Think teachers can’t be fired because of unions? Surprising results from new study.
How many times have you heard it said it is impossible to fire a teacher with tenure?
Not only do politicians and policymakers say it, but, it turns out, so do people like Whoopi Goldberg. On her TV talk show “The View” in 2014, she said: “Parents are not going to stand for it anymore,” she said. “And you teachers, in your union, you need to say, ‘These bad teachers are making us look bad.’”
Those who think tenured teachers can’t be fired may be interested in new research by Eunice Han, who has a PhD in economics from Harvard University and who spent the past three years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. (You can read the report, “The Myth of Unions’ Overprotection of Bad Teachers,” below.)
Han, who will join the economics faculty at the University of Utah in the fall, found that “highly unionized districts actually fire more bad teachers.” That’s what she told Jennifer Berkshire, author of the Edushyster website, where this originally appeared. Berkshire, who gave me permission to publish this, is a freelance journalist and public education advocate who worked for six years editing a newspaper for the American Federation of Teachers in Massachusetts.
Certainly there are teachers working today in America’s public schools who shouldn’t be, but the new research sheds new light on unions and tenure. Here’s the interview:
EduShyster: It’s a well-known true fact that teachers unions make it much harder to get rid of bad teachers. But you conducted a study for the National Bureau of Economic Research that purports to find the opposite. In fact, you titled your study “The Myth of Unions’ Overprotection of Bad Teachers.” Tell us about what you found.
Eunice Han: What I found is that the facts are the opposite of what people think: that highly Think teachers can’t be fired because of unions? Surprising results from new study. - The Washington Post: