Charter Schools and Teacher Unions Cannot Be Juxtaposed

Here is the story that appeared in Chicago Tribune a couple of days ago. It is basically about how unions undermine the charters' success as is seen in the example of Chicago Math and Science Academy, what they assume to be one of the gulen charter schools. Freedom is the watchword of the charters success. What Chicago Tribune states is absolutely true.

As is known, teachers union sends some teachers as Trojans to conquer the charters from within. When they conquer one charter, they send the same teachers to another one. Union teachers do not work for the sake of children, but the union itself. They do not concern about the education of children. If the union supporting teachers are really interested in unions, then there are mahy public schools over there in which union is effective.

CMSA parents cordially want to thank to the editors for this brilliant article. Here it is:

Charter trouble,  5:12 PM CDT, March 16, 2011


  Teachers at the Chicago Math and Science Academy, a charter school on Chicago's North Side, want to unionize. Normally, that wouldn't be much of a story. Most teachers belong to unions.
But not most teachers at charter schools. Charters were created in the 1990s to be innovative and to put the needs of kids before those of the adults. They were set up expressly not to be bound by the stultifying union rules that dictate nearly every minute of every day in Chicago public schools. That's why the law that created charters effectively barred the Chicago Teachers Union from organizing the employees.
But with CTU's help, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers created a separate union, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, to organize employees campus by campus. So far, they've succeeded on eight of Chicago's 103 charter campuses: About 350 to 380 teachers of 2,200 have joined.
That's unfortunate because union rules pose a threat to charters' independence. Charters generally set longer days and hours that boost student performance. They are wildly popular with students and parents, and tend to have long waiting lists of applicants. Charters show how, with dedicated teachers and the right atmosphere, any student can learn. All of that is a direct challenge to the status quo that the unions defend.
If charter school teachers join the union, the risks are steep that those schools will eventually slide into the same kind of adults-first, innovation-squelching morass that produced the last 232-page contract between Chicago Public Schools and its unionized employees.
That's why the stakes are so high in the Math and Science Academy case. The crux: Are charter school teachers private employees of the charter operator? Or are they public workers, like CPS teachers? That distinction is crucial. Private employees must organize under stringent federal rules, which require a secret vote for teachers to join a union.
The regional office of the National Labor Relations Board ruled last year that the teachers are public employees who can organize under more lenient state rules. The ruling noted that the teachers work for a school financed largely by public money, and that a 2009 Illinois law explicitly said those teachers can organize under state rules.
The ruling, and the 2009 state law, are being challenged by the Chicago Math and Science Academy. Its lawyers argue that academy teachers are private employees who don't work for a public agency but rather a private charter operator, and therefore must organize under the stringent federal rules.
About that 2009 state law: We supported it because it included an increase in the number of charter schools that could be started in the state. But the price for that — making it easier for unions to organize charter teachers — is coming due. And it is too steep. Illinois instead needs to boost charter independence and innovation.
Lawmakers can start by repealing the 2009 clause that makes it easier for unions to organize charter teachers. They also should equalize funding for charters, so that public school districts can't shortchange them, as they do now.
And charter operators can be smart, too: Pay teachers competitively, offer them training and a strong voice in how to improve instruction and student performance. That's the best way to ensure that charters — and students — flourish.
Illinois needs to help good charters thrive, not choke them with union rules.
Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-charter-20110316,0,1140682.story