 The
Teachers' Unions: How the NEA and AFT Sabotage Reform and Hold Students,
Parents, Teachers, and Taxpayers Hostage to Bureaucracy
by Myron Lieberman
From The Publisher:
Everyone wants to reform public
education in America. But few realize that the principal obstruction to
all reform is a pair of powerful and well-entrenched organizations: the
National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers
(AFT). The NEA and AFT enroll over three million members. Their local,
state, and national revenues exceed $1 billion annually, not counting their
PACs, foundations, and wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries. In this
unprecedented exposé, Myron Lieberman shows how they raise and spend
vast amounts, how they protect the power and perquisites of more than 6,000
officers and staff, and how they employ more full-time political staff
that the Democratic and Republican parties combined. Teachers will be shocked
to learn how the unions stifle dissent within their ranks, how union bureaucrats
enjoy a standard of living few teachers could hope to achieve, and how
union national political activities are far removed from most teachers'
interests or political preferences.
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly:
The subtitle of this penetrating
study of teacher unionization in the United States is an apt summation.
Lieberman, who was chief negotiator in over 200 contracts between unions
and school districts and one-time president of the AFT, underwent a change
of heart when he decided that "collective bargaining in public education
is inconsistent with democratic, representative government." Marshaling
extensive research to support his personal experience, he shapes a picture
of the nation's only teacher unions, the giant NEA (National Education
Association) and the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) as behemoths
far removed from their founding premises. Lieberman's criticism of the
unions, as well as of the unions' critics, takes aim at many union stances:
political endorsements and contributions, opposition to school vouchers
and tuition tax credits, etc. Cited, as well, is the paradox of union impact
on teacher quality and student achievement, both of which are in apparent
decline. He includes positive proposals for alternative types of unions,
proposals that deserve the immediate attention of anyone concerned about
the proposed merger of NEA and AFT in 1998. (Sept.)
|
