July 11, 2011 05:01 PM UTC

Insanity from Colorado teacher's union

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• by: glasscup

(A higher standard for public safety or guilty until proven innocent? You decide – promoted by Colorado Pols)

So just a preface before I catch flack, like most democrats I support unions, and I strongly believe that they have an important place in our economy, discourse, etc.

But occasionlly they do things that make virtually no sense and which raise real questions about whose interests they’re looking out for. Case in point, just read this story about CEA – the big Colorado Teachers Union. I don’t understand their position and what they are doing here – maybe someone has a better explanation than they provided in the story?

The Colorado Education Association has filed suit challenging the recent State Board of Education rule requiring school districts to notify parents when school employees are arrested.

…

Notification is required in cases involving any felony, drug crimes (except for misdemeanor marijuana charges), misdemeanor and municipal violations related to children, misdemeanor and municipal ordinance violations involving unlawful sexual behavior of various kinds, and any crime of violence. Drunken driving arrests are included if an employee’s duties involve transporting students in motor vehicles.

http://www.ednewscolorado.org/…

Frankly, that seems pretty reasonable to me. Stuff like this – and the teachers union’s intransigence on a lot of other important policy questions (the union also just condemned Teach for America, I read, which seems absurd?) is problematic for education policy, I think, because they are putting the interests of adults (their members) ahead of students and children. I don’t get what the CEA is trying to do here.