Should PA Leadership Charter School have a union?

PA Leadership Charter School, affectionately referred to as PALCS, is a cyber charter school that attracts students with leadership potential. What does a cyber leader look like? A cyber leader is a student who is willing to be a pioneer and not settle for a standard education. Cyber leaders are also parents who are dissatisfied with the current state of education, and, like pioneers, are willing to take risks for a better education. Parents can have a say in cyber education. Recently my students initiated a snow ball dance in West Chester, PA. One of our parents made a formal complaint about the dance. She was concerned with the dress of the students and behavior of the dancing. I have been in business for 20 years, and I have never seen such responsiveness to a complaint. My students and I designed and put into place a new dress code and behavior guidelines within two weeks time. This change included the input of students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Could such a change have happened in a traditional school setting based on one compliant? I ask this question to demonstrate the flexibility and turn-on-a-dime execution of our cyber school, and the validity of the policy. If we want to keep this flexibility in the laboratory of education, then my vote is to keep unions out.

Perhaps the most confounding reason to vote no to a union is that it is likely to produce opposite results from the rank and files’ expectations. Some people at our school may want a union because they want to protect their jobs. If PALCS does get a union, it is likely that some individual salaries may go up, but there is only so much money, so this is likely to result in the layoffs of the very people who may have voted yes.