Teachers’ unions aren’t just fighting to keep their own public schools closed, writes Fordham’s Checker Finn. They don’t want charters and private schools to open either.
He lives in Montgomery County, Maryland, which ordered private schools to stay closed, then backed down after Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, intervened.
I would wager my high school diploma that the Montgomery County teachers union, having achieved its wish to keep the public schools virtual this fall (after having thrown much sand into the district’s efforts at online learning during the spring), and in the heat of a vexed negotiation over its next contract, whispered into (County Executive Marc) Elrich’s receptive ears that it would be unfair to allow the private schools to open for business and thereby show them up. And I’d wager my college degree that the peeved private school parents who protested the county’s move to Hogan’s office fed gubernatorial suspicions that this school-closing order was again the handiwork of the union, its catspaw in the County Executive’s office, and its fellow travelers at the state level.
Across the country, teachers’ unions are using strike threats to block reopening plans. While teachers say they’re concerned with safety, demands include “paying teachers and other school personnel extra to work during the pandemic, and keeping charter and private schools closed, too, lest the competition look more appealing to parents, politicians, and possibly teachers themselves,” writes Finn.