I have family in education and not a single one of them gives a rats ass about the unions. In this area at least, the unions do nothing but protect bad teachers. True education reform would look like making the schools competitive in some way (major reason why school choice is, in my opinion, a good idea) to encourage teachers to actually try. I know three kinds of teachers- the sucky teachers who do as little as possible but toe the party line so they stay in place. The good teachers who go above and beyond (two of my sisters match this category) but end up bogged down by the administration and all the stupid restrictions (not to mention the influence of sucky teachers) and the good, former teachers who got burned out because they had to put up with all the ***** and couldn't handle it.