The Plight of Teachers' Unions

In late March, Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, attacked Mayor Rahm Emanuel for undermining the city's schools with a plan to close more than 50 underutilized schools. Earlier this year, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York blamed the local teachers' union for the loss of millions in federal funds, resulting from its unwillingness to accept outcome-based teacher evaluation.

Teachers' unions are under siege nationwide. Criticism by political leaders and education reformers has snowballed. In recent years, government and unions have battled over tenure, teacher assessment, testing, the length of the school day, class size, school closures, and pay for performance. The hottest issues have dealt with reliance on teacher seniority as the basis for job assignments, retrenchment firing, and salaries—a traditional practice that raised few hackles in the past.

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