Perhaps most people would be surprised to learn that public school teachers are part of the biggest union in America, which is the National Education Association (NEA). The fact that those that are public school employees are overwhelmingly part of that union, makes for not only an impressive number of members at 3 million peoples, but also provides that union with the corresponding power of that numerical strength to often get favorable results for its members.
In an era in which union membership and union power is in steep decline, the teaching profession, is one area in which union strength has maintained its strength in recent years. As in many things, there are both positives and negatives to having a strong union, of which, depending upon a given person’s viewpoint, this leads to different perspectives and different opinions. For instance, because teachers are public employees, they usually are restricted in their option of going out on strike, for their duty to educate children, in theory, outweighs their right to strike; as well as the salient fact that many State governments and localities, have specific restrictions limiting such. Still, those members of a union, understand well, that the threat of a walkout, or sick out, or a strike, are valuable tools in any negotiation, whether, strictly legal or not. Additionally, teachers have often a strong incentive to try to increase their salary and their overall benefit package, in recognition not only of the ill effects of inflation to their income when such does not keep up with same, but also in response to the need for competitive salaries to be provided to teachers, in order to obtain and to retain good quality teachers.
While, in general, the taxpaying public, doesn’t begrudge a fair salary being paid to teachers, they at the same time, aren’t all that interested in having their taxes raised directly or indirectly to pay for such, and therefore they are prone to desiring to see that teachers and that schools, are held accountable to the results and the test scores of the students that make up that body, of which, poor and unsatisfactory results, often signify to parents, that the teachers are not doing their job appropriately or well. Additionally, in an era in which private enterprise has basically vacated pensions for their workers, and therefore forces those employees to save for their own retirement through alternatives such as a 401k, there thus is for a significant swath of taxpayers, some resentment to not only the pensions so being paid to teachers, but also to the fact that teachers work, at least on paper, significantly fewer hours than the general taxpayer does.
The thing is though, that even though the teaching profession has a very strong union, and seems to provide its members with often not only a good salary, good benefits, as well as a robust pension, that the turnover rate of those so qualified and thereby educated to be teachers, are subsequently found to be leaving the profession, at a disturbing rate that is surprisingly high. This would presuppose that within the teaching profession, itself, that the conditions so of, are often troubling, unsatisfactory, unrewarding, stressful, upsetting, and stifling; which is disconcerting not only for teachers, but also for the underachieving students in school as well as their disappointed parents.