A teacher writes:
I am a union member (AFT affiliate) and nothing in our union contract requires that I teach a certain way or limits the extent to which I stay late, come in early, or take work home. We do have limits on class size (28). Doesn’t this seem like a good idea for children as well as teachers? The only people who seem interested in constricting my work are the occasional administrators/suits who appear now and then with a stack of tests which I have to foist on my students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Only those that want to bust the unions would believe it.
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Reblogged this on CENTURY21SCHOOLS and commented:
Those suits are doing the thing they are told to do. It is a systemic problem and it starts at the top. Not with middle management.
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You’ve got that right… virtually all of my administrative candidates are as opposed to the testing regimen as teachers… Sadly the media have done a good job of selling too much of this malarky to the public and consequently administrators need to push back to parents and Board members while reluctantly leaning on teachers to “get those test scores up”…
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It is the same in my district too. In my school, half the faculty is there by 7:00 AM and other staff routinely stay past 5:00 PM. Students start at 8:45 AM. No one tells us we can’t work those hours. No one tells us we can’t work with students. Our union does not stop us. What our union does is supports us when working conditions become difficult. As mentioned many times, our working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
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This argument won’t work as long as unions like the AFT use the “work to rule” strategy in collective bargaining. Whenever that tactic is applied, regional newspapers photograph large groups of teachers entering schools at the precise “beginning of the work day” and leaving school right after the children. When this is widely reported it reinforces the public’s notion that teachers only work “x” hours a day…. A better idea might be to have the teachers present the school board with a bill for the work they do above and beyond any of the minimums in the contract and send a copy to the local newspaper
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We were faced with Senate Bill 5 (Issue 2) , which would have taken away bargaining rights for teachers, firefighters, police officers and city workers in Ohio last year. Many teachers from districts in Northeast Ohio started going to local restaurants after school. They sat for hours in these restaurants grading papers with a sign on the table saying :
“This is what your child’s teachers do after school on their own time every night.”
It was very effective in increasing awareness and prompting conversations with the public. It was well received and made the public aware of the amount of extra work teachers do on their own time. Issue 2 was soundly defeated last November.
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despite best efforts, many of our members come early and stay late…working “to the letter of the contract” is something that will never happen because our teachers always go beyond for their students…no matter how much some would like to see us STOP grading papers at home, working 2 or 3 hours past contract time…and all the other things that we end up doing consistently…
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Take a look at any teachers union contract and you’ll find the signatures of local school administrators and board members on the document as well as the union leaders. Some administrators are quick to blame teachers unions for contracts they don’t like, but they often fail to take responsibility for their own participation. Politicians talk about contracts as if they were death warrants for school children and unions as if they were evil, subversive organizations. Teachers unions are made up of teachers. I spent my entire teaching career as a member of a teachers union. Most of my colleagues were members as well. Not once did any of the teachers I worked with either as a teacher or as a union representative, put the needs of teachers above the needs of students.
Never did we discuss “forcing” teachers to work only certain hours of the day. There are always teachers who come in early…and leave late.
Of course unions try to get the best working conditions for their members (and non-members as well — unions negotiate for everyone, not just members). But, as the Chicago Teachers Union showed, it’s not just about the money. Look at Schools Chicago Students Deserve, a publication of the CTU. The CTU is asking for reasonable class sizes, a rich curriculum including the arts, essential services for students, partnerships with parents, and continuing professional development for teachers. That’s what we all want! Educators’ working conditions are student learning conditions.
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