PIE Network Guest

Moderator Doug Tuthill knows firsthand about how teachers unions have evolved—he was president of two local teacher unions beginning in 1978, and helped form the Teacher Union Reform Network in 1995. He said unions were created primarily to protect teachers from being harassed and exploited by political monopolies (i.e., school districts). This protection was particularly important given teaching was historically a female profession with male managers. “Deep in the DNA of teachers’ unions is protecting teachers from management,” Tuthill said. “But rather than only continuing to protect teachers from a dysfunctional political monopoly, unions need to begin using their power to transform this system.”

Tuthill said the current union business model is very financially and politically lucrative, therefore, unions don’t want to change it. “From the union perspective, a dysfunctional district is okay because that’s how the union makes money; protecting teachers from bad management and a dysfunctional system,” he said.

Teacher empowerment vs. union control

Union leaders are willing to make small compromises and engage in reform rhetoric, said Tuthill, but until its business model changes, the union has no incentive to embrace true systemic reform.

“The Achilles’ heel of unionism is individual teacher empowerment,” said Tuthill. He said unions tell teachers they don’t need to be individually empowered, but teachers have a natural desire for more personal control over their work environment.

Unfortunately many teachers end up getting disillusioned or frustrated by the existing system, according to Tuthill. “Good teachers often become poor teachers and lose their passion for excellence after being disempowered for several years,” he said. “They lose hope but they are stuck because it’s hard to walk away from a good pension and benefits.”

Tuthill said the current system often destroys good teachers. “There are extraordinary people who do extraordinary things and make systemic improvements,” he said. “But when they leave the system, the gravitational pull of the status quo pulls the system back to the way it was and these improvements dissipate.”

An audience member asked what reformers who believe in professionalizing teachers more can do. “Find win-win solutions,” answered Tuthill. “Offer improvements that teachers can embrace.” Tuthill predicted that teachers and their unions are going to become more conservative and entrenched given the current pace of systemic change in public education. However, he noted positive trends, such as in Minnesota, which recently approved the expansion of Teach For America thanks in part to local union leaders who “stuck their necks out.” For Tuthill, the question is how to provide political cover and support for those union leaders who are willing to embrace true systemic improvement.

Finding common ground

“There is new pressure on union leaders to change slash and burn tactics,” said John Luczak of The Joyce Foundation. He said there is more unrest these days in the ranks of union leadership ranks and leaders are more willing now to consider reforms because of budget reality and younger teachers.

In response to a question on whether younger teachers are being served well, Luczak said, most delegates at union meetings are older and in New York State, retired teachers are even allowed to vote in union matters. An audience member noted that many members of the reform group Educators for Excellence are younger.

Luczak suggested advocates and policy makers should work directly with teachers and principals to find areas of common ground. “We know what the challenges are, we need to figure out the win-win touch points,” he said.

It’s also important to have multiple actors in the space, according to Luczak. “Union involvement and counter proposals in Illinois made that legislation better,” he said, citing the recent Center for American Progress Report, “Illinois Bill Exemplifies Groundbreaking Education Reform.” “We need collaborative relations as well as pressure,” he said. “As larger systemic changes happen, unions will have to change their system too, but we’re a long ways from there.”

Communication is critical, said Luczak. “Policy makers need to tell teachers why new evaluation systems are going to be good for them,” he said, adding that it’s difficult to get teacher buy-in unless they understand how changes will help them improve their performance. For example, he said, teachers need to understand evaluations will target professional development.

Moving to a new business model for unions

In discussing how the business model of unions might change, Tuthill said in Florida there has been a dramatic outflow of students from the traditional system to charters, vouchers, tax credit and McKay scholarships and online education. “The union is losing market share in terms of students and teachers, so that may create an incentive to change,” said Tuthill. He said teacher unions may shift from an industrial collective bargaining model to something more like the AARP or the NRA. As an example of a new business model that unions might embrace, Tuthill suggested unions might someday hire and then “lease” teachers to school districts rather than having the districts hire them.

“Public education is moving to a post-industrial model of schooling and unions have to figure out how to transition to a post-industrial model of unionism,” said Tuthill. “The struggle to deal with this transformation is creating the huge conflict we’re seeing right now.”