Teachers' Unions Look to Clinton to Save Them
To say the relationship between the Obama administration and the national teachers unions is strained would be an understatement.
Democrats and unions have historically enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Democrats backing pro-union policies, such as protecting bargaining rights, and unions using their coffers and numbers to back Democratic candidates who support their causes. And the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers were critical in helping mobilize the youth vote to propel the then-freshman senator from Illinois into the White House.
But since his election, Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan haven't been what the unions were hoping for. Instead, they've overseen a period of significant change in the K-12 space, helping and even pushing states to adopt education policies that unions opposed. Among them, the expansion of charter schools, teacher evaluation and compensation systems based in part on student test scores, and shuttering poor-performing schools.
Unions foresaw the difficult relationship. After all, Duncan was part of the so-called reform movement, had been know to favor corporate-style education policies, and made a name for himself closing down some of Chicago's worst schools. But the changes, ushered in at such a rapid pace, caused the two major teachers unions last year to call for Duncan's resignation, and has left union leaders struggling to keep members.
"Duncan was a big driver of this," says Joshua Cohen, assistant professor at Michigan State University's College of Education. "He had a podium, he had access to the federal purse. ... But to see the unions turn on Obama the way they did was surprising for everyone, even given the push that the administration made."
Now, during the twilight of the administration, the NEA and the AFT are looking for someone to restore the balance and repair the fractured relationship – someone more sympathetic to their roots.
That person, both unions have decided, is Hillary Clinton.
The AFT endorsed Clinton this summer, and over the weekend, the NEA threw its support behind her. With that decision, Clinton locks up millions of dollars for her campaign war chest from the union's political action committees and millions of boots on the ground.
That both unions endorsed Clinton isn't a surprise. Clinton has been involved in education policy since the 1970s when she worked for what is now the Children's Defense Fund, an advocacy organization for children in poverty and those with disabilities.
"We have a long and very powerful relationship with Hillary Clinton and I think those are the things that came to the surface," says NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia. "What set her apart is her career-long advocacy for the students we serve and the families who have so many disadvantages and seeing education as that door to opportunity."
And AFT endorsed Clinton for president during the height of the Clinton-Obama Democratic primary war in 2008.
The real question, however, is if she's elected, would she come to their rescue, or would she keep in place much of Obama's and Duncan's education legacy?
"She could keep the same policies that the administration has but repair relationships," says Lanae Teachers' Unions Look to Clinton to Save Them - US News:
