Community Corner
Are teacher unions standing in the way of legislation to keep sex offenders, murderers and kidnappers out of public schools?
That’s a question on the minds of many education reform advocates after an effort in Congress to address the growing problem of educators sexually abusing students appears to have stalled in the Senate.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s two largest teacher unions, are reportedly the only entities to raise objections to the federal legislation, and the unions hold considerable political influence over the Democratic majority in the Senate.
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The unions are also notorious for squashing similar state legislation to make it easier for school officials to terminate teachers who harm their students.