Rachel M. Cohen writes in The American Prospect about the curious efforts of charter schools to prevent their teachers from joining a union.
When it suits their purposes, they insist their employees are private employees of a private corporation, and therefore exempt from unionization.
But the y also, in other jurisdictions, say their employees are public employees of a state actor, and therefore exempt from unionization.
The only constant is their effort to prevent their overworked teachers from forming a union.
What charter teachers can depend on is that their employers will harass them if they display any interest in joining a union.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a practical matter they’re all public employees, though. 100% of their pay comes from the public.
Ohio charters have made this really silly distinction in court cases where they pretend some portion of their funding is “public” and another portion is not, but that’s an accounting categorization, not reality.
The fact is every single one of them is paid by the public- the team who work for the “authorizer”, the entity that is the CMO, the teachers and “CEO’s” at charters- everyone.
Charter employees are wrong when they say they “work for charter schools”. Actually they work for the State of Ohio, so every member of the public in Ohio. They are state employees in all but name.
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The thing that always amazes me about Ohio charters is one can create a whole new group of publicly-funded JOBS. One can apply to open a new charter school in Ohio and appoint themselves CEO with a salary and that publicly-funded position did not exist prior to starting the school.
I can’t think of anything that is even remotely comparable. Is there any other entity that can do that? Create 40 or 50 new state jobs with an application?
It’s a little nuts.
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I remember reading about a local woman in the paper when Detroit was undergoing Charter Mania. She was relocating to Detroit because she had created her own publicly-funded position by opening a charter school.
That’s amazing. She wakes up one morning and says “I want to create a new publicly funded entity and hire myself” and Michigan says “okay! We’ll tell Michigan taxpayers they’ll be paying for that!” It’s wild when you think about it.
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The DEFORMERS have NO SHAME. It’s about $$$$$$ and TOTAL CONTROL. The DEFORMERS are SELF-CENTERED and SELFISH and they reinforce each other. They project blame and DEFLECT the truth for personal gain. .
The Common GORE and stupid testing: This NARROW, NARROW standardization of education is WRONG. When we NARROW and standardize people, then talent, creativity, and new ideas ARE FROZEN shut. I truly think this is the goal. That is why we have become a Nation of DUMMIES, who are manipulated by the DEFORMERS with their “marketing” spins. With marketers, UP means DOWN.
We are TRULY being controlled by big $$$$$$ to the MAX in ALL areas. This country ain’t so free afterall. We are being controlled by the BIG MONEY of the FEW.
Take a look at what Coca Cola has done. I refuse to purchase bottled water or any Coca Cola Products.
http://www.waronwant.org/media/coca-cola-drinking-world-dry
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You are arguing only about step one . The right to organize . Step two is the even more difficult part, a contract. Yet even step one is now a total loss with the NLRB now a rt wing anti labor board and the Supreme court gone.
So that leads to step 3 which requires a “deep reading ” of how the NLRA came about. It was not the pretty tale we tell about the FDR years. It was passed over 2 1/2 years into his term. Not the first 100 days and passed under duress. Regardless of whether he was personally for it.
The NLRA defeated Socialism by giving workers a voice an alternative to obtain power. The voice has been increasingly muffled since 47. . Take away that voice ?
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The US Department of Education is on Day Three of the annual Public Schools Suck tour.
That’s when federal employees travel to schools they admire and scold the schools down the street. It’s very productive and helpful. It’s great for the families in the schools they prefer- not so great for the vast majority of families in the schools they bash, however.
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These charter schools resemble Walmart with their apoplectic hatred and aversion to unions. Walmart subjects its employees to a steady diet of anti-union propaganda via posters, flyers and films that the employees are forced to watch. If any hapless employee dares to utter the word union, they are bullied into silence or just fired outright on some trumped up charge. There is an ongoing vicious war on unions and the employers are winning. The GOP openly displays its hatred for unions while the Democrats pay lip service to unions, words but no actions in aid of unions. The Walmartians claim that unions are obsolete, there’s no need for unions and any employee can go to management to negotiate for a raise or better work conditions all on his/her own. Totally bogus, lies, garbage on steroids and a sick joke. We need unions now more than ever, they even the playing field between management and the employees.
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“The Walmartians claim that unions are obsolete”.
Guess what they are correct . They are also correct in that unions look to control the market-share for their own members . So what this has led to almost since the inception of the AFL was for Unions to seek their own deals with oligarchs and politicians , at the expense of other workers be they public or private,Union or Non Union . The utter failure of unions to pursue the same education strategies for their members that corporate America does for its employees has been catastrophic. As a movement and at the voting booth.
Union leaders relied on the Democratic party to protect them and it did not happen , corporate money being far more powerful than Union money or votes . As a politically uneducated “increasingly struggling and down sized ” Union membership stopped reliably delivering votes to the party of lip service , their influence diminished even further.
Trumka a few years back called for the expansion of the AFL-CIO into an umbrella group with full voting rights to organizations like the NAACP and the Sierra club . Of course the leadership of the affiliate unions rejected that. The thought of sharing power with other organizations and becoming a true social movement . “Content to go down with the ship in their first class cabin” Fighting each other for table scraps rather than launching an all out assault on the forces that seek to destroy them.
In short bring back the Wobblies .
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