The Role of the Labour Unions in the Field of Education - Research Proposal Example

Introduction Labor unions marked its feat in negotiating contract, welfare, interests and obligations to balance the challenges of pubic education. The movements have historic impacts to teachers’ lives, schools, children, and to the educational system with increasing recognition of policymakers to the independence of teachers’ union in decision-making and in collective bargaining on issues that directly affect them. It is however noted that as teachers union evolved into a powerful institution in the last decades and that they have accumulated substantial amounts of resources from contributions which has been severely criticized as misappropriated to political ends, such us funding campaigns and candidates during election. This observation is illustrated by many critics amid facts that American educational system is ailing and in serious crisis. Researcher will review studies on labor union and contextualized it with a specific high school in San Antonio, Texas. It will also delve how union affected the group of teachers that are affiliated with Reserve Training center as well as propose how to strategize teachers’ union performance to optimize its roles, values, and morals toward genuine education development to partly contribute in resolving the national crisis in education. Researcher will make use of narrative and positivist interpretivism in unraveling the issue at hand using secondary resources from journals, books and online websites. Towards the end, the researcher will also present some recommendations relating to teachers’ union performance management to uphold quality education. In so doing, researcher will also take into account opinions of staunch critics of the labor union which perceived teachers union as monolithic for espousing self-interest and thus they advocated about improving the educational system by relinquishing it from the reign of teachers’ union control (Moe, 2006). Researcher utilizes resources relating to labor union, theories of human resource management and strategic performance management. Labor Unions American labor union had its teleological beginning with its fight against slavery in 1820 (Isaac and Griffin, 1989). The struggle persisted for decades until in 1882 where an estimated 10,000 workers assembled in New York to first celebrate and assert their fundamental rights for better working conditions (Isaac and Griffin, 1989). In 1885 to 1886, municipal legislation for labor rights was seriously considered by lawmakers. Their first raging demand was to enjoy an 8-hour job and just compensation. The achievement of major feat is commemorated annually in Labor Day celebration as tribute for those who have contributed for the well-being of American laborers (Isaac and Griffin, 1989). Many of these rights and welfare of century of struggles are now reflected in the annals of legislation and state policies relating to labor. The labor laws basically aimed at affording protection to workers’ full employment and equal opportunities regardless of sex, race and creed as well as provide regulation of employee and workers relations. After centuries of struggle, labor forces recently are increasingly concern on protecting their rights either founded on constitutional principles, ideological influence or institutional motivations. This is because the country, which has evolved into a multi-ethnic and multicultural nation, is molded with social structures and practices that are sometimes contrary to workers’ rights or are threatening its welfare. As the civilization evolved, economic borders expand and system complicates, there are historical conjectures which polarized labor union movement and consequentially resulted to emergence of new alliances. This implies serious understanding about the motivations that caused division: self-interest, institutional, or by principles. Some sociologist perceived that although there were leaders of federation of union that are either ideologically and were equipped with organizational expansion but whose management were criticized due to some internal problems affecting members and its coordinative mechanism (Freeman 2006:55-56). Freeman (2006) however thought that divided labor unions could interface their internal problems within a continuum of time noting that unionist and activists with support from lawyers, investigative journalists and angry video documenters, shared historic successes in de-legitimizing and slowing the growth of capitalist’s investments. At times, unionist maybe disappointing, but they are also good at seizing the opportune moment to raise the issue about workers’ demands to increase wages and cope with increasing rates for basic survival (Freeman, 2006: 56). Lafer (2006) on the other hand, argued that the decline of union’s movement is not caused by its internal rift but should be blame on illegal and aggressive treatment and policies of private companies against leaders of union groups, who represented thousand others in decision-making, by illegally firing them from posts because of their radical political views. For Lafer (2006) this is systematic repression by instilling fears to workers. This however should not weaken them as they can still opt for strategic decisions and do good things from both sides of the division. Merill (2006) thought that the split of labor union in America is an offshoot of its structural problem, interplay of forces and the lack of accountability with the working class itself (p. 57). Merill (2006) also posit that groups have varied priorities or corporate services while other unions of immigrant workers were more concerned on the standardizing their working conditions and increasing their wages. He proposed that workers should have a labor sectoral political organization who can advocate for their agenda to improve working conditions, welfare and to popularize the need of generating jobs for the unemployed workforces. While unions uphold their struggle in the streets, which are either historically peacefully or violently ended, their voices are now brought in the legislative and decision-making bodies (Thiebot, 2010). Teachers Union Teachers union is a sectoral aggrupation whose association aimed at upholding education rights and of teachers’ welfare. In America, teachers unionized themselves into American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Assocaition (NEA). AFT is affiliated with a broader union organization-- the AFL-CIO. NEA has corps of directors, dubbed as UniServ, who help teachers in collective bargaining and served as conduits of union’s political messages (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). These teachers stood against education policies and alternative system: (a) charter schools which receives funds from private donations, non-profit groups, and universities but are not charging tuition though operating independently from the rules and regulations for public school; (b) paying teachers on the basis of merit and performance; (c) scholarship for children in failing school districts to attend better or private school which is given by vouchers and awarded like a game of chance; and (d) leaving the choice to parents to decide which school to send their children instead mandating families to send children to school by district (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). The teachers have been viewed as patterned after organized labor groups in industries or companies. It is also criticized that teachers union kept teachers paid even if it’s not doing functions in the district and haven’t cared about children’s need for books and quality teaching (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). Some studies also pointed that the slow-paced hiring process drove bright teachers to other jobs. Quality teachers are not justly compensated and teachers union perpetuated rules that neglect the primacy of serving teachers interests (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). It was further perceived that teachers union eschew salary-based-on-merit because this policy entails new accountabilities. It also connotes possible termination from their profession due to poor performance. Critics further commented that there were school heads that tampered teachers’ evaluation results to prevent their dismissal (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). They also criticized the use of teachers’ union fund for political ends, campaign ads, and for election campaigns in support to extolled politicians. It was pointed that in 2007, NEA utilized $80.5 M, about more than 20% of budget, to fund radical organizations and to non-education related causes (Teachers Union Exposed, 2011; Thiebot, 2010). Critics against unionism perceived that teachers are contributory to the crisis of education because they blocked educational reformation, perpetuated red tape, protected bad teachers and misappropriated teachers fund (Thiebot, 2010). The case of John Jay High School [San Antonio, Texas]  John Jay High School is a public high school established in 1967 (Trulia, 2011). It is located at 7611 Marbach Rd, San Antonio, Texas and is part of the 106 schools under the Northside Independent School District of San Antonio (Trulia, 2011). It is taking care grade 9 to 12 studes (Trulia, 2011). Based on statistics in 2009, it has a total of 2,905 populations of students and has ratio of 1 teacher per 98 students. It has a total of 26 full time teachers with 190 classrooms (Trulia, 2011). Figure 1. John Jay High School enrolment by grade. (Source: Trulia.com, 2011) The school was named after the first Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay (Trulia, 2011). This school has also a magnet school, the John Jay Science and Engineering Academy (Trulia, 2011). Two years ago, the school was rated as "academically acceptable" by Texas Education Agency (TEA). This means that the school has achieved the standard criteria of 60% on TAKS in in Social Studies, Reading/ELA, and Writing as well as 40% on Mathematics. Other standards for schools are 40% on Science, 50% on SDAA II, 75% on Completion Rate. It must also have a minimum of 1.0 % students’ dropout rate (Trulia, 2011). Figure 1. John Jay High School’s Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test score for Grade 11 in subjects English, Math, Science, and Social Science in comparison with TAKS result of Northside Independent School District and of overall Texas. (Source: Trulia.com, 2011) The school is prominent with gifted and talented students covering 10% to 15% of its population (Trulia, 2011). This means that the school is bearing students that are intellectually gifted, of good academic aptitude, talented, creative and productive in visual and performing arts, of leadership ability, and of great psychomotor ability (Trulia, 2011). The school also offered vocational or technical curriculum and special education classes for those special children with mental and/or physical disabilities as well as adult education classes (Trulia, 2011). Figure 3. JJHS offered subjects. (Source: Trulia.com, 2011) The school is situated in a city that has 1.3 million residents, the second-largest city in Texas (San Antonio Business Journal, 2010). It has a multicultural community of Hispanic population, Anglos, and African American population (SABJournal, 2010). San Antonio has 6.08% property crime, which means that it has 0.62 crimes higher than its neighboring cities (SABJournal, 2010). Its household income is at $36,214 median or at a state average of $39,927; family income at $41,331 (median) or at a state average of $45,861. The per capita income is $17,487 median and at $19,617 as state average It is geographically part of a state recently rated with highest average score of 40 measures of competitiveness, including technology, cost of living, economy, education, transportation, infrastructure and innovation (SABJournal, 2010). Business news cable network CNBC TV rated Texas as excellent for business based on the categories: cost of doing business, workforce, economy, education, quality of life, technology and innovation, transportation, cost of living, business friendliness, and access to capital (SABJournal, 2010). From the foregoing information, it can be inferred that San Antonio is a place where educators are relatively living decent lives and are economically blessed with opportunities that contribute to domestic growth. Unions: Impact to School and Reserve Training officers  The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and personnel is composed of teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, transportation employees, plant and food services, police departments and clerical employees who prided themselves as a union that enjoying power, protection and professionalism in their ranks (San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, 2011). Teachers and employees here received a salary of $44,000 to $67,000 depending on degree earned (SAATSP, 2011). They claimed to be advocates for their as teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, clerks, food service employees, counselors, bus drivers, nurses, and diagnosticians and more (SAATSP, 2011). They regularly meet monthly with SAISD administration to take part in decision-makings and to represent the sector in every School Board meeting (SAATSP, 2011). It also provides technical support for new teachers through the Foundations of Effective Teaching Course in partnership with SAISD (SAATSP, 2011). It also provides training for members relating to SAISD policies and systems as well as about conflict mediation (SAATSP, 2011). The union is affiliated with National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the AFL-CIO (SAATSP, 2011). It is also connected with Texas AFT and covered 3,000 members in the SAISD (SAATSP, 2011). Recently, the union is confronting serious concern on budget reduction which may have a consequential result for salary freeze, stoppage of hiring except for teaching positions, leveling of teaching positions viz-a-viz number of enrollment, restructuring of Campus Instructional Support and crafting of plans to grant incentives for early separation (SAATSP, 2011). The restructuring of CIC means elimination of specialists’ positions and establishment of support staff which can be maximized when needed while that incentive program refer to monetary incentive for retiring and resigning employees (SAATSP, 2011). The union lobbied that on matters relating to outsourcing services, the administration should opt to hire existing SAISD employees, maintain the currents salaries and sustain current benefits (SAATSP, 2011). The administration thought to start first to resolve matters relating to budget cuts and how can these be managed in such a way that it will not severely impact students and would not impact schools (SAATSP, 2011). Facing the threats of termination from employment, employees also took measures of advocating the legislation of Education Jobs Fund. They were also raising concerns on administrations lack of support for teachers’ capability-building, discipline referrals and for improved classroom instruction. This issues and how the labor union managed them have seriously impacted to John Jay High’s teachers under the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Course (JROTC) (AFJROTC, 2011). Just as budget cuts affect the entirety of school’s operation, the same implication could also fall on these reserve forces working in this school (AFJROTC, 2011). These training officers are from Holm Center who are managing and directing the Air Forces high school citizenship training program - Air Force Junior ROTC. The institution deals about 869 Air Force Junior ROTC units on high school campuses with the purpose of building better citizens through about 105,500 cadets in America (AFJROTC, 2011). Such include the cadets of John Jay High. They have dual personalities: as teacher for cadet students and as trainer officers of said institution. The budget cuts will also affect their training program and curriculum as well as their mobility relating to community-based programs. Many of their activities are extensive and require supporting resources because part of the opportunities they introduced to students are teambuilding activities, intramurals and field trips, among others (AFJROTC, 2011). These issues can however be laid in a dialogical discourse with union and gather recommendations on how these concerns will be addressed too (AFJROTC, 2011). At the outset, teachers are living instruments in transferring skills and knowledge to children. Long time of neglect has exceedingly made teachers more committed in policing their ranks and interests. While it is true that they are making legitimate demands, there is also a need for them to review unions’ positions and reassess their frameworks objectively to contribute for the improvement of educational system. Strategic Management for Teachers in Union  Coulson (2010) proposed harmonization of interests—thus to provide attention not only on their wages and benefits but also to improve their competence with aptitude and by measuring its performance with standards to sustain standard of quality classroom instruction. They should cease looking at evaluation as threats to their collective bargaining strategies. Source: Coulson, 2010. Coulson (2010) pointed that teachers union’s financial and organizational resources have permitted them to influence election results by supporting Democratic presidential candidates, matters that are obviously outside the domain of the academe. Conservatives and Republican criticized teachers for this political spending that could have been best used to improve classroom instruction, capacitate teachers through trainings and seminars (Couslon, 2010). There might be unexplored reasons why teachers are apt at allocating budget to support candidates during election and such might be related to some policy advocacies that relate to education. This however must be tempered to depoliticize the academe and to regain the ideals, values and morals of unionism that is eroded through time (Thiebot, 2010). Toch (2011) recommends that teachers should change the status quo and accommodate educational reform to enhance educational standard. Toch (2011) thought that teachers must undergo regular performance appraisal as schools are regularly tested to evaluate if it has maintain its standard function as an educational institution. Teachers’ tenure must be met too with its capacity to perform effective classroom instruction (Toch, 2011). He viewed that union must also adopt this measure as part of professionalizing its ranks instead of making teaching profession as a refuge to protect of senior teachers that has not upgraded its system of instruction. For the past decades, teachers across America have won in increasing their salaries and in availing benefits through collective bargaining. The labor intensity also doubled. The downside of these however is that their positive successes have not contributed to the improvement of ailing American educational system that is besieged with problems on lack of classroom instruction materials, facilities, capability building to enhance teachers’ competencies and support mechanism that can improve the system. In this context, the teachers union need to reevaluate their framework and develop responsiveness to educational crisis by extending their resources to address problems in education. Whilst maintaining their protective measures relating to their interests and welfare, it would be wise if part of their resources will be channeled to support students’ scholarship, construction of facilities, improving teachers’ competence and increasing the quality of instruction by supporting other school needs. Teachers must also accommodate reforms in educational system by voluntarily submitting themselves to appraisal to ensure that standard education is availed by students. The appraisal will help identify where they needed improvement in performance for effectiveness and efficiency as well as to enable them to become innovative workers for quality education. The world is fast changing and education need to adapt to changes too to make education adaptive and resilient to social needs and trends. Principals and union leaders must therefore possess deep understanding on strategically managing its human resources to sustain quality and standard educational performance in order to produce graduates that can meet the challenges of the millennium. In the end, the teleology of education is aimed at intellectually transferring knowledge and skills to students; to ensure that education made them useful constituents of the society; and to see them take decisions as purposive individuals. Teachers therefore must realize that there is much to stake for the future of these children and youths rather than the interests of politicians who are siphoning the money of the union for political ends. Conclusion/Recommendations  Education is about hope, dreams, and possibilities. It is more than politics and debates of interests and/or resources political exhumation at its last. The teachers unions truly provided them collective power and strength to protect their vested interests as workers. There is however a need to reflect how these unions can also protect the universal interest of quality education in every American school. As researches proved that millions of resources have been utilized for political ends, why can’t teacher’s union invest for the improvement educational system by providing more scholarships for poor but deserving students? Appropriate for construction of facilities that can aid in standardizing education? Donate for production of textbooks that are much needed in classroom instruction? Allocate resource to improve teachers’ competency? Those million of monies can be wisely used to invest for this generation’s future instead of wasting it on political campaigns that aren’t helping improve the educational system. There is need to challenge the union, as stakeholders of education, to also share and contribute in resolving the crisis. REFERENCES Freeman, Joshua (2006). Split to Win? Assessing the State of the Labor Movement. Symposium. Dissent. Denville, NJ pp. 55-56 Freeman is a professor of history at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He wrote the book Working Class New York: Life and Labor since World War II. Lafer, Gordon (2006). Split to Win? Assessing the State of the Labor Movement. Symposium. Dissent. Denville, NJ pp. 56-57. Lafer is an associate professor at the University of Oregons Labor Education and Research Center. He works for teh democratization of labor laws. Merril, Michael (2006) Split to Win? Assessing the State of the Labor Movement. Symposium. Dissent. Denville, NJ pp 58. Merril is dean of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies at Empire State College/State University of New York. Elaine Ayala (2011). Urban centers of Texas keep packing them in. MySA. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Texas-cities-grow-rural-areas-shrink-1018480.php#ixzz1JrIwimqy Accessed: April 18, 2011 It’s a news story relating to the quantitative development of Texas demography. San Antonio Business Journal (2010). Texas ranks No. 1 for business. American City Business Journals, Inc. Texas, USA. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2010/07/12/daily18.html?ana=from_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bizj_sanantonio+%28San+Antonio+Business+Journal%29 Accessed April 18, 2011. This source details some demographic profile of San Antonio where the John Jay Hish School is located. Teachers Union Exposed (2011). Teachers Unions Oppose Education Reform. Center for Union Facts. http://teachersunionexposed.com/blocking.cfm Accessed: April 18, 2011. This is a website of teachers union in America which discusses thier issues and that provide updates of their activities. Teachers Union Exposed (2011). Watering Down Teacher Evaluations. Center for Union Facts. http://teachersunionexposed.com/teacherevaluations.cfm Accessed: April 18, 2011. This is a website of teachers union in America which discusses thier issues and that provide updates of their activities. Teachers Union Exposed (2011). Political Power. Center for Union Facts. http://teachersunionexposed.com/dues.cfm Accessed: April 18, 2011. This is a website of teachers union in America which discusses thier issues and that provide updates of their activities. San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel (2011). Who are we? San Antonio Alliance Online. http://www.sanantonioalliance.org/Who%20We%20Are.htm. Accessed: April 18, 2011. This is a website of teachers union in America which discusses their issues and that provide updates of their activities. Toch, Thomas (2011). Teacher Unions are Dead! Long Live Teacher Unions! WashingtonView. KappanMagazine.org. USA. Vol. 9: 4 Thomas Toch is executive director of Independent Education, Washington, D.C. This column reflects his personal perspectives. Coulson, Sandrew J (2010). The effects of Teachers Union on American Education. Cato Journal. Cato Institutte. Vol,. 30: 1 pp. 155- 166. Andrew Coulson is director of the Cato Institute Center for Education Freedom. Thiebot, Armand (2010) . Unions, the Rule of Law,and Political Rent Seeking. Cato Journal, Cato Institute. Vol. 30: 1 pp 23-44. Armand Thieblot is President of A.J. Thieblot & Son/NCSDO, an economic consulting firm with special expertise in labor policy analysis. He has authored, among others, about a dozen books on union activities in the construction industry, on union corruption, on union violence, and on labor policy issues. AFJROTC (2011). About AFJROTC. Jean M. Holm Center for Officer Accession and Citizen Development. http://www.au.af.mil/au/holmcenter/ Accessed April 18, 2011. This website discussed about the programs of AFJROTC with cadet high school students. It also discussed its role for community development. Larry W. Isaac and Larry J. Griffin (1989). A historicism in Time-Series Analyses of Historical Process: Critique, Redirection, and Illustrations from U.S. Labor History. American Sociological Review. Vol. 54, No. 6, pp. 873-890 This is a critical review of labor union based on historical timeline and an appreciation of how much importance is paid in each event in accordance to its epoch. Trulia (2011). Northside Independent School District: School District Overview. http://www.trulia.com/school-district/TX-Bexar_County/Northside_Independent_School_District/ Accessed: April 18, 2011. This also provides quantitative information about a district in San Antonio where John Jay High School is a part. Read More