Should Teachers and Principals Join Professional Unions?
Most of the reformers of public education are very opposed to teacher unions. They blame teacher unions for being nothing more than obstructionists to what they consider to be needed school reform. Reformers believe that merit pay, no seniority, no tenure, zero input into policy, and at-will employment will make teachers more “professional”.
Teachers in Louisiana generally have a choice of joining either the Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) or the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT). Both of these groups function as unions and as professional organizations. They actively advocate for teachers in the courts and at the legislature, yet they also support policies and laws that benefit students and public schools. Some teachers have chosen to belong to an organization called A+PEL which provides teachers a liability policy but which proudly proclaims that it is not a union. Are teachers better off joining A+PEL instead of joining real unions? What about school principals? Should school principals belong to a strong organization that advocates for the rights of principals?
Many years ago when I first started teaching it was generally expected that teachers and principals would join their professional/union organization. In those days teachers, principals and supervisors were often members of the same organization. In Louisiana it was the LTA and LEA, the white and black teacher organizations that were the predecessors of the present Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE). My readers may be interested to know that one of my first jobs as a young staff member for the newly formed LAE in the late 1970's was to merge all of the parish black and white teacher organizations in Louisiana into one integrated group. This effort was pretty successful with most of the newly combined groups forming active local professional associations that were very effective in lobbying the legislature and also their local school boards on important education issues.
When I was a young teacher in the “old days” it was generally accepted that teachers should have a very significant voice in curriculum, student discipline policy, health insurance decisions, the wording of local school tax proposals, and most state Louisiana Educator: Should Teachers and Principals Join Professional Unions?: