Preface to Myron Lieberman's book The Teacher Unions

PREFACE TO: THE TEACHER UNIONS

by Myron Lieberman

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     My first book, Education as a Profession, was published in 1956. It was widely and favorably reviewed in Canada, England, and Australia as well as the United States. The book was adopted for courses at several universities and launched a professional career that emerged, in almost linear fashion, to this book.
     Education as a Profession urged and predicted teacher unionization. For 20 years thereafter, my publications continued to support collective bargaining in education. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, my views on this issue began to change. I had embraced teacher bargaining before having had any school district level experience with it. As my experience with it increased, I realized that my advocacy of it had overlooked several issues pertaining to its desirability as public policy. This fact led me to read more widely on the subject; as a result, my doubts eventually culminated in the early 1980s in opposition to collective bargaining in public education.
     The most important reason for my change of position was the realization that collective bargaining in public education is inconsistent with democratic, representative government. Although the details are spelled out in this book, the basis for this conclusion is simple enough: In teacher union bargaining, school board representatives, that is, government officials, negotiate public policies with one special interest group in a process from which other parties are excluded.
     Important as it is, this conclusion was not the only factor in my change of position. Thus as I began to question the basic rationale for teacher unions, I also began to take cognizance of other issues that had been ignored when teacher unionization was becoming institutionalized. For instance, to my knowledge, no one raised any hard questions about the costs of the process, but costs are an important criterion for evaluating the efficacy of any method of dispute settlement.
     Although my views on teacher unionization have changed a great deal since 1956, much of the analysis that led me to support it remains valid. One point in particular is especially relevant. My initial interest in teacher unions grew out of the fact that teacher associations were weak organizations. Whereas others dismissed teacher organizations in the 1950s because of their weakness, I became interested in the reasons for their weakness and what could be done to strengthen them. My conclusion was that the NEA (National Education Association) and its affiliates were weak organizations because they enrolled school administrators as members. The latter used their power over teachers at work to stifle militant action by organizations in which teachers outnumbered administrators. My conclusion was that teacher organizations would be much more powerful if they excluded administrators; inasmuch as such exclusion is inherent in collective bargaining, my support for the latter was a logical next step in my search for the keys to stronger teacher organizations. It was also my view that as teacher organizations became more influential, they would be scrutinized more intensively than in the past. This book provides some of that scrutiny. I hope that others will add to it.
     Although my publications were not responsible for the emergence of teacher unions, they may have played a minor role in their emergence and growth. In any event, I certainly have been in a unique position to observe the emergence, operations, and consequences of teacher unions: Experience as a long-time member of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT); delegate to more than twenty state and national union conventions; candidate for AFT president in 1962; labor negotiator in about 200 school district contracts in seven states; consultant to state and federal legislative bodies on collective bargaining in public education; professor of graduate courses devoted to teacher bargaining at several universities from Long Island to Hawaii; consultant and expert witness on racial discrimination in public education for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in six states, candidate for state superintendent in California-all of these experiences and others not mentioned have affected the discussion that follows.

     Although critical of the teacher unions (as well as of their opposition), I have tried to avoid "bias" in the analysis. Certainly, it is partisan, as is every analysis that supports one course of action over another. If "bias" is merely a synonym for "Partisan," the term is not a criticism. I regard "bias" as a pejorative term, which I hope is not applicable to this book. My goal has been to provide an objective analysis of the teacher unions, but "objective" is not synonymous with "nonpartisan." On the contrary, objective analysis of an issue often results in a partisan position with respect to it. Of course, it is for readers to decide whether my analysis is objective. Certainly, many who profess the label do not deserve it. Furthermore, objectivity is not to be confused with a subjective state of mind. In countless situations, analysts reflect bias even if they are not aware of it. My plea is that the analysis not be dismissed as "biased" simply because it is partisan. If my analysis overlooks significant evidence, or weighs it on a double standard, or ignores arguments that belong in the discussion, I neither seek nor deserve exemption from criticism as "biased."
     Finally, let me explain why personal references are so frequently mentioned in this book. Generally speaking, I prefer not to rely on personal experience to demonstrate a point of broad applicability. If an author's point is indeed broadly applicable, the author should be able to cite nonpersonal data or experience to confirm it.
     This book, however, includes several personal experiences. One reason is that readers are in a better position to evaluate my objectivity if they know more about my actual involvement with the individuals, organizations, and issues discussed in this book. Furthermore, if I am writing about an individual or organization with whom I have had extensive face-to-face experience over a long period of time, my experience may be a reliable source of information. In some cases, I was in a unique position to assess the matters discussed in this book. For this reason, failure to refer to my experience would be grounds for legitimate criticism.

The preceding text Copyright (c) 1997, Myron Lieberman. All rights are reserved. It is reproduced here by permission of the author.

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