A study of elementary school students in Tennessee shows that smaller classes improve student achievement, especially for disadvantaged children. To reduce class size, the nation's school districts will have to hire 2 million new, well-qualified teachers over the next 10 years just to accommodate the huge influx of children. School districts will need to boost teacher salaries if they want to attract qualified applicants to the field. Since then, the union says violent incidents have dropped by 22 percent. We don't simply suspend students.
Public schools serve the public, and the public demands that schools be safe.
Through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, instructors who master the content they are teaching and demonstrate superior teaching skills receive the board's certification. The union also helps train teachers who want to take the test. The members and leaders of today's unions are working at every level to ensure that the children of working families get the education they need to succeed as workers and citizens. That means lobbying Congress to rebuild crumbling schools, fighting vouchers in state courts and local school boards and boosting student achievement in classrooms across the country.