My point is that there are other ways to exert influence over working conditions and educational policies other than by strikes and other similar activities. Have the teacher associations ever donated time and money to a school board candidate? Or is that also illegal in Texas?

I agree that it is very likely that the Texas teacher “associations” have less influence in the state than teacher “unions” have in states like Minnesota. However I am not convinced that they have NO influence.

I never intended to address the question about the low SAT/ACT scores in Texas. But if you insist I’ll venture a guess, perhaps there are a lot of ineffective teachers in Texas. (I know, snarky comment, I’m sorry)

With that I am taking my dog out of this fight. Perhaps we will meet again on another issue.

“Here in Texas, as I have explained repeatedly,…”

I suggested that “…teachers’ unions are venal, corrupt, self-serving, and utterly willing to sacrifice the children to serve their members…”. Your claim that you cannot bargain collectively is orthogonal to my position. Not so?

Surely you can see that someone can be venal etc. even if he/she/it can neither bargain collectively nor call a strike?

Come on, Mike, you can do better than this! This is elementary logic.

“I’ll be the first to admit spelling is a weak point for me, ditto grammar but last time I checked neither were required for writing a blog on your own time.”

I think teachers, whether they teach English or Math, should have mastered English to a reasonable extent; they should be able to form clear, concise sentences and be able to spell.

Is this asking for too much? I don’t think so, but observation indicates otherwise. And that’s rather distressing, don’t you think?

“How can they have so much influence when they cannot call for a strike? Even slow downs and sick outs are illegal.”

Mike, please read what IronMike wrote!

How can they have so much influence when they cannot call for a strike? Even slow downs and sick outs are illegal.

And don’t forget the question about Texas’ low SAT/ACT scores. How did the evil teachers’ unions cause that?

I should have thought it was obvious: The public school systems are a mess, and the teachers are as much to blame as the administration.

If the teachers put into teaching a fraction of the effort they put into subverting any attempt at improving schools, whether by blocking charters, or campaigning against vouchers, or wasting time on AAVE (aka Ebonics), or supporting a tenure system that protects even horrendously bad teachers, the schools would be in much better shape.

A good first step would be to give up the constant refrain about needing more pay in order to attract the “best and the brightest”, and accept the fact that you are in the bottom GRE quartile. And that’s fine, teachers don’t have to be particularly bright; it’s much more important that they be good with kids and have a reasonable grasp of the stuff they’re teaching. There are exceptions, HS math teachers among them, but by and large all you need is average intelligence, coupled with a good attitude.

A good second step would be to acknowledge that the current system is a disaster, and that most of its members should be dismissed.

Too much to ask for? Probably – but please, no more pious speeches about the “dedicated professionals” in the PS systems.

Did you miss where I mentioned we do not have the right to collective bargain or strike?

If a union can’t call a strike it hardly can be venal, corrupt and utterly self-serving can it?

You can debate the level of influence they may have in the state but to say they do not exist is not correct.