The next union battle. Charter schools.
The corporate and anti-union ideologues are in denial. But the fight for collective bargaining is coming to charter schools. It’s just too late for closing that barn door.
My brother Mike has an extended article in In These Times:
Only in the past two years has the leadership of the AFT and NEA come to accept charter schools as a permanent reality. The questions of whether they indeed are public or private and whether their teachers can win the same collective bargaining rights are now being hotly debated, negotiated and litigated.
“Charter teachers are saying they want a voice in their workplace,” UTF’s Casey says. Meanwhile, labor movement and public education eyes would do well to keep a close watch on the coming charter school battles, especially in large urban districts like New York and Chicago.
