Teachers' unions are under unprecedented bipartisan attack. The drumbeat is relentless, from governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to the film directors of "Waiting for 'Superman'" and "The Lottery"; from new lobbying groups like Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst and Wall Street's Democrats for Education Reform to political columnists such as Jonathan Alter and George Will; from new books like political scientist Terry Moe's "Special Interest" and entrepreneurial writer Steven Brill's "Class Warfare" to even, at times, members of the Obama administration. The consistent message is that teachers' unions are the central impediment to educational progress in the United States. Part of the assault is unsurprising given its partisan origins. Republicans have long been critical, going back to at least 1996. What is new and particularly disturbing is that partisan Republicans are now joined by many liberals and Democrats in attacking teachers' unions. The critics' contentions, which the author sums up as collective bargaining and teachers' unions being undemocratic and bad for schoolchildren, have no real empirical support. Democratic societies throughout the world recognize the basic right of employees to band together to pursue their interests and secure a decent standard of living, whether in the private or public sector. Collective bargaining is important in a democracy, not only to advance individual interests, but to give unions the power to serve as a countervailing force against big business and big government. Moreover, there is no strong evidence that unions reduce overall educational outcomes or are at "the heart" of the education problems. The author contends that if collective bargaining were really a terrible practice for education, people would see stellar results in the grand experiments without it: the American South and the charter school arena. (Contains 25 endnotes and 1 footnote.)