Teacher unions are
bad for America, right? That’s what most Republicans say. Their brief against
unions? These labor groups protect poorly performing teachers; bargain costly
salaries, benefits and pensions; and protect teachers, not students.
Following this
script, Wisconsin gutted collective bargaining rights for teachers in 2011.
Six years later, we
have data on some effects of the law.
On the employment
side, average salaries for teachers in the state have fallen by 2.6% and benefits
declined 18.6%.
In addition, 10.5% of
public school teachers in Wisconsin left the profession after the 2010-2011
school year, up from 6.4% the year before. The exit rate last year was 8.8%.
In an October news
report on testing in Wisconsin schools, only 42.7 percent of students performed
as proficient or advanced in English (2016 test). In math, only 40.5 percent of
students showed proficiency.
But this is the GOP
recipe for an informed electorate and a workforce that performs 1950s-type
resource extraction jobs (mining in Kentucky, timber and paper processing in
Wisconsin).
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