Posted on 12/12/2022 6:46:11 AM PST by george76
The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declined by at least 59,000 members during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) disclosure reports.
The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, lost 40,107 members while the AFT, the nation’s second largest teachers union, declined by 19,078, according to the DOL reports. The decline comes as public schools added 95,000 educators from September 2021 to 2022.
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The decline in the NEA’s membership leaves the union with 2,496,627 million educators, the lowest union membership since 2006, 74 million reported. The AFT has 1,189,904 with just 43.5% of its members working full time.
The decline in membership comes after the unions dropped 82,000 members in the 2019-2020 school year, the 74 million reported.
The Oregon Education Association (OEA) reported dropping from 48,774 members to 41,127 over the last two school years, according to OEA documents. New York State United Teachers reported being down 4,384 members while the Florida Education Association has dropped 4,682 members, according to the 74 million.
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The decline in membership comes as the teachers unions have pushed for gender identity lessons in classrooms; in August, the NEA suggested a book about kneeling for the national anthem as a part of a summer reading list for k-12 students. The New Jersey Education Association hosted a drag queen story hour at its 2022 educator convention in November.
Unexpectedly good news.
Not seeing a real reason and associated data. Can teacher even teach if they are not in a union in New York State?
Part of the decline is likely due to parents pulling their children out of public schools after the COVID reaction. Also, Arizona has plenty of charter schools (public, but typically non-union) and substantial vouchers that expedites home and private schooling. Other states may have similar.
A lot of teachers are retiring for good. My district has several teachers from certain Caribbean countries that are teaching here on a visa because there just aren’t enough teachers.
Government Employee Unions should be outlawed, as they sit on both sides of the bargaining table.
I guess they’re getting tired of working hard to get raises and when they finally get one, along comes the union thugs and takes their raises away. Union Suck. They ALWAYS have.
Teachers’ unions will tell you they aren’t a union but a professional organization like the IEEE.
There is no need for collective bargaining for teachers, in fact it would be better for good teachers to get paid based on merit. Then, perhaps we would stop the skill and competency stagnation we've experienced over the past 40 years.
I agree completely.
The ONLY reason I’m in the teachers association is they protect me from lawsuits and shitty administrators and parents. Also they have a nice calendar. Otherwise I’m embarrassed to be part of this group.
> Can teacher even teach if they are not in a union in New York State? <
Some states, like New York, are “closed shop” states. So if there was a union at your workplace you had to join it (or pay a fee roughly equal to membership dues).
Then a few years ago the Supreme Court ruled that government employees cannot be made to join a union. So joining a teachers union anywhere is now optional.
But make no mistake. Not being a member makes you a target for a vengeful administrator. So it’s not any easy call to join or not. You don’t want your dues money going to leftist cause. But neither do you want to have a bull’s eye on your back.
Hi.
Some jobs and some states require you to be in the union.
Suxs, but that’s the way it is.
5.66mm
In other news, people who were previously forced to pay for things that don’t benefit them are suddenly not paying for totally inexplicable reasons!
> in fact it would be better for good teachers to get paid based on merit <
That makes sense, in theory. But as a long-time urban public school teacher, I can see lots of problems. It’s not like building cars on an assembly line. There are too many variables in teaching that are beyond a teacher’s control. For example:
Teacher A is a good teacher. But there are two kids in his class who are chronically disruptive. The principal refuses to take action to remove those students. So A must take time away from instruction to keep those two kids under control.
Teacher B is also a good teacher. But the counselors have scheduled way too many kids in his class. “There’s nowhere else to put them.” So B cannot give each student the attention he deserves.
Teacher C is only a fair teacher. But he’s lucky enough to have no really disruptive kids in his class. And his class size is reasonable.
C’s students will probably score best on standardized tests. But A and B are the better teachers. Should C be paid more?
As a side note, I’ve won more than a few teaching awards in my career. So I suppose I would have gotten merit pay. But I’m firmly against it.
There’s a good book on the subject by Eric Hanushek of the Brookings institute titled Making Schools Work which addresses merit pay, you might fine it interesting.
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Schools-Work-Performance-Controlling/dp/0815734255
FDR was against these unions for the same reason.
Merit pay works but when there are impediments (unions, terrible administrators who put up with bad behavior and government) its effect is limited.
Minus all of the knowledge of those in the IEEE.
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