CTA’s New Idiot Wimp Boss
In a recent interview with Thoughts on Public Education (Top-Ed), Dean Vogel, the new CTA boss, told Top-Ed’s John Fensterwald that the CTA “is really about making things better for kids, and making learning environments better for kids, and – and that’s where our members are, and they’re the ones that know about that, and – and so I really want to help them feel a reconnection to the union that’s representing them and –and fight for what’s best for public education.”
So what’s my beef with Vogel?
First, this rambling, incoherent statement is as meaningful as Obama’s mantra, Change We Can Believe In. The quote says nothing concrete about what the union is or does or how it intends to get there. It’s simply a feel-good sound bite meant to portray the union as the preeminent child advocacy organization in the state, which it is not.
This brings us to my second gripe: unions are supposed to fight for the interests of their members, not their clients. Obviously teachers care about their clients (i.e., students) and constantly make sacrifices to help them. However, a union that places the interests of the students above those of the teachers, as implied by Vogel’s quote, is not a union at all, but a child or education advocacy organization, of which there are already plenty.