Public Service Unions Need Reform

TW: I am not in the all unions are bad camp. Just like I am not in the all rapacious capitalists are bad even though many are. But there is one type of union with whom I have serious problems- public service. Public service unions wield disproportionate power due to the frequent monopolistic power of their industries (i.e. teaching, fire fighting, police etc.) and their exceedingly strong electoral impact especially locally.

Public service unions typically are a core Democratic constituency. That does not mean they should be immune to reform. I have not plowed through the New Yorker article referenced below but am looking forward to it. Improving education is a multi-faceted challenge but increasing the quality of teachers should be part of the solution.

From Economist:
"...studies have shown that the quality of one's teacher is probably the most important factor in determining a student's educational success. But in New York, where the pay and promotion schemes are nearly automatic, good teachers are treated much the same way as bad teachers. Moreover, the tenure system is such that bad teachers stick around for as long as they want. After running through the elaborate and costly system for dealing with incompetent teachers,

Mr Brill [author of New Yorker piece] notes
'[I]n the past two years arbitrators have terminated only two teachers for incompetence alone, and only six others in cases where, according to the Department of Education, the main charge was incompetence.'

Tenure is one of the biggest problems: after three years on the job, teachers are basically guaranteed employment for life. Joel Klein, the city's schools chancellor, has made a dent there, but problems persist.

[From Brill]
'In seven years, Klein has increased the percentage of third-year teachers not given tenure from three to six per cent. Unsatisfactory ratings for tenured teachers have risen from less than one per cent to 1.8 per cent. "Any human-resources professional will tell you that rating only 1.8 per cent of any workforce unsatisfactory is ridiculous," [Dan Weisberg, the general counsel and vice-president for the New Teacher Project] says. "If you look at the upper quartile and the lower quartile, you know that those people are not interchangeable...'

...Why shouldn't public-school teachers be treated like bankers or lawyers or most other occupations in America? Why should they be guaranteed employment after three years, and why doesn't performance play a bigger role in decisions about salaries and promotions? These aren't new questions. Barack Obama's education secretary, Arne Duncan, has been pushing for reforms to the current system. And Mr Klein has been battling the UTF for seven years. But the teachers' union is powerful, and the state's politicians are easily cowed. In the city, the teachers' contract is up for renewal in October, which should lead to another battle over tenure, evaluation and pay."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/08/those_who_cant_teach_teach.cfm