By Michael Dunn of the Modern School Blog
The animosity toward teachers unions is created by the ruling elite and spread to everyone else through PR, lobbying and the media. It makes perfect sense from their perspective.
Weaken the teachers' unions and you:
(1) open the doors to $3 trillion in public education spending that becomes available to private business
(2) erode what's left of the union movement and thus drive down wages for everyone else
(3) kill one of the only remaining interests with sufficient resources to compete with private business in elections, thus increasing their political power and their ability to squeeze ever more profits out of the rest of us
Why so many of the rest of us buy into the anti-teacher/anti-union rhetoric is a little more baffling, but not really.
Unions have done a terrible job of defending our interests. Over the last 30 years, our wages have steadily declined, while our working hours and responsibilities have increased. Meanwhile, unemployment is still high and those who don't have jobs are needing a year or longer to find one. People are anxious about their material security. They want an easy bogeyman and the bosses have given them one with the teachers unions.
It is much easier to hate those of similar status and power than to fight those who are the real cause of one's misery.
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