5 Attacks Against Teachers Unions By State Newspapers In 2015
Public school educators and their unions in major cities made national headlines in 2015 following strikes, contentious contract negotiations, school board elections, and funding battles. While research shows that teachers unions benefit students, educators, and communities, state newspapers editorializing on these union activities have ignored the facts and framed unions and educators as selfishly seeking higher pay at the expense of others. Amidst a victory year for teachers unions on several fronts, here are some of the most inaccurate claims state newspaper editorial boards pushed.
Research Shows Strong Teachers Unions Benefit Students And The Community
National Bureau Of Economic Research Study: Strong Teachers Unions Lead To Higher Teacher Quality. An October 2015 study from Wellesley College and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) examining "the myth of unions' overprotection of bad teachers," explored patterns of teacher turnover in school districts with strong and weak teacher unionization, concluding that strong unions created a dynamic where high-quality teachers were retained at a higher rate, and lower quality teachers were dismissed at a higher rate. The research found that, as a result, teacher quality was overall higher in strongly unionized school districts, which in turn benefited students. From the study (emphasis added):
The model predicts that teachers unions, by negotiating higher wages for teachers, lower the quit probability of high ability teachers but raise the dismissal rate of underperforming teachers, as higher wages provide districts greater incentive to select better teachers. As a result, unions help the educational system reach an efficient equilibrium where high-quality teachers are matched with high wages... The data confirms that, compared to districts with weak unionism, districts with strong unionism dismiss more low-quality teachers and retain more high-quality teachers. The empirical analysis shows that this dynamic of teacher turnover in highly unionized districts raises average teacher quality and improves student achievement. [National Bureau of Economic Research, 10/5/15]
Rutgers University Education Scholar: Strong Unions Are Connected To Better Student Outcomes And Fairer School Funding. In a 2012 analysis reprinted on The Washington Post's Answer Sheet blog in 2014, Professor Bruce Baker of Rutgers University explored connections between states with strong teacher unionization and states' relative educational quality across several factors. Baker found that states labeled as strong union states were more likely to have above-average student outcomes and more fairly and better funded schools. States with stronger teachers unions were also found to have significantly more competitive wages for teaching, theoretically attracting more qualified individuals to join the teaching profession. [The Washington Post, 8/15/14]
Center For American Progress: Unions Improve Economic Mobility For Entire Communities. A September report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that children with parents who belonged to unions and communities with higher levels of union membership experienced better economic outcomes and increased economic mobility in the long term. The report summary concluded that many of the positive economic effects of unionization went beyond higher wages for union families, extending toincreases in mobility for nonunion families and entire communities (emphasis added):
There are strong reasons to believe that unions may increase opportunity. First, there are the direct effects that a parent's union membership may have on their children. Union workers make more money than comparable nonunion workers--what economists call the union premium--and when parents make more money, their children tend to make more money--which economists refer to as the intergenerational earnings elasticity. In theory, unionized parents should pass on a portion of the union premium to their children. There may be other channels through which children whose parents were in a union have better outcomes than other children: union jobs may be more stable and predictable, which could produce a more stable living environment for children, and union jobs are more likely to provide family health insurance.But there are also a series of other ways that unions could boost intergenerational mobility for nonunion workers. It has been shown that unions push up wages for nonunion workers, for example, and these wage gains for nonunion members could be passed on to their children. Children who grow up in nonunion households may also display more mobility in highly unionized areas, for example, because they may be able to join a union when they enter the labor market. Finally, unions generally advocate for policies that benefit all working people--such as minimum wage increases and increased expenditures on schools and public services--that may especially benefit low-income parents and their children. A recent study on interest groups and political influence found that most of the national groups that supported middle-class priorities were unions. Another study found that states with higher union density also have higher minimum wages. [Center for American Progress, 9/9/15]
Princeton University Professor: Teachers Unions Give Political Voice To Poor And Middle Class. A 2014 book by Princeton University Professor of Politics Martin Gilens explored the connections between policy, lobbying, and socioeconomic status and found that teachers unions -- along with several other advocacy organizations -- were responsible for the rare instances in which the preferences and concerns of people who are less advantaged were represented in national politics. The study concluded that teachers unions served as allies for low- and middle-income Americans and their lobbying support on select issues helped push policy toward the outcomes these groups supported. [Princeton University Press, accessed 12/16/15]
This Year, The Country's Largest Teachers Unions Have Formally Supported Social And Political Issues Beyond Teacher Wages And Benefits. In 2015, the National Education Association and the American Federation for Teachers -- the two largest teachers unions in the U.S. -- issued formal statements supporting racial justice protests on college campuses, taking a stance for comprehensive immigration reform, campaigning to end bullying, supporting parent-led hunger strikes for community schools in Chicago, supporting marriage equality, advocating for access to healthcare, expressing grief in the face of national tragedies, supporting increased access to community college, condemning bigotry against Syrian refugees, and recognizing the value of affirmative action in higher education. [National Education Association Press Center, accessed 12/14/15; American Federation of Teachers Press Releases, accessed 12/14/15]
State Newspaper Editorial Boards Ignored The Facts To Attack Teachers Unions
ATTACK: The Buffalo News Repeatedly Claimed Teachers Unions Want To Maintain "The Wretched, Costly, Dysfunctional Status Quo" At The Expense Of Student Outcomes
Buffalo News: Teachers Union Pushing Back On Standardized Tests "Have Shown No Real Concern For The Kind Of Education That New York Provides To Its Students." In an April editorial discussing teacher union support for the growing movement in New York state for students to opt out of taking standardized tests, 5 Attacks Against Teachers Unions By State Newspapers In 2015 | Research | Media Matters for America:
