Many teachers are nonunion out of personal conviction, as well as for financial reasons. One explanation is that labor law allows NEA and AFT to act as gatekeepers, much as it does other unions. In states with collective bargaining laws for teachers, unions can make teachers join, or pay ''agency fees'' in lieu of joining, as a condition of employment. In those states, teachers with different political views must still pay the union or not get a job. For teachers who do back their unions, there's a good reason for it.
Unions overwhelmingly represent teachers in public schools.
And public employees' unions have a distinct agenda, argues Rutgers University economist Leo Troy, one of Haar's co-authors. Old- style unionism focused on working conditions and job security. The New Unionism has yet to see a tax it doesn't like,'' he wrote. Teachers' unions thus have an interest in forming cadres for the party of income redistribution - the Democrats. Berthoud of the De Tocqueville Institution did some calculation early this year.