Public schools captured the nation’s attention over the past school year thanks to massive “walk-outs” in five states, where teachers went on strike for higher wages. With the school year coming to an end, it’s time to call out the real obstacle to higher teacher wages — unions.
The largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association, supported and drove these protests in a supposed effort to fight for fair treatment. However, these protests really just hurt students seeking to learn. In essence, because we’re in one of the largest teacher shortages in history, there shouldn’t be a salary crisis nor mass-scale protests.
The real reason teachers’ wages aren’t rising faster is that the National Education Association and its affiliates prevent teachers like me from negotiating for ourselves, and demand ridiculous fees.
First, we have to ask: Are teachers even underpaid?
Detractors insist that because teachers are contracted to work just 40 hours a week and have two months off during the summer, the average starting pay of just under $40,000 seems reasonable. However, teachers often work beyond their contracted hours: A 2012 survey showed that teachers work 53 hours on average per week, and work one of the two summer months. The average bachelor’s degree holder gets a starting salary of $49,000, so teachers are paid relatively less.
As a result, many teachers look to the unions to solve their salary problems. Yet the union does little for teachers except take $800 to $1,200 out of their pocket each year in exchange for minimal representation and little actual improvement.
Why, as a teacher, would I join the union and pay heavy fees when I’m already not making enough? If you work in one of the 24 states that do not allow you to work as a teacher without paying union fees, you are stuck paying the dues and keeping your mouth shut, lest you face retribution. However, if you work in one of the 26 states that allow you to work freely without union membership, you have a much more powerful bargaining chip to fight for a raise — the teacher shortage. In the 2017-18 academic year, there was demand for 110,000 more new teachers than were available.
This teacher shortage makes “walk-outs” for better pay completely misguided. As demand for teachers increases, the price for our services will too, if we play our cards right. The best time to renegotiate contracts and “walk” should be in the summer months, when teachers are not under contract. School systems simply do not have the teachers to fill the missing positions, and will be forced to improve our contracts with minimal impact on students’ learning.
Furthermore, this approach is also completely legal, as by choosing not to renew a contract, you are simply stating that your pay is not good enough and wages must increase to hire you back for another year. This isn’t holding the state hostage (as a “walk-out” while under contract would be) it’s just the free market at work.
As a fairly young teacher who has worked in several states, I have seen the effects both right-to-work policies and forced union laws have on educators. One thing is clear to me: If teachers are underpaid, then we should cancel our contracts and seek better ones. Our schools don’t owe us more than what we signed and agreed to work for. Ultimately, joining fellow educators independently during a teacher shortage is a better way to fight for the salary we deserve than any union-led walkout.
Anthony Kinnett is a biology teacher in Indiana and columnist for Lone Conservative.
