Virginia Does Just Fine Without Teacher Unions; Take It National
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What is this? A state that does not have teacher unions and is actually managing to survive. From CNS News:
Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell said his state has “managed well” without teacher’s unions.
“We banned public sector bargaining 20 years ago in Virginia,” McDonnell said on Tuesday. “If you’re a manager, you take care of your people, you motivate them, you make sure they’re compensated well, you treat people fairly – I think that’s the right approach in the public or private sector, and really it kind of minimizes the need for a union,” he said.
“We got very powerful teachers’ associations in Virginia, they’re not a union per se, but they have a lot of influence – they bring good ideas to the table,” he said.
McDonnell and other governors spoke Tuesday at a discussion in Washington, D.C., about an effort endorsed by the Obama administration to prevent kids from dropping out of high school.
While the commonwealth has “managed very well without” a teachers’ union, McDonnell said, the “input” of the teachers associations, which represent a large group of professionals, “is helpful.”
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, said it is the people managing the unions who are at fault for not getting the job done.
Both governors were asked if they regard teachers unions as an ally or an impediment to school reform.
“We don’t go into this [student performance measurement] endeavor with the view that teachers are the enemy, that unions must be destroyed, collective bargaining is bad,” O’Malley said. “Look, we’re either going to work together to improve student achievement for our kids or you’re going to have to find something else to do.
“A lot of times we have found that managers, not only in our public school systems, but throughout government, use collective bargaining and work rules as an excuse for not doing their job as managers – to write people up and to fire them when they’re not performing,” he said…
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