With Chicago's ugly strike behind them, teachers unions are regrouping with a public relations blitz, meant to both repair their image and rally members who are under more fire than ever.
Unlike their traditional counterparts, charter schools aren't guaranteed an endless existence. And that, supporters say, is a good thing.
As unions move to organize charter-school employees, former D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee rolled out a taut school-reform agenda that pushes charter expansion and public-private vouchers, and she said the untold number of charter teachers she has encountered are not "interested in joining a union."
While many of the first-generation charter schools mimicked their public counterparts in structure and scope, many of the second-generation schools are tailor-made, according to subject matter or populations or moral goals.
