Study Rebuts Bennett Blast at Teacher Unions

Teacher unions have not been a major obstacle to school reform, according to a study commissioned by the Education Department that contradicts frequent charges made by Education Secretary William J. Bennett.

The RAND Corp. study, released today, said rank-and-file teachers do not want their unions to forsake such “traditional bread-and-butter items” as class size and the length of the school day in negotiating new contracts.

But it said they generally are willing to accommodate efforts to make teachers more professional and to improve the quality of their instruction, such as career ladders and other forms of performance-based pay, as long as they are not at the expense of bread-and-butter improvements.

Bennett’s Charges

“If past experience is any indicator, rank-and-file teachers will not support such trade-offs,” according to the study, “Teacher Unions and Educational Reform,” which was funded by the Department of Education’s Office for Educational Research and Improvement.

Bennett has charged repeatedly that “obstructionist unions” are the major obstacle to improving America’s schools. Last month, in his own report, “American Education: Making It Work,” Bennett said “sound education reforms are threatened by the determined opposition they elicit” from those who claim that fixing the schools “will first require a fortune in new funding.”

“Almost without fail, wherever a worthwhile school proposal or legislative initiative is under consideration, those with a vested interest in the educational status quo will use political muscle to block reform,” Bennett said.

‘Not ... Major Obstacle’

The researchers at RAND, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based think tank, did not mention Bennett by name but said: “Despite charges to the contrary, teacher unions have not been a major obstacle to educational reform.”

Instead, they have tried to accommodate demands for reform, “even in those instances where a specific reform initiative has run counter to their organizational interests or has been at odds with the professional judgment of their members,” Lorraine M. McDonnell and Anthony Pascal wrote.

The study said the unions’ “accommodation and acceptance was critical” to smooth implementation of school reforms. “If teacher unions had wanted to block reform policies, they could probably have done so quite successfully in many local districts.”