEA recently gave a speech to union members on the occasion of his retirement. Here’s what he had to say: 

And that brings me to my final, and most important point. Which is why, at least in my opinion, NEA and its affiliates are such effective advocates. Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.

When all is said and done, NEA and its affiliates must never lose sight of the fact that they are unions, and what unions do first and foremost is represent their members.

This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality, and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary, these are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights, and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay!

Teachers unions are only interested in promoting what is good for their members. That is as what they were established for and is their only true mission. There isn’t anything wrong with that. They are not interested in education reform if it conflicts with their real goals. But when politicians talk about reforming education while opposing all the same things the teachers unions oppose (vouchers, tax credits or charter schools), they aren’t really interested in education reform. They are doing the bidding of their campaign contributors. And that has to stop if the goal is to improve educational outcomes.

The Justice Department has an entire department that does nothing but investigate potential monopolies. They have extracted large fines from companies like Microsoft for gaining too much market share and allegedly abusing that power. Public education has a higher market share than any company in the US and yet politicians tell us it is beneficial. How can a monopoly in the private sector be evil incarnate, but a monopoly in the public sector be beneficial? The collusion of the teacher’s unions and the politicians they pay off is preventing effective education reform and it needs to end.