Politico's Stephanie Simon appears to be having
some issues with cause and effect in her piece on "The fall of teachers unions":
Long among the most powerful forces in American politics, the unions are contending with falling revenue and declining membership, damaging court cases, the defection of once-loyal Democratic allies — and a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign portraying them as greedy and selfish.
That "multimillion-dollar public relations campaign portraying them as greedy and selfish" is one arm of a years-long campaign that's involved lobbying, conservative think tanks, and lavish political donations, much of it funded by billionaire "philanthropists" who believe they know better than education professionals what should happen in schools. And that campaign has funded the damaging court cases and many of the legislative and other attacks that have contributed to teachers unions struggles—just as a well-funded anti-union campaign has contributed to the struggles of many other unions over the past few decades. This is not all a bunch of struggles unions are having on the merits with an anti-union public relations campaign as a coincidentally added burden.