The California Teacher's Association has their eye on charter school employees:
With major financial backing from the National Education Association, California’s largest teachers’ union has launched an initiative to organize employees in hundreds of charter schools in the state...
For its part, the 2.7 million-member NEA is backing the California effort in the hope that it will yield lessons for union organizers elsewhere. NEA leaders also argue that unionized teachers can play a watchdog role in charter schooling by pushing for greater public accountability, particularly in schools run by for-profit companies...
Although Arizona still has more charter schools than any other state, California now has the highest enrollment, with some 170,000 students in charter schools.
Some California charter leaders are upbeat about the prospect for productive partnerships with unions, pointing to some places where such relationships have already been forged. Others are deeply suspicious of the 335,000-member CTA’s organizing effort, afraid it will bring to charter schools a rules-oriented mentality that they left regular public schools to escape.
Posted by kswygert at April 14, 2004 10:30 AM