In another interesting development for the movement to unionize charter schools, the National Labor Relations Board ruled last week that Teach for America corps members should have been allowed to vote in a Detroit charter union election earlier this year.
Detroit 90/90, a charter management organization for the University Prep charter network, said that Teach for America teachers shouldn't be permitted to vote because they are not professional employees. Instead, they argued, TFA members should be viewed as long-term substitute teachers.
Patrick Sheehan, a Detroit TFA-er told MLive that he and his fellow corps members are really pleased with the NLRB's decision. "U-Prep hired us to teach just like other teachers. Making the legal argument that we are not professionals means one of two things: Either Detroit 90/90 doesn't respect the work we do with students or they lied to prevent us from organizing a union."
Shaun Richman, the AFT's deputy director of organizing told The Prospect that University Prep's argument was an insult to all TFA corps members and alumni around the country. "Nobody would have dared to say that TFA corps members are not really teachers even a year ago," said Richman. "But now that they want a union, suddenly those kinds of insults are apparently on the table."
While Teach for America does not officially take a stance on unionization efforts, Takirra Winfield, TFA's head of national communications, praised the NLRB's decision. "We're pleased that the National Labor Relations Board acknowledged that our teachers are professional, qualified educators who are deeply invested in their school communities and are able to make individual choices about their union membership," she said. "As a TFA network, we know there is tremendous strength in the diversity of perspectives among our talented corps members and alumni as they work to help make certain that every child has access to an excellent education."
There are roughly 11,000 current TFA teachers and more than 37,000 alumni around the country. About 60 percent of Detroit Teach for America corps members work in charter schools. Nate Walker, AFT-Michigan's K-12 organizer and policy analyst, was a former Detroit TFA-er himself.
It's likely that we'll continue to see more union campaigns launched at charter schools, and more Teach for America members among them. Many TFA-ers are progressive and young, and national surveys find that young Americans are among the country's most ardent union supporters. According to Pew, fully 55 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 held a favorable view of unions, while just 29 percent held unfavorable ones.
