Much like a father who never likes the guys his daughter brings home, teachers unions may claim they don?t object to charter schools but almost always try to bring them down. They know how to do it, too, as the Delaware State Education Association recently showed.

This National Education Association affiliate was a main force behind legislation passed last month that imposes a moratorium on new charter schools in Delaware. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat, is expected to sign the ban.

The state teachers union hired the Washington-based research and communications firm of Belden Russonello & Stewart to shape its message. According to an internal strategy document leaked to the public by a Republican state senator, the firm advised the union to ?not attack charters directly??? (no surprise there since parents and the public tend to think of charters as offering wider choice, a good thing) but focus on the public dollars that would flow to charter schools at the expense of public schools, and use teachers to deliver that message.

Why are charter schools such a threat to unions? Not only are charter school teachers in Delaware and elsewhere typically not union members, the organization of schools by district goes hand-in-hand with collective bargaining. Unions start from scratch in more autonomous schools, unless the state requires teachers there to be under the same labor umbrella as district teachers?and Delaware does not. None of the 17 charter schools in the state is unionized.