Something interesting I came across regarding collective bargaining for educators

As I was surfing across the intertubes, I came across something interesting regarding the five states that do not allow collective bargaining for educators. Curiously, the five states that expressly forbid collective bargaining for teachers have some of the lowest average ACT scores in the United States.

State ACT Score National Rank
South Carolina 18.9 50th
North Carolina 19.3 49th
Georgia 20.2 48th
Texas 20.2 47th
Virginia 20.7 44th

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16 thoughts on “Something interesting I came across regarding collective bargaining for educators

  1. I keep hearing some teachers say if this bill passes that “the kids will suffer.” How? Are they suddenly not going to teach as well in protest? Or lose a few IQ points? Dr. Sanner may as well write them a fake sick note so that they never have to show up to work again because I don’t want that kind of a person teaching our kids.

  2. Here’s a poll done Wednesday showing that 65% of Wisconsin voters polled think Walkers proposal goes too far.

    http://www.buildingastrongerwi.com/

    It’s time for a handful of republican senators to step up and announce that they won’t support Walkers bill. They know in their hearts that what Walker is doing is wrong. They know it.

    After only five weeks in office Walker has brought division, hostility, notoriety and disgrace to this state. To that handful of republican senators I ask: is this the legacy you want to leave? Because you are going to be remembered for what you do, or do not do, in the days ahead.

    Summon some courage and strength. Stand up to your leadership. Wisconsin needs you now.

    1. Partisan politics just makes me ill. There’s no way that I believe that EVERY republican senator and assembly member supports this bill, and that EVERY democratic one rejects it. I’d like to see them vote as individuals, and not as members of their prospective mobs.

    2. Partisan politics just makes me ill. There’s no way that I believe that EVERY republican senator and assembly member supports this bill, and that EVERY democratic one rejects it. I’d like to see them vote as individuals, and not as members of their respective mobs.

  3. @forget: kids will suffer more because a profession that already has a hard time competing to attract the best and the brightest will have an even harder time. The people, like my sister, who willing choose to go into the teaching profession these days are heroes – huge stress, meager pay (though, yes, good benefits – that’s the bargain they’ve made), and going into a high profile profession that draws such scorn, rage, and demonization from people like you.

  4. “kids will suffer more because a profession that already has a hard time competing to attract the best and the brightest will have an even harder time. The people, like my sister, who willing choose to go into the teaching profession these days are heroes – huge stress, meager pay (though, yes, good benefits – that’s the bargain they’ve made), and going into a high profile profession that draws such scorn, rage, and demonization from people like you.”

    Well said, JCG. Amazing how the “free-market” types say that lower pay and lower compensation will lead to higher quality of applicants. Name a job where that situation happens? The disingeniousness and greed of these anti-teacher types is beyond disgusting, and why they must be taken down hard.

  5. There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Cherry picking individual statistics to make your point shows how far you will go to TRY and make a point.

    What about the governance of those states? Democrat or Republican? And for how long? And what about the poverty level in those states? Wasn’t the past mantra that the ACT test was racially biased?

    Heck, my class valedictorian BOMBED the ACT test the first time she took it. We now address her as Professor.

    Sorry, this is a poor argument that holds no basis in fact.

    Because everyone KNOWS that for a TRUE example how collective barganing works you have to rank each class on height and weight. Oh, and the length of their ring finger.

    1. Looking only at scores data, it appears there is no real difference between Right to Work and Forced Unionization states. Right to work states have a 41 point advantage in SAT scores but a 0.7 point deficit in ACT scores. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be any correlation between higher scores and stronger teachers unions.

      Now, if you break this data down by region shows stronger trends between north and south in regard to ACT scores while SAT scores remain mixed. Since unions strength doesn’t seem to play a role, I’ll leave it to a sociologist to determine why cultural differences may cause this discrepancy.

      Finally, the use of a ranking system with this data is inappropriate considering the minor deviations from state to state. It amplifies any true differences.

  6. The other reason the quality of education will fall is because one of the things the union bargains about is class size. With no one to protect that, class sizes will increase. Too many people thing the union is just about money.

  7. Those stats are not correct. The actual 2010 ACT average composite score rankings for Wisconsin and the five states that were identified above as expressly forbidding collective bargaining for teachers are:

    Virginia 12th (T)
    Wisconsin 17th (T)
    North Carolina 21st (T)
    Texas 33rd
    Georgia 34th (T)
    South Carolina 43rd (T)

    The bottom ranked states for the 2010 ACT average composite scores are:

    District of Columbia 46th
    Michigan 47th
    Tennessee 48th
    Florida 49th
    Kentucky 50th
    Mississippi 51st

    The majority of Wisconsin students take the ACT as opposed to the SAT (over 15 times as many Wisconsin students took the ACT as took the SAT for 2010).

    Source

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