I consumed an inordinate amount of amazing food yesterday. I understand the need to wait, and I look forward to your reply.
So a few thoughts on why I support a teacher's union:
Let's start with what they most recently have accomplished: Proposition 30 gave significant funding back to California schools. It was Jerry Brown's hope to prevent significant furlough days, prevent larger class sizes, and provide more funding to the schools. The advertisements were paid for in part by the teacher's union dues. This action alone kept your wife in the classroom for a few more weeks this year and I'm sure put over a thousand more dollars into your wife's bank account.
When I signed my paperwork to teach in a public school, I was asked if I was joining voluntarily. I signed that I was, but I was surprised that California isn't a Right To Work state. I could guess the point was to show how many union members would join if given the choice.
In my experience, the union was always helpful. The first school I taught in was closed due to budget cuts. It was located near Candlestick Park and most of the students were in public housing. There were a lot of young teachers at the school who were well-trained and eager, and the union made sure we had preferential hiring in openings in other schools. That was helpful because some principals would have just gone off of test scores and assumed the teachers weren't effective. When I was younger I had a principal make Saturday school mandatory for students and teachers. Eventually a conversation with union heads educated the younger staff on the limits of what a principal can make mandatory.
At another point, I had a principal who set up not only daily meetings during work time, but also two afternoon meetings a week that would often last over three hours. The union stepped in and made sure that he followed the contract for meeting times or else we had a right to overtime. About a year later Obama's plan for "under-performing schools" came out. Arnie Duncan offered millions of dollars to school districts if schools at the "under-performing schools" made changes to half of their staff. The rule included schools with English Language Learners, so a school where the majority of students do not speak English yet was a casualty. I was asked to be one of the teachers who stays, but most of the staff would be Teach For America kids and they were talking about mandatory extra hours and Saturday schools again. With a wife and kid at home, I didn't want to deal with it all over again. The union made sure I was given preferential treatment in switching schools. Now I teach in the same neighborhood I live, and it's the only middle school to win the Distinguished School Award in town.
So, in my experience, the union has been extremely helpful in making sure that teachers have not been victimized when politics and budget cuts want to demonize the teacher for issues out of their control. I am aware that they aren't perfect and they have some crooked aspects to what they do, but they aren't one tenth as underhanded than the politicians who are entrusted the care of schools.
I'd sign the paper to be a union member all over again, despite the flaws.
