Reforming the teachers' unions: what the good guys have accomplished - and what remains to be done.

• Author: Worth, Robert
• Position: Peer review, tenure reform

What the good guys have accomplished -- and what remains to be done

One morning last fall, 28 leaders of the nation's largest union, the National Education Association (NEA), spent a few hours touring through the three cavernous plants of the Saturn car company in Spring Hill, Tennessee. As they wandered past synchronized robot arms and a mechanized foundry that turns foam shapes into engine parts, the unionists commented on the "surreal" placidity and apparent contentment of the workers. But this was no science field trip. NEA President Bob Chase had organized the visit in order to witness Satures innovative arrangement with the United Auto Workers union, which has helped to make it into one of the industry's biggest success stories. And his larger agenda was glaringly obvious to the union reps he took along with him. After three decades of old-fashioned bargaining for better pay and working conditions, Chase and his counterparts in the smaller American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have earned a reputation as the bureaucratic "blob" that is weighing down our public schools. Now Chase and AFT president Sandra Feldman are eager to show the world that they're serious about "reinventing" themselves as advocates for academic accountability and high standards.

It's not an easy task. After Bob Dole's landmark attack on the teachers' unions at the 1996 Republican convention, the NEA conducted a study which concluded that "the NEA is now painted as the number one obstacle to better public schools." Ever since, the NEA and the AFT, which are set to merge starting later this year, have been struggling to improve their public image. In January 1997, Chase gave a speech at the National Press Club (titled "It's Not Your Mother's NEA") in which he offered a personal recantation of his earlier resistance to reform as a state NEA official in the 1980s. At the 1997 summer convention in Atlanta, union delegates voted to change their policies on several crucial school reform issues including charter schools, peer review, and standardized tests.

But when confronted with the hard facts of the Saturn plant, the union leaders were less enthusiastic. According to Education Week, one NEA affiliate president asked a Saturn worker what his company would do if parts from one of its suppliers varied widely in quality. The answer came easily: switch suppliers. But it didn't go over well with the visitors. In the world of teachers' unions, privatization -- even of non-educational services like food and transportation -- is still viewed as the ultimate heresy. The fact that Saturn's innovations were driven by competition with Japan was an even sorer point, since it suggests an argument that the unions still fiercely resist: public schools could use some competition, too. And what about the Saturn unionworkers' contract, which is a mere 33 pages long -- unlike those thick protective tomes the teachers are used to? Or Saturn's "Risk and Reward" program, which provides incentives for workers who do well, and sanctions for those who don't? Don't these analogies suggest that the teachers' unions should be finding similar ways to reward good teachers and force out the bad ones?

Chase's Saturn tour exemplifies his campaign for reform. It sounds like the dawn of a new era, a radical new role for teachers' unions -- until you start asking what he's actually done to translate those good intentions into action. Pressed for an explanation, Chase is quick to point out that the NEA is a vast organization (there are 13,000 local affiliates) and can!t turn around quickly. As recently...