Amid fierce controversy, New York State United Teachers slowly is making headway in unionizing charter school teachers.
The outcome will depend in considerable measure on NYSUT's ability to convince charter school teachers that it can stand up for their interests while representing teachers in practically all of the state's roughly 700 traditional public school districts.
More broadly, the unionization effort will go a long way toward defining wages and job protection for charter school teachers, and ultimately determining just how charter schools will differ from traditional public schools.Statewide, 21 of about 140 charter schools have unionized.
In the Buffalo Niagara region, seven of 16 charter schools have teachers unions: Westminster Community, South Buffalo, Community, Oracle and Buffalo United, all in Buffalo; the Charter School for Applied Technologies in the Town of Tonawanda; and Niagara in Wheatfield.
Westminster's contract is a modified version of the Buffalo