The unions succeed by intimidating politicians with their raw power while convincing the public that teacher unions love their children almost as much as the parents do. But when the public face of the teacher unions is the Army of Angry Teachers, they no longer seem like Mary Poppins.

Two key fault lines ran through the lively panel discussion of Terry Moe's new book, Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools. One was the notion of "reform unionism" and professional voice. The second was how to judge whether schools or teachers were doing well.

The unions can try to rebuild their image (while doing good for America) by actively participating in efforts to figure out how to evaluate teachers and how schools can make personnel decisions based on those evaluations.

One of the reasons Candidate Obama was so appealing was his call for participants in our democracy to “disagree without being disagreeable.”

A brilliant report from Mike Antonucci at the Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) paints a dark picture of what the recent public union defeats in Wisconsin and elsewhere mean to the National Education Association.

I don’t always agree with Marc Tucker but he knows a heckuva lot...

Governor Crist has vetoed the merit pay bill as part of his plan to run as a third party candidate for the open Senate seat in Florida. What’s interesting about the latest development is Crist’s decision to form an alliance with teacher unions. Unions are typically hard-line Democrats; are they now ready to abandon a long-standing relationship in order to provide the financial backbone of the Crist campaign?

Teacher unions are quietly undermining charter and merit pay legislation that is supposed to help states “race to the top.” To exercise such power, a hefty cash box comes in handy.