Posted on 05/15/2015 11:07:18 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Conventional public school districts may covet the taxpayer dollars that follow a student when parents choose to enroll their child in a Michigan "public school academy" — also known as a charter school. But that isn’t the only motive behind the intense political campaign aimed at limiting the number of public charter schools, or even shutting them down altogether (see the Abed amendment). Union efforts to maintain the flow of school employee dues might be an even stronger motive.
For teacher unions and those politically and financially dependent on them, charter schools represent a significant threat. In academically failing school districts, charters may even be seen as an existential threat to the status quo public school establishment. The Michigan right-to-work law enacted in late 2012 may already be having a negative impact on union coffers. Less recognized is that public charter schools also deplete potential union membership, in numbers that rival the right-to-work law.
A total of 9,645 teachers worked in Michigan charter schools in 2014. Another 2,000 paraprofessionals, or classroom assistants, were employed there. But only about 200 teachers work at the rare unionized charter school. These statistics are based on Michigan Department of Education data and pertain exclusively to full-time employees.
"There's a reason teachers unions don't like charter schools,” said Audrey Spalding, the director of education policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “It's all about membership and union dues. Every charter schoolteacher costs the union as much as $1,000 annually. That's a big motivation for unions to try to limit the growth of charter schools."
Despite union rhetoric, eliminating Michigan’s right-to-work law was politically improbable in 2014. But the Michigan Education Association and its allies have focused their sights on another target, and that is charter schools.
Beginning last summer, a rash of media reports derided the performance of Michigan’s charter schools, accompanied by allegations that they lack transparency and accountability. Then, in the run-up to the fall's general election, House Democrats introduced legislation to place a moratorium on any additional charter schools.
Counterpoints to and repudiations of these attacks and the rhetoric used to support them have been provided in Michigan Capitol Confidential articles. (For example, despite claims to the contrary, charter schools are subject to the same transparency standards as conventional public schools.)
Outweighing right-to-work, the critical backdrop to the war on charter schools being waged by the status quo public education establishment and its allies in the media, and by some members of the Legislature and state board of education is the law passed in 2011 phasing out an artificial cap on the number of charter schools.
Previously, only 150 charters could be authorized by state universities, the most common method of chartering. The cap was gradually increased, and then eliminated altogether on Jan. 1, 2015. It is probably no coincidence that media and political attacks on charters began to ramp up as this date approached.
It was always apparent that giving parents more choices presented conventional school districts and teacher unions with new challenges. But the magnitude of these challenges may have been significantly underestimated.
Nancy Knight, spokeswoman for the MEA, did not respond to a telephone message offering her the opportunity to comment.
We need to outlaw all public employee unions.
All it takes is a reversal of JFK’s executive order.
The author is not kidding. They HATE Charter Schools, with a white-hot hatred. A family member who teaches in a charter school has experienced it first-hand. I have seen union teachers go off on this subject like rabid jackals at public meetings.
The unions pulled out all the stops to get Tom Wolf elected here in PA, with the key purpose of shutting down charter schools.
That would cover Federal employees, but wouldn’t the States have to reverse their laws? The can’t even get public employee pension reform passed.
The first step is in trying to understand how all these different entities link together and interoperate. I’m sure there are hard connections between the teachers unions and the media outlets/reporters running these stories.
Which are conflicts of interest.
Just like that Wisconsin prosecutor running those “John Doe” political investigations, whose wife is involved with the public unions.
Or like that reporter in Baltimore who ran that fake source story and whose wife (or girlfriend) is a member of the Baltimore States Attorney office.
In a word: MONEY.
I worked for a radical public employee union in CA for ten years. I worked for the union itself doing financial and political reporting. They didn’t know I was a conservative until after they hired me, LOL.
Send me a reply if you want to know any of my experience. I was really shocked at how they operate in politics, etc.
Oh, yeah, I’m fully aware (from personal experience too) of how they operate in politics. I just chose poorly in my wording there.
What I’d like to see are the actual linkages. There was a great graphic I saw a couple years back (here on FR, I think) showing how, if they had the ability to compile and display metadata, the British could have easily identified all the Colonial revolutionary groups by identifying the go-betweens (one of whom was Paul Revere) and roll them up well before Lexington and Concord.
I wish Gov. Palin would get the message.
True, the public schools will be left with most of the dregs of the underclass, but at least those having an escape will have the opportunities the Dems/Progressives/Unions types have long sought to deny THEIR future useful idiots.
That’s a good question, to which I don’t know the answer.
At minimum, it would set a good precedent at the Federal level.
Because unions are like teats on a snake?
Please tell your experiences!
Agree 100%. There should be no such thing as a union for taxpayer funded employees.
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