A schoolhouse divided

National | To the alarm of the big teachers unions, nonideological competitors are forming in right-to-work states | Bob Jones

Tracey Bailey almost got sucked in. He was a first-year science teacher at Satellite High School near Florida's Kennedy Space Center when the brochure from the teachers union arrived in his mailbox. "I might have joined out of naïveté," he mused, but he was just too busy to respond. Teaching five different classes every day and trying to learn the ropes of his new profession, "I was barely keeping my head above water."

So he put the brochure aside, thinking he might join later. But soon a second brochure arrived, and then a third. The language was increasingly urgent, the pressure increasingly high. One suggested the young teacher was a "freeloader," letting his colleagues pay their union dues while he enjoyed the benefits without paying his fair share.