The attack on bad teacher tenure laws is actually an attack on black professionals
Dr. Andre Perry is the founding dean of urban education at Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Mich. He is the author of The Garden Path: The Miseducation of a City.
After the Vergara v. California decision in California’s state Supreme Court, which held that key job protections for teachers are unconstitutional, anti-union advocates everywhere began spawning copycat lawsuits. But while reformers may genuinely want to fix education for everyone, their efforts will only worsen diversity in the teaching corps. The truth is that an attack on bad teacher tenure laws (and ineffective teachers in general) is actually an attack on black professionals. If theVergara clones succeed, black children will lose effective teachers and the black community will lose even more middle-class jobs.
Black workers are most likely to hold public sector union jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the major ethnic groups, blacks (13.6 percent) represent the highest percentage of union members among the total number of workers (whites are 11 percent; Asians are 9.4 percent; and Hispanics are 9.4 percent), and the highest unionization rates among all professions were in the education services occupations (35.3 percent). In 26 of the 48 jurisdictions (states plus the District of Columbia) where at least some black and some white teachers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, blacks are more likely to be covered by agreements than whites. This is the case in California, where the Vergara decision originated. Blacks are more likely to teach in urban areas in many states, and so are more likely to be covered by collective bargaining. Therefore, black teachers have much at stake in the Vergara decision.
AN ATTACK ON BAD TEACHER TENURE LAWS IS ACTUALLY AN ATTACK ON BLACK PROFESSIONALS
Blacks consistently are paid less than their peers in unprotected jobs. In the same 2013 report, BLS found that union members had median weekly earnings of $950, while those who were nonunion full-time and salary The attack on bad teacher tenure laws is actually an attack on black professionals - The Washington Post: