Terry M. Moe: Will Young People Reform Teachers Unions? Drean On

Andy Rotherham is an astute observer of American education reform, but in his latest article in Time.com he engages in a flight of wishful thinking. He waxes eloquent about "renegade groups" of younger teachers who are rising up to demand a new brand of unionism--one in which the unions disavow seniority provisions, insist on serious teachers evaluations, make it easy to get bad teachers out of the classroom, and otherwise do whatever is best for children and effective schools. He strongly suggests that big changes are in the offing for America's teachers unions. A revolution from within.

This kind of argument is quite common and has a long lineage--although in the past, the agents of change were "progressive" union leaders rather than young teachers.

Click here to find out why I believe these arguments are so common and to read my complete post on the Public Sector Inc. blog