Hamilton County Board member speaks out.

Refreshingly blunt comments from Hamilton County School Board member Rhonda Thurman.

She said teachers should give up their memberships in the Hamilton County Education Association, an affiliate of the state and national education associations. Unions view education as an employee opportunity, she said.
(snip)
Mrs. Thurman said more money could be kept in local schools if parents joined parent-teacher organizations instead of parent-teacher associations, which she called negotiating arms for teachers.
(snip)
Mrs. Thurman said she was asked to talk about what she would do in the school system if she were "queen" for a day.
"Besides firing some people at the central office, the second thing I’d do is turn maintenance over to the county," she said. Chattanooga Times-Free Press

If I remember correctly, the fastest growing segment of the National Education Association and its affiliates is support personnel, like custodians, drivers, cafeteria workers, office staff and something called 'paraeducators'. I'm sure the TEA would will fight hard to prevent a loss of maintenance system employees from their union, regardless of whether it's more efficient or not. But I think it's something we ought to seriously consider in this time of very tight money.

(Thanks to Ben.)