Doctoral student Jennifer Ruef describes in an op-ed the consequences of Wisconsin's decision to eliminate collective bargaining: Teachers have less time to prepare for class.
You may have heard the argument that unions protect bad teachers. If they do, it is because they protect all teachers — the vast majority of whom are excellent, trained professionals in the art and craft of teaching.
Teachers unions also protect students.
Let’s start with the work that unions do for teachers. Among many other things, they protect working conditions:
- The duty-free lunch period.
- Caps on class size and the number of classes taught.
- Guaranteed time to grade papers and prepare lessons.
- Limits on extracurricular duties, such as lunch or playground supervision.
In the recent past, these working conditions for Wisconsin teachers were agreed on between teachers unions, which are made of teachers, and school district administration, made of administrators. The removal of unions from the process leaves decisions about working conditions solely in the hands of people who are responsible for budgets, and rarely in direct contact with the work of classroom teaching.
Read the entire story at the Wisconsin State Journal website.
