The last thing these unions can afford to let happen is open competition between the public schools that their members have dumbed down and other schools that are free to omit the fads, bureaucracy and red tape that have ruined the public schools. Despite the unions big lie that parental choice will cost more money drain money from the public schools is the pat phrase in reality, voucher schools get less money per pupil. That leaves more money per pupil in the budget for those students who remain in the public schools. The teachers unions do all they can to create the same handicaps for the voucher schools, or for homeschooling parents, as already exist in the public schools. Among these handicaps are requirements that teachers, including homeschooling parents, must be certified that is, subjected to the same Mickey Mouse courses in education that serve as a barrier to keep out many well-educated people who would like to teach but hate this junk.
Studies show that such courses do nothing to make teachers more effective in the classroom.
Moreover, students taking such courses have some of the lowest test scores of people in any field. The AFT has complained that teachers in charter schools and voucher schools do not have the protection of labor unions. But the whole point of having alternative schools is to get away from the things that are dragging down the public schools. Iron-clad tenure for incompetent teachers and paying good and bad teachers the same salary are among these handicaps created by teachers unions. The more bureaucratic requirements the teachers unions can get imposed on voucher schools, charter schools or homeschooling parents, the more frivolous lawsuits they can launch against these competitors, claiming that they did not jump through this hoop or submit the right form in triplicate.