By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Imagine Justin Bieber announcing that he’s going to show Neil Young how to write a song.

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That would be ridiculous, right?

Something equally ridiculous occurred last week when Ohio’s largest teachers union – the Ohio Education Association – announced that it would seek to organize the state’s 300-plus charter schools, in an effort to improve “teaching and learning” at those schools.

Since when have teachers unions concerned themselves with either of those topics?

The OEA believes that “by bringing charter school teachers into the union, it may be possible to morph charters into the kind of schools the union can get behind,” State Impact Ohio reports.

“We don’t support the way charter schools operate in the state of Ohio,” OEA Vice President Bill Leibensperger told the news site. “We believe that by organizing and giving them a voice, that learning conditions will improve.”

Charter schools typically have non-union teachers and support staff, which means they are free of the stifling union work rules that choke the life and innovation out of traditional public schools.

In many cases charters do a far better job of teaching kids than traditional unionized public schools.

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Yet Leibensperger wants Ohio residents to believe the OEA is attempting to unionize charters to make the schools even better and more effective for students. How magnanimous of the OEA!

The reality is much different. It has to do with money, which is typically the top priority for teachers unions.

State Impact Ohio reports that the OEA has been hemorrhaging members in recent years. In fact, the union has seen its membership decline by 5 percent since 2007.

The OEA and Ohio Federation of Teachers would like to unionize as many charters as possible, in order to increase the number of dues paying members. The teacher unions need dues dollars to fund successful political campaigns, which are vital to preserving the unions’ power and influence over public education.

And then there’s the less obvious benefit to unionizing charters: Big Labor leaders understand that subjecting charter schools to suffocating union work rules will level the playing field with union-run government schools.

They understand that if charter school administrators have to jump through union-imposed hoops before deciding to lengthen the school day or making personnel decisions based on student needs, charters will cease to be innovative and effective. In other words, they will become indistinguishable from the traditional public schools they were designed to compete against.

And if charters are proven to be no more effective than government schools, then the unions and their political minions can argue that they don’t work and should be banned.

It’s obvious that “organizing” charter schools is a win-win for teacher unions – and a lose-lose for students and their families.

The OEA is on the prowl, and Ohio taxpayers should be on high alert.