Unions Turn Critical Eye on Themselves

By Ann Bradley

Los Angeles

Bashing teachers' unions never goes out of style in education. But when the complaints started flying thick and fast at a recent meeting here, the malcontents weren't business leaders or politicians. Rather, they were union leaders themselves.

They complained about their unions' layered bureaucracies, disengaged members, and overworked staffs and officers. And that was just for starters.

Such candor—and the opportunity to exchange ideas about possible remedies—is a hallmark of a 4-year-old network of union affiliates, known as TURN, for Teacher Union Reform Network of...