Posted by
Lee Culpepper on Tuesday, April 10, 2007 10:03:40 AM
By Lee Culpepper - Staff WriterRecently,
I heard from an accomplished educator, a math teacher at an excellent
charter school in Scottsdale, Arizona; his name is Thomas. Thomas
agrees with many problems I address concerning education, but we don’t
agree completely on teachers’ unions.
I
assert that teachers’ unions inflict more harm than good, and Thomas
concedes that unions are a problem, but he proposes the following:
“While I agree with most of your argument, your portrayal of the unions
is not entirely correct. Remember, this country was founded on the
fledgling concept of ‘united we stand, divided we fall.’ Since
management holds most of the power, labor needs to unite. Teacher pay
is abysmal yet is much higher due to the unions. So, I think you are
over simplifying the union’s conscious contribution to the problems you
discuss.”