The problem with ideology is that it generates beliefs, convictions, and orthodoxies -- not hypotheses.
As an anecdote (and counter-example), I grew up in Wyoming, where there are no laws requiring union recognition, in a school district with no union or association at all, and my primary education was not exactly great. Downright poor, actually, especially when it specifically came to teacher quality.
Further, your alternative "promote or reward based mostly on merit" sounds nice, but unless we can define merit in a measurable way, and gain consensus on that definition, isn't it also mostly empty words?
And, even if we could clearly agree on a way of measuring merit, how well would that survive the morass of local politics that education operates within?
All of this isn't to disagree completely with you.
Rather, it is to say that things are rather messier than 'unions are bad'; education issues (in particular) aren't really amenable to bumper-sticker solutions.
As an anecdote (and counter-example), I grew up in Wyoming, where there are no laws requiring union recognition, in a school district with no union or association at all, and my primary education was not exactly great. Downright poor, actually, especially when it specifically came to teacher quality.
Further, your alternative "promote or reward based mostly on merit" sounds nice, but unless we can define merit in a measurable way, and gain consensus on that definition, isn't it also mostly empty words?
And, even if we could clearly agree on a way of measuring merit, how well would that survive the morass of local politics that education operates within?
All of this isn't to disagree completely with you.
Rather, it is to say that things are rather messier than 'unions are bad'; education issues (in particular) aren't really amenable to bumper-sticker solutions.