Created to exist as an educational alternative free from the bureaucracy of district public schools and the special interests of teachers unions, charter schools were once a unique educational model.
Now, with charter teachers in numerous states pushing to unionize, these schools are backsliding to resemble traditional district public schools. As of the 2016-2017 academic year, over 11 percent of charter schools permitted unions and 62 percent of all unionized charters were within four states: California, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Ohio.
Moreover, a concerted push exists today for even more charter school unionization efforts. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of unionized charters in California increased from 122 to 245, from 9 to 32 in Illinois, and from 36 to 48 in Maryland.
When charter schools unionize, most teachers join either the National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, or both. Some, such as teachers in Chicago, join their local union – Chicago Teachers Union – as well.
The irony? National and local teachers unions alike have worked to destroy charter schools and school choice options since the creation of these schools.
NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia recently stated that “handing over students’ education to privately managed, unaccountable charters jeopardizes student success, undermines public education and harms communities.”
Despite the fact that there are 14,000 children on the waiting list for New York City’s well-known and widely renowned charter school Success Academy, Eskelsen Garcia believes that charter schools must “prove they are necessary.”
Similarly, AFT President Randi Weingarten has made historically uninformed statements that schools of choice are racist, or in her words, “slightly more polite cousins of segregation,” despite the fact that they were created to better serve minority students and closing racial achievement gaps.
Finally, the Chicago Teachers Union recently required a moratorium against the growth of charter schools and the number of students able to be enrolled in each one.
In the past year, more than 7,000 charter schools educated more than 3.2 million students nationwide. They are educating the students that public school districts have failed and left behind. For many of these students, especially those living in high poverty, inner-city school districts, their neighborhood public school is not a viable option.
Charter schools must consider holding true to the principles underlying their founding. It is these that render them free to innovate and meet students needs in ways traditional school districts cannot.
Entangling themselves with the unions who have publicly pledged to destroy them is senseless.
Editor’s note: In some states, like Maryland, charter schools are required by law to unionized.
