Joanne Jacobs has a revelation about the teachers’ union and Charter Schools in Welcome to readjacobs.com:
Teachers’ unions are trying to “absorb” the charter school movement, writes Michael Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency. He uses union strategy reports to make his case.
It’s really not an obscure connection: last year, San Franciso Assemblywoman Carole Migdon carried a bill that would have requirted Charter School teachers to pay union dues. It’s a clear stategy to kill the voucher movement by touting charters as the reform alternative, and then to hamstring the charter movement by touting its excesses and over-regulating it. Nobody messes with the teachers’ union in Sacramento and gets away with it.
In my lobbyist days, I was introduced to the union’s head lobbyist and told to make friends with them even though they weren’t at all relevant to my issue. It’s simply a matter of it being good to be seen with the powerful, especially if you aren’t one of them.