By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org
    
MISSION VIEJO, Calif. – The results of the 2013 Association of American Educators member survey are in, and they raise some interesting questions about the political and professional attitudes of K-12 teachers.
    
A clear majority of the teachers who responded to the survey expressed support for several K-12 education reform efforts that have been sweeping the nation, most notably private school voucher programs and other forms of school choice.
    
That puts the AAE teachers directly at odds with national, state and local teacher union officials.
    
Could that mean (as many have suspected over the years) that there is a philosophical disconnect between the liberal political agendas of teachers union leaders and rank-and-file teachers across the nation?
    
Or does it simply mean that AAE teachers, who are mostly non-union, simply think a lot differently than their unionized counterparts?
    
A great cross-section
     
The AAE is the nation’s largest non-union professional educators’ association. It offers members various benefits that are common to teachers unions, like insurance, professional development and legal representation, but does not involve itself in partisan politics.
    
The AAE does advocate for certain types of education reforms, including school choice, increased teacher accountability and improved classroom technology.
    
Once a year the association sends out a poll to all of its members, in an effort to measure their attitudes regarding education related issues. The results are valuable because the attitudes expressed come from the people on the front lines of the education profession, rather than those who claim to represent them.
    
As AAE Executive Director Gary Beckner put it, “The opinions expressed in this survey are those of real teachers, not bureaucrats or union leaders with partisan political agendas.”
    
Alexandra Schroeck, a spokesperson for AAE, said there are strong indications that the poll results mirror some common beliefs among all teachers, union or otherwise.
    
She said the AAE membership – totaling about 12,000 – comes from all 50 states. Members vary in their backgrounds, with some being former union members who dropped out and joined the organization, some being teachers from right-to-work states who never belonged to unions, and some being new educators right out of college.
    
There are even a few AAE members who are union members as well, according to Schroeck.
    
“I think our members represent a great cross section of the profession as a whole,” Schroeck told EAGnews. “I can speak to the fact that members from all 50 states took the survey, and I would definitely say it’s an authentic sampling in terms of the teacher population.”
    
Another clue is the fact that many more AAE teachers are supportive of reforms this year than they were just a few years ago, according to Schroeck. That could signal a general movement in teacher attitudes across the board, she said.
    
“We are definitely seeing a shift in attitudes over the last three or four years,” Schroeck said. “We send out different specific questions in the poll every year, but we’ve definitely seen a trend toward more progressive stances over the last couple of years.”
    
Schroeck said many teachers react differently to reform concepts when they are given all the facts, instead of relying on unions to provide one side of the story.
    
“When given enough information, a lot of teachers are willing to embrace reform for the sake of the students,” she said. “A lot of them are used to getting one single channel of information, from unions, but when we actually sit them down and explain what some of these policies could mean, we’re definitely seeing some positive advancement in the way they are feeling.
    
“I think a lot of teachers are starting to realize that there are some reforms that could actually benefit their profession, as well.”
    
A big majority supports school choice
    
The AAE teachers who responded to the survey expressed strong support for the type of reforms that union leaders tend to hate.
    
Perhaps the most eye-opening statistics involve school choice. While the unions constantly scream about charter schools and private school voucher programs stealing students and money from public schools, the AAE teachers are sympathetic with the public’s desire for numerous government-funded education options.
    
For example, 68 percent of respondents support the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which awards scholarships to needy K-12 students to attend private and religious schools in our nation’s capital.
    
The unions despise the D.C. program and have repeatedly lobbied Congress and the Obama administration to cancel its funding.
    
Another 68 percent of respondents agree with an Indiana law that allows taxpayers with children already enrolled in a private/parochial school or home schooling to claim up to a $1,000 tax deduction per child to help pay for educational expenses.
    
Big majorities also favored several state laws that provide student access to online learning. The unions are skeptical of cyber education, presumably because there is a need for fewer teachers in that environment. Fewer teachers means fewer dues payers for unions.
    
Class size is another area where the AAE teachers clash with the unions. Union leaders constantly gripe about teachers having too many kids in the classroom, but 59 percent of AAE respondents said they would support a 1-2 student increase in classrooms for grades 4-12, to make more money available for teacher compensation, more technology and educational programs.
    
AAE teachers also seem to have a great respect for the public’s right to know. Many school district and union officials prefer to be tight-lipped about school finances, particularly at contract negotiation time, yet 87 percent of AAE respondents said districts should be required to provide an annual fiscal report to the public and conduct collective bargaining negotiations in public.
    
AAE teachers also believe their profession may require general upgrades in terms of personnel. Sixty-two percent of respondents favor an idea to have a “bar exam” for teaching candidates before they are given state certification.
    
The American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second largest teachers union, actually came up with that idea.
    
One survey result definitely suggests that AAE teachers are not of the union mindset.
    
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they would prefer to negotiate their own professional contract (as opposed to union collective bargaining) so they can “negotiate a salary and benefit package that best suits their lifestyle.”