Teachers getting younger and leaving the NEA union in droves. Hair-line crack in the public sector.

Are  Canadian teachers getting younger too?   American K-12 teachers under 30 have doubled in the last couple years although still only making up 1/6th of their work force.  They're quitting unions, too.  It's appalling there are so few young teachers but an increase is good.  Instead of bargaining for seniority, younger pedagogues are interested in high tech and merit pay.  The NEA has lost 11% of its membership in the last four years.  The full story is at the Wall Street Journal behind a pay wall, but quoted at The American Interest.

I think of teachers as public sector because most are paid by taxes that are taken from people and their unions fund parties like the NDP that will scratch their backs.  The public sector is the sector of the economy least responsive to price signals (choice) and even the tiniest hint of a hairline crack in that sector is a sign of hope to me.

"Most notable, however, is the impact these younger teachers are having on teachers unions. The unions usually negotiate rules that favor seniority, so younger teachers are generally the first to be let got when cutbacks are made. Unsurprisingly, those teachers are pushing for unions to adopt measures they have traditionally opposed, like merit pay, or are breaking with unions entirely, as the WSJ reports."