Formalized Mancur Olson His masterpiece, published in 1971 The logic of collective actionSmall social groups are easier to organize than larger ones. Thus, other things being equal, a small group can be more effective at lobbying government, even if the sum of the gains of its members is less than the losses of all the members of the larger group. One example can be seen in primary and secondary education, where teachers’ unions impose working conditions that benefit their members but reduce the value of the product that students and their parents get. (“Schooling in wealthy countries lags behind“, economist(July 7, 2024)
Both parties in an exchange will benefit from the exchange (as each party determines for itself) or the other will refuse to do so. But this basic economic principle only applies to free exchanges; it doesn’t apply when one party imposes conditions by force or when one side includes unwilling members.
Since 2000, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has assessed 15-year-old students in math, reading and science. Average scores showed no improvement from the early to mid-2010s, then declined until 2022 (the most recent year available). Other indicators broadly confirm this trend, which has been evident since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The journal points out:
Nearly a quarter of 15-year-olds in OECD countries fail to meet basic math, reading and science proficiency standards set by PISA, meaning 16 million teenagers struggle with tasks that involve calculations or find it harder than expected to derive meaning from basic texts.
One reason why more consumers (students’ parents) cannot change the situation follows from Olson’s Collective Action Theory.
Students and their families are rarely organized, which makes it easier for teacher unions to resist changes to things like teacher training and evaluation.
Several 70% 100% of teachers belong to a union, an unusually high percentage, but this includes less-controlled employee unions. Parents with children attending small schools may be able to organize locally at low cost (in a decentralized system like the United States), but they often face teachers unions at the state or national level. Unions benefit from special legal privileges and powers, including employers’ obligation to negotiate, interference with or threat of strikes, and obligations for workers to be union members or pay union dues. Depending on state law, teachers unions can exercise some of these powers, which can encourage collective action and lead to restrictive collective “agreements.”
I am not arguing that this is the only problem plaguing public schools. Other flaws in the political process, including politicians’ short-termism, prevent elected officials from fixing weaknesses in our public education system. economist recognition:
Meanwhile, leaders are being asked to spend political capital on changes that may not bear fruit for years.
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By DALL-E, UNIONIZED TEACHER (INSPIRED BY YOUR HUMBLE BLOGGER)
