Reform: The Trojan Horse Wheeling into Schools
- Mike Dunn's blog
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The attempts to crush teacher unions legislatively in Wisconsin, Indiana, and elsewhere have so far had only limited success. The enemies of teacher unions have been much more effective at weakening unions discreetly, through “education reform.”
Reforms that limit tenure, due process, or seniority protections also squelch dissent, union participation, and even advocacy for students, by making it easier to fire teachers for any reason, regardless of their skill in the classroom. Charter schools weaken union power because they are exempt from districts’ closed shop policies and are almost always non-union.
But education reform has also been undermining union strength in a more subtle way, by deskilling teachers. Deskilling is the Trojan horse that weakens unions, and schools, from the inside out.
The Original Deskiller
History shows how deskilling weakens unions. Before the Homestead Steel strike of 1892, in Pittsburgh, the
