Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution has published “American Teachers: What do they believe?” Author Dr. Robert Slater has sifted through some available data obtained from 3.5 million Americans who are K-12 teachers to discern some generalities regarding their social and political positions. Demographically, the typical teacher is a 46-year-old, white woman who is more conservative than other Americans of similar levels of education.
This is mildly surprising to me because the typical NEA representative is solidly planted Left. In my experience, however, most of my teacher friends are conservative but I thought that more a function of Alaskan culture than being a consistent trait of teachers’ demography.
So, here is what the Dr. Slater’s data mining found when comparing teachers to other Americans of similar education:
- More likely to censor pornography, 50% favor making it illegal
- More likely to attend church weekly, pray regularly
- Less likely to support government welfare programs
- More likely to oppose legal abortion
- Less likely to agree that homosexual behavior is “not wrong at all”
- Less liberal in free speech issues though more liberal than those with less education.
Do these personal values of the average teacher reflect the positions of their outspoken union? Clearly, the answer is no. Even more surprising is that such a large group with fairly conservative values is represented by a union that is as Leftist as they come. Perhaps after long days in classrooms there is little energy left to fight the battles within the union. Even when their hard-earned union dues are spent on causes that run counter to their individual convictions.
H/T: Joanne Jacobs
Dr. Slater’s complete article pdf
my ps relatives say they would never join NEA. Dh quit the police union over the candidates the PAC chose to endorse, who were liberal, when the majority of the officers in his department are conservative.
It’s possible to take those stances and opt out of the union in a Right-to-Work state. And I applaud that. However, Alaska is very heavily influenced by public sector unions and is not a Right-to-Work state.
I’ve been reading teacher and education blogs for awhile and it seems to me that the value many teachers hold, liberal OR conservative, and feel the NEA doesn’t share is a commitment to educating kids.
Dawn,
I would agree with that perspective. It’s been our experience here when NEA-Alaska opposed the proposal to equip all teachers with skills to teach reading. Even though 1-in-4 students leave school without adequate reading skills. Here’s my post on that.
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