In Wisconsin - in February of 2011, tens of thousands of protesters descended on the capital, Madison, to protest an extreme Union-Busting Bill aimed at reducing the power of that State’s Teacher Unions.  Ultimately those protests failed, but they were a remarkable display of Worker Solidarity and Middle Class Organizing.  Largely, this was because they involved Teachers who remain one of the best organized workforces in the Country.

More recently, in Tacoma, Washington Teachers went on strike in order to secure slightly smaller class sizes and rebuke a pay cut aimed at closing a shortfall in the district budget.  The strike ended recently, with both sides getting some of what they wanted.

I’ve wrestled a great deal with the question of Organized Labor, especially in the realm of Public Education.  There’s a strong contingent on the right and the left that believes that essentially all of the flaws in our Public School System stem from a combination of government inefficiency and Union recalcitrance.  

Some people in the reform movement believe the only way to affect reform is to sidestep or abolish Teachers Unions.

Many left-leaning school reformers believe this largely as a last resort.  These are typically liberals who believe in Public Education, but have become frustrated with what they see as Union resistance to much-needed reforms.  

There is no doubt that Unions oppose many reforms.

The question is, should they?

Much of the time, I think they should.

Many right-leaning reformers, and some liberals as well, are simply in the business of Union-Busting, seeking to dismantle a powerful political opponent while ushering for-profit schools in through the side door, and handing out lucrative contracts to political allies in the private sector.

For a good example of this second camp, go to Scott Walker’s Wisconsin, or follow Michelle Rhee around the Country - to Florida, Nevada, or wherever she is voicing her support for Union-Busting at the moment.

Right or left, this is essentially the neo-liberal approach to school reform.  Technocratic, choice-based, with a troubling dose of private, for-profit groups thrown into to the mix.

Mayor Bloomberg’s New York Schools are a perfect example of technocratic, anti-democratic leadership at the top, coupled with private contractors, high-stakes testing companies, and Union-Busting advocacy groups working from the ground up.

Of course, the word “reform” when juxtaposed with “education” is not in and of itself a bad thing.  I believe that some ideas in the school reform movement have potential and that there is a real chance that experimenting with how schooling is delivered could have some real benefits.

If we can find ways to deliver education to the most underserved communities in this Country, that alone would be a huge step forward.

And as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t find every argument on the “anti-reform” side all that compelling either - Nobody is on the side of angels all the time.

Then again, a good charter school is more like a band-aid than it is a structural fix.  

Worse, some charters could serve as Trojan horses, chartered with the best of intentions, but then funded by donors with an Anti-Union agenda, and paraded in the media as reformer avatars.

A lot of money goes into these schools – quite a lot more than was being funneled from private coffers into the traditional public schools.  

This says nothing about the people running these schools who are more than likely doing it for the right reasons, but why have these very deep pockets suddenly opened up not to traditional public schools but to the charter school movement?  

Surely there’s a reason.

Nor do all school choice efforts live up to their promises.  

Vouchers have been met not only with public disappointment, but with few if any real benefits.

Most charters haven’t fared much better and for-profit schools come packaged with all sorts of other troubling implications for the future of our public - or should I say “public” - education system.

Do we want to transform our elementary and high schools into little dopplegangers of College of America or the University of Phoenix?

Teachers Unions are not always right.

No group is.

But they represent a Democratic approach to our Public Education System, and if we push them out and usher in an age of for-profit on-line schools, cheaper labor, and funnel all those saved tax dollars back in the pockets of the wealthiest Americans, we may as well kiss our Public Schools goodbye.

I support Teachers Unions not because they’re a model of efficiency or because they are always right or because I think there is no need for reform – I believe that the Unions can be inefficient, they can be wrongheaded, they can oppose change unnecessarily.

No, I support Teachers Unions because they are the best chance this Country has to improve and strengthen Public Education for the long haul. 

No other organization will step in to protect Teachers from political blowback and the reform-trend-of-the-moment.

The Gates Foundation may have its heart in the right place, but the big foundations can’t protect Teachers from slashed budgets or political retribution.

Charity-propelled education reform may very well be a sincere effort, but in the process its leaders have offered up a lot of bad choices for Teachers.

Too often charity reform translates into little more than corporate reform.

Teachers are on the front lines of the fight to keep America’s egalitarian system of public education public. 

Faux privatization schemes and for-profit schools threaten to undermine the system itself in the name of choice.

But what about Democracy?

What about a system built around the ethic of society rather than that of the individual?

To Read This Labor News Story in its Entirety, Go to: www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/09/28/why-i-support-the-teachers-unions/