The following is an excerpted version of an article entitled Unions, published in Macmillan Publishing's Encyclopedia of Educational Research of 1992 and written by Lorraine M. McDonnell of the Rand Corporation in San Monica, CA.

"Since the advent of teacher collective bargaining 30 years ago, union membership has grown significantly. By early in the 1980's, 88% of the nation's teachers belonged to either the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) or the National Education Association (NEA), and over 60% were covered by collective bargaining agreements. This growth contrasts with the dwindling 21% of all private sector employees who belong to a labor organization.

"...The AFT and the larger NEA are federated organizations that compete with each other for members and influence at the national, state and local levels. Reflecting its labor origins, the AFT historically concentrated its efforts on improving teachers' wages and working conditions and served a primarily urban membership. Throughout much of its history, the NEA was a professional organization that included both teachers and administrators and that emphasized raising the status of teaching as a profession over improving teachers material welfare. As a result of competition from the AFT and the demands of its own teacher membership, the NEA underwent a radical change late in the 1960s, transforming itself in purpose and strategy into a union.

"Political Action by Teacher Unions. The AFT and the NEA both recognize the very real limits on gains attainable through collective bargaining. Consequently, the two national organizations, along with their state and local affiliates, commit considerable resources to supporting political candidates ranging from local school board members to President of the United States, and lobbying at the federal, state and local levels.... In conjunction with this electoral activity, teacher unions lobby to increase federal aid to education, to secure more advantageous public employee collective bargaining laws, and to achieve concrete benefits such as increased starting salaries for teachers and reduced class size.

"Despite the importance of political action strategies and their effects for fully understanding teacher unions, little research has focused on that dimension.... Political action is an integral part of union strategies, and its use is likely to grow. Educational policymaking is becoming more centralized, and decisions that were traditionally the sole prerogative of local school boards have now evolved to the state and federal levels. This shift is particularly evident for fiscal issues, but it is also becoming a case for policies related to teacher training, compensation, and evaluation....

"The Emerging Role of Teacher Unions in Schooling Reform. Despite continuing differences between the two organizations, the AFT and the NEA accept political and education imperatives demanding changes in the schooling enterprise and are now among the forces shaping such change. In doing so, both unions have expanded their historical emphasis on promoting teachers' material welfare to include broader issues of school governance...

"Many of teacher unions' participation in schooling reform has occurred outside the formal collective bargaining process, in their capacity as political interest groups. However, the collective bargaining process is often a starting point for local change. Unions and school management have experimented with joint union-district committees that collaborate on solving problems and designing new programs, sidebars to the formal contract for operating experimental programs, contract waivers for individual schools that wish to try new organizational arrangements, and education policy trust agreements that deal with broad policy goals and move beyond the narrow work rules typically covered in collective bargaining contracts."

In 1999, the AFLCIO supported AFT consisted of 900,000 members, while the NEA had a colossal 2,300,000. We're talking major influence peddling potential here. Clearly, the "poor" teachers long ago stopped being the underdog.

So, when you're next tempted to believe the humanistic cries of teachers and their unions, "on behalf of children everywhere," get suspicious real quick. When you hear the expressions Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), remember that teachers and their unions are right there, literally and figuratively, in the middle of things. And, at the heart of union intentions, you will not find the best interests of either you, your children or society's educational system. The system after all, teachers must be made to understand, is not theirs but the community's. That's right, it is YOURS...to do with as YOU like, with their assistance not direction. Tell them so. Tell the board of education and your administrators so. Tell the politicians, who all too often cater to teacher demands out of fear of union influence. Tell them you may not have a lobbyist bearing gifts but something far more influential and politically deadly: a single vote.