Video: The truth about teachers unions

Our friends over at Reason are continuing to fight the good fight in favor of increased choice in education. In a new video out today, they examine the state of America's failing public school system and how the educational "machine" is designed not to produce better schools, but to produce more money for unions and, consequently, more donations for liberal politicians:

For decades, teachers' unions have been among our nation's largest political donors. As Reason Foundation's Lisa Snell has noted, the National Education Association (NEA) alone spent $40 million on the 2010 election cycle. As the country's largest teachers union, the NEA is only one cog in the infernal machine that robs parents of their tax dollars and students of their futures.

Students, teachers, parents, and hardworking Americans are all victims of this political machine--a system that takes money out of taxpayers' wallets and gives it to union bosses, who put it in the pockets of politicians.

Our kids deserve better.

WATCH:

In related news, a new study from the Heritage Foundation makes the case for right-to-work for our nation's teachers:

Under general union representation, employees relinquish their individual negotiating authority to a union. The union becomes the sole representative of the employees in negotiations with their employer. Unionized employers must negotiate employment terms with the union and the union alone. They may not bargain with individual workers. Whether employees like the terms their union has negotiated or not, they cannot negotiate them separately. The union decides how to trade off pay, benefits, and other working conditions at the bargaining table. Ostensibly, the union will negotiate better terms collectively than the workers could individually.

However, unions have institutional interests that conflict with their members’ interests. In these cases unions usually place their interests first. For example, unions want to increase their membership and dues income. In states without right-to-work laws, they bargain for “union security” clauses, which require employers to fire workers who do not pay union dues. Such clauses substantially boost union revenues—employees have no choice but to pay. Unions agree to lower compensation in exchange for forced dues.  While this benefits the union, it hurts employees by both cutting their pay and forcing them to pay union dues out of what remains.