TEACHERS CAN'T HAVE UNIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993                   TAG: 9302080263
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
TEACHERS CAN'T HAVE UNIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM
ROBLEY S. Jones' commentary (Jan. 25, "State teachers must be heard - collectively"), concerning the need for collective bargaining by Virginia's teachers, was an ill-conceived effort to promote an activity in no way related to improving education for our schoolchildren.
Collective bargaining is about power, money, strikes and other coercive activities by union members. It will never improve the educational quality we so desperately need in this country. Just ask the parents of schoolchildren in Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis, where teacher strikes have kept pupils out of classrooms on several occasions for weeks.
Most, if not all, teachers want to be considered and treated as professionals. Union membership and union activity (such as collective bargaining) are completely incompatable with a profession in which individuals are judged daily on their competence and professionalism.
I hope our school boards, local governing bodies and state legislators will not be taken in by this poorly concealed attempt to increase union power over public education and the families who have such an important stake in it. KENT ROBERTS BLACKSBURG

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB