The Book on Teachers' Unions
by John C. Bowman
The most thoroughly researched book on teachers unions is clearly Myron Lieberman's classic 1997 opus The Teachers' Unions: How the NEA and AFT Sabotage Reform and Hold Students, Parents, Teachers, and Taxpayers Hostage to Bureaucracy Dr. Lieberman, chairman of the Education Policy Institute in Washington, DC is a former candidate for AFT president and is a lifetime member of the NEA. He has been involved with the AFT and NEA as a convention delegate and consultant for nearly a half-century.
Terry Moe in the Washington Post stated "Myron Lieberman has spent his adult life working in and around schools, studying them with care and intensity, and producing a steady stream of books and articles that challenge conventional wisdom and the powers that protect it."
According to Dr. Lieberman, the major problem our schools face is not class size, poor teacher pay, dilapidated buildings, or even "dumbed-down" curriculum. The chief obstacle to reform is a pair of powerful and well-entrenched organizations, the National Educational Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the most powerful forces in public education today. Every elected official in America responsible for any aspect of our educational spending, should be required to read The Teachers' Unions before they spend another taxpayer dime.
Dr. Lieberman shows how the teachers' unions raise and spend vast sums to maintain their power over education and to push a narrow political agenda. These organizations have over three million members and their local, state, and national revenues exceeded $1 billion annually, not counting their PACs, foundations, and wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries, which they use to maintain the status quo. Myron Lieberman explains how these unions raise and spend vast amount of their member's money. Parents and teachers will discover how these unions protect the power and perquisites of more than 6,000 officers and staff. Taxpayers will be shocked to discover how teacher unions employ more full-time political staff that the Democratic and Republican parties combined.
Myron Lieberman's unrivaled view discloses the inside workings of teacher unions, which is denied to most casual observers. He provides information on how the unions came to be, their evolution over time, and their agendas and activities. Teachers will be stunned to learn how the unions suppress dissension 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.
The Teachers' Unions raises the valid question how do the unions maintain their power? What are the threats to this power? How do unions deal with these threats? It is Lieberman's opinion that the greatest fear of unions and their biggest threat is competition. "The NEA and AFT conventions feature attacks on 'profits' and 'corporate greed' that could easily pass for a series of speeches at a Communist Party convention" according to the author. He added: "Hunger, child labor, inadequate health care, malnutrition---whatever the problem, 'corporate profits' and greed are either responsible for it, or stand in the way of ameliorating it."
This unwarranted fear of competition could potentially harm teacher retirement funds. At their 1994 convention, the NEA voted to lobby the state retirement plans to divest from, and refrain from investing in, for-profit companies that provide services to school districts. The resolution also urged divestment of companies that advertise on Channel One. Leading companies such as McDonald's, Pepsi Cola, Reebok, Proctor & Gamble, Associated Newspaper Holding, Phillips Electronics and Time Warner have been targeted. Weakening teacher pension funds to avoid competition could cause all teachers, not only their members, "substantial losses."
Dr. Lieberman’s solution for teachers is unmistakably direct: teachers would be better served by professional organizations that cost far less because they do not support an affluent union bureaucracy and do not commit resources to a political agenda opposed by rank-and-file teachers. Dr. Lieberman position is clear. In order for significant school reform to take place, we need teacher organizations that focus on educational improvement and teacher welfare, not social engineering.
Few researchers have the background and necessary understanding to expose the threat teacher unions poses to all the stakeholders of our public school system like Myron Lieberman. I highly recommend The Teachers' Unions: How the NEA and AFT Sabotage Reform and Hold Students, Parents, Teachers, and Taxpayers Hostage to Bureaucracy to all serious education reformers.
Tennessee teachers are fortunate to have a professional teachers association here in the state, Professional Educators of Tennessee. To discover more about teachers unions and to keep up with their agenda look at works by the following, including Lieberman colleague and EPI president Charlene Haar, Public Service Research Foundation president David Denholm, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution Senior Fellow David Kirkpatrick, National Right to Work President Reed Larson, and Education Intelligence Agency Executive Director Mike Antonucci. All of these education analysts have done a tremendous service for taxpayers by continually exposing the various agenda of the teacher unions.