Opinion: Why School Choice Is Good For Teachers Too
has been written about school choice and its positive potential effects on both kids and parents. The default assumption, however, has been that it could be a disaster for teachers. No one has fought harder against school choice than teachers unions. To put a finer point on it, teachers unions and their influence are the only reason we don’t have nationwide school choice already. Except that default assumption that school choice isn’t good for teachers, is totally wrong.
Much has been written about school choice and its positive potential effects on both kids and parents. The default assumption, however, has been that it could be a disaster for teachers. No one has fought harder against school choice than teachers unions. To put a finer point on it, teachers unions and their influence are the only reason we don’t have nationwide school choice already. Except that default assumption that school choice isn’t good for teachers, is totally wrong.
Parents want school choice because it gives them options. It will give those same options to teachers. Educators unhappy with the curriculum at their school won’t be forced to continue on there, teaching something they don’t believe in, using a method they don’t like, simply because it’s the only game in town. School choice means choices for everyone, teachers and parents alike.
School choice will mean an explosion in private schools of all types across the United States. You’ll see small ones, big ones, hippy ones, religious ones, make kids hide in a tree and read J.R.R. Tolkien ones. You’ll see schools using libertarian curriculum, Waldorf style teaching, Charlotte Mason experimentation, religious ideology, stand on your desk Dead Poets Society inspiration. I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone come up with some sort of traveling on the road private school which travels the globe teaching students everything they need to know firsthand.
If you’re a teacher, school choice will be an educator’s dream. All those crazy ideas you’ve had about the ways you could improve your class if only a principal would let you do them? You’ll find a school that might let you try it out. Wish you could spend more time talking about equity? There will be schools doing that too, and it won’t matter what kinds of state regulations there are prohibiting it. Those only apply to public schools.
What about pay? Private school teachers currently get paid significantly less than public school teachers. Does more private schools mean more low paying jobs? Nope. Capitalism is here to take care of that. The competition for parents’ newly freed up education dollars will be fierce and schools will be desperate to hire. There won’t be enough teachers to go around, especially not at first. That means your market rate is about to go way, way up, especially for teachers who might actually be good at their job.
So if school choice is good for teachers, why are unions fighting against it? The answer is simple: Power. School choice eliminates the need for unions, since teachers will have endless options to get whatever they want without the need for some union rep to threaten the government into giving them what they want. School choice means the end of unions, and that’s good for everyone… except the people running the unions… and who outside of a few union bribed politicians cares about that?
