Teachers Union Proselytizing in School

Teachers Union Proselytizing in School
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Teachers Union Proselytizing in School

Recently, the National Education Association brashly proclaimed that just teaching is no longer enough for teachers. In fact, the union believes, teachers have an even higher calling—to be NEA’s social justice activists.

“NEA members are organizing around issues that extend far beyond bread-and-butter concerns,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García wrote.

“To me,” added Marcelia Nicholson, NEA activist, “social justice unionism is teachers taking the lead on social reform while incorporating culturally appropriate curriculum that helps students think critically about the world they live in, promoting activism in the classroom to combat racism, classism and prejudice while encouraging equity.”

The Washington Education Association, meanwhile, has been especially aggressive this year in its bargaining posture. And it’s cost those districts that caved to its demands a pretty penny. Services for families will not be what they might have been now that the union has goaded school boards into large levy-funded wage bonuses.

But the problem with the aggressive stance is more than financial, and extends control over issues traditionally decided by the elected representatives.

Seattle’s teachers union worked over the elected leadership team on a host of issues. The Seattle Education Association president noted:

“Recess, equity teams, limits on testing—all of that is really important. That was getting a lot of airplay, and rightfully so. But those weren’t the only issues. There were a lot of things in this contract that we went after. In (public-sector) bargaining, there are mandatory subjects of bargaining: wages, benefits and working conditions. But there’s nothing that says you can’t try to bargain things that are non-mandatory subjects of bargaining. You just have to get the other side to agree.”

The Pasco School District’s teachers’ union wanted to control curriculum decisions. Prosser’s union sought to control “due process rights, an effective teacher evaluation system and teacher assignment and transfer procedures.”

Unions typically seek terms that reduce management rights and increase job security and enhance union control of school operations.

Larry Sand, president of the California Teacher Empowerment Network, has recently written with concern about the growing union power being turned to proselytizing students in school.

He points out the call to arms of the National Education Association president, who said teachers need to become “social justice patriots.” He cites educators growing comfort with shaping the world view of students in a recent interview on Freedom Foundations “Freedom Daily” radio show.

The WEA’s tremendous investment to kill charter schools is clearly motivated by their financial interest in dues collection, but it could also be motivated by a desire to monopolize the indoctrination of the next generation.

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Senior Policy Analyst
jlund@freedomfoundation.com
Jami Lund is the Freedom Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst. From 2004 to 2011, he developed legislative policy as a research analyst for the Washington House Republican Caucus. Prior to that he worked for the Freedom Foundation as the Project Manager for the Teachers Paycheck Protection project, shepherding the development of the Foundation’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court case to protect teacher rights. Jami is an accomplished speaker and researcher, one of Washington state’s top scholars on education policy and finance.