We're right where we've always been

Blogs, Letters & Testimonials

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June 27, 2014

By Charlie Barone, Director of Policy

Some people were surprised when they read DFER-MI State Director Harrison Blackmond’s blog post Wednesday discussing his support of unions and collective bargaining and wondered whether this marked some kind of turnaround for us. But the fact is that’s right where we’ve always been. Here are some quotes from DFER staff and other reform-oriented Democrats that have appeared over the years on our website.

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  • “We don’t think teachers unions are going anywhere. Nor should they. Our work has never been about eliminating teachers unions. From coast to coast we have seen so many poorly-run public school systems with obnoxious, buzz-kill bureaucracies that we are often thankful that someone is on the ground making sure teachers don’t get screwed by the public education machinery.” ~ Joe Williams, June 16, 2014.
  • “We believe that teacher unions have a crucial voice that should be heard in education debates, but they shouldn’t be the only voice. We believe that big problems can (and should!) be solved through collective bargaining, but that someone needs to be in there representing public education when the bargaining takes place.” ~ Joe Williams, DFER Executive Director, February 2011.
  • “The GOP does not need to wipe out collective bargaining to make real change or to balance the budget–they need to wipe out collective bargaining to make a political point. …Anyone who tells you this bill [Walker’s collective bargaining repeal] is about facilitating education reform doesn’t know what’s in the bill, OR, for that matter, what the meaning of education reform, even is.” ~ Katy Venskus, former DFER-Wisconsion State Director, February 2011.
  • “As a Democrat, I believe there is a wide middle ground between blind allegiance to unions and their wholesale dismantling. If we need to put some tough-love constraints on collective bargaining in order to more aggressively push forward an agenda focused on children, so be it.” ~ Mary Ann Sullivan, current DFER Board Member, April 2011.
  • “Republican governors and legislators in [many] states are making serious attempts to not only fight unions on education policy issues, but to fundamentally weaken teachers’ unions as a political force as well, with a particular focus on curtailing or eliminating collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public employee unions. What’s disappointing from the perspective of school reform is that the proposals on the table so far seem primarily aimed at weakening Democrats in the 2012 election through crippling a key and powerful ally of the Democratic party.” ~ Ron Tupa, Former DFER Director of State Legislatures, March 2011.