It appears efforts to provide teacher’s with the ability to choose or not to choose to join a union has resulted in a remarkable 200,000 teachers deciding not to rejoin their union.
The Education Action Group notes that over the past year, several states – including Wisconsin, Tennessee and Idaho – have passed legislation freeing teachers from the shackles of compulsory union membership. The results? ”A new report finds the National Education Association has revised its membership numbers downward – from 3.2 million to just over 3 million. According to Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency website, the hemorrhaging of members is contributing to the NEA’s $17 million deficit, which may force union leaders to lay off employees and cut aid to state affiliates.
Mr. Cawdor,
I’m absolutely humbled by your incisive comment on my earlier post. As H.L. Mencken used to admit from time to time, “Dear Madam, You might be right”. I’ll try harder next time.
-Michael.
Michael McOsker, You are grasping at straws to cause drama. LOOK at the numbers, they are plain as day. It clearly shows 3,200,000 down to 3,000,000… There is no “dramatic” appearance. You appear to be desperate if that is the best you can do to distract from the article. Must really suck to feel like a goldfish sitting on the counter gasping for air, Mikey.
The graph is really just insignificant….the point is that given the choice, not all teachers choose to be in a union. I would, also, be interested to know which state(s) this represents. Being from WI, I have a feeling MORE teachers would opt out of the unions but with the bullying that the unions have done in this state to their own and the ‘other side’ (and with the unrest with the Gov’s position), many do not feel comfortable doing it yet.
Re: Mr. Tenhet (below):
Now, there’s a man who says what he means. He’s wrong, of course, but he means it – and uses his real name. I’ll admit that my earlier post was a little thin and sarcastic. Sorry. What I should have said is that the NRTWC promoes freeloading as a means of weakening working people’s organizations and thus their voices in the workplace and thus their rights and thus their earning power. It regularly LIES to normal people to further its ends. Where I come from (America), that’s just plain wrong, bro.
Does the scale of the graph change the result? 200,000 remains 200,000 no matter how the graph is drawn. “You guys are desperate”? As RTW grows,YOU know the result will be more losses to the unions, That’s why “you guys” are fighting so hard to stop legislation that gives teachers a REAL choice, freedom to work without compromising their principles. That’s why “you guys” are so afraid of RTW.
It’s about time any teacher with a conscience to leave the N.E,A. as it’s nothing more than a perverted left wing front, Where “featherbedding” has become the rule, and all tax money has been spent on absolute frivolity, and perversion indoctrination.
It is drastic if it only includes 3 states out of 50 maming the change and the numbers represent national numbers. That is the question then. Are these numbers nationally or just for the three states?
I agree with Michael. The full range of the graph is not shown, deliberately, to exaggerate the magnitude of the change. While I personally like the fact that more teachers are saying no to unions, this graph does not represent the actual proportion of teachers are who doing so relative to the total population. A drop from 3.2M to 3M is a change of -6.25%, yet the relative size of each bar above suggests the drop is a much more dramatic 66%!
“Matt”,
You really should get serious and say who you are and what you mean.
Mr. Johnson,
Fairly good point. I never liked that form of graphing, though. At best, it seems to try too hard. I’ll try to lessen the sarcasm. Thanks.
I see Mickey keeps getting sauced on the union Kool-Aid.
The figures down the left side are clear for everyone to see, so the graph is not deception.
The desperate one seems to be the guy going through and systematically posting sarcastic barbs on all these articles.
Very clever graph. Funny how a 6.25% drop in membership can look so dramatic when you graph it so that 90% looks like “0″. You guys are desperate.