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Comment by aappleby | Hacker News Reader

I don't think I've ever heard "big powerful unions" and "teachers" in the same sentence before.

The NEA is the largest union in the United States.

But also not functionally a union. Teachers are actually represented by their state affiliate, and whether or not they can collectively bargain (the sine qua non of being a union) varies from state to state. Personally, I've lived in several states, but none in which the state Education Association was able to collectively bargain for its members.

Every K-12 teacher I've known (male and female) has had times when they've come home crying from the stress. (workload, the kids you care about and can't help, ...)

The NEA does something about pay and tenure but when it comes to protecting teachers emotionally forget about it. Roughly half of the people who get a teaching certificate at their own expense discover it is a job that they can't stand to do.

State affiliates acting at the behest of a national union is a functional union, and have been effective in collectively bargaining for members since the 1970s.

Not when the state affiliates are not allowed to collectively bargain.

I recommend looking into the many things that NEA (and other national unions like it) do to enact their agendas regardless of their ability to bargain within a given state. For example the U.S. Department of Ed basically exists because of the NEA's lobbying efforts.

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