Nicholas Kristoff, NY TimesTeaching is unusual among the professions in that it pays poorly but has strong union protections and lockstep wage increases. It’s a factory model of compensation, and critics are right to fault it. But the bottom line is that we should pay teachers more, not less — and that politicians who falsely lambaste teachers as greedy are simply making it more difficult to attract the kind of above-average teachers our above-average children deserve.
Ed. Yesterday, the UW AAUP announced that it was exploring formation of a union.
If UW faculty need unions because we are threatened with being treated as piece workers, would unionization that make the factory model inevitable?
The scary model is Western Governors University. The highloy paid Robert Mendenhall, the WGU founder and President, claims that WGU creates efficiency because it tbreaks the faculty job into component parts .. rather like jobs on Henry Ford’s assembly lines. WGU has no faculty jobs as we know them. .
- President Mendenhall, like a CEO, is paid a performance bonus for enrolling more and more students.
- Courses are bought from commercial suppliers or found on the internet. If there really are any faculty at WGU, then perhaps these faculty certify the courseware.
- “Mentors,” by definition support staff without expertise in subject matter, assist students in use of courseware.
- “Graders” read papers and .. at least of papers are assigned. Other exams are subcontracted to for profit “proctors.”
The model is idcal for unionization.