. . . but not to teach, unfortunately. Louisiana recently passed a bill to expand school vouchers for kids in failing schools. The teachers unions are not big fans of the initiative. The opening legal salvo of one of the state's largest teachers union (together with 47 local affiliates) is a lawsuit seeking an injunction on state constitutional grounds. The lawsuit flopped at the initial stage but will go up on appeal.
As a backup strategy, the union has sent threatening letters to the private schools that expect to receive voucher funds, asking them to return a letter acknowledging that there are serious constitutional problems with receiving the money, and promising to refuse to accept it for the time being. Otherwise, of course, the union threatens them with a lawsuit as well.
Competition is uncomfortable.
It's curious how an organization of people who are (mostly) devoted to one cause can wind up stepping off on its own in opposition to that cause. Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, I suppose. Most of the teachers I know valued teaching. The union does not.
ReplyDeleteNo, they don't. We were just talking to one of the teachers at my children's school the other day (the kids are friends) and we asked if she was still the Union Shop rep- she had inherited the position from a retiring very pro-union teacher. She was funny- she hates being the rep, and likened being into the Union to being in a religion. Believe me, she's not particularly a conservative either.
ReplyDeleteSo, we really aren't surprised that when a plan like this is proposed, the Union's response is to make threats, are we? It's what they do best.