I agree with every thing you've said, and want to underscore this last paragraph. Yes, ideally that is absolutely what we as taxpayers should want for our schools. Unfortunately, the schools that are most deeply in crisis, are precisely the same schools that have the strongest teacher's unions that make it impossible to examine the individual teacher.
This is the danger with the collective bargaining process in any public/government union. The collective protects the individual. Until the unions are reigned in, America's public education system will continue its death spiral, unabated.
No government employee should be permitted to join a union. Such unions are Government Unions and contribute mightily to Government Party and the Citizens’ parties. The government party necessarily uses its considerable strength to take money by political meanss from everyone else to give to the government employees. They are a natural constituency for higher taxes and more spending. They are a major force for the division between subjects and the ruling class.
I agree with every thing you've said, and want to underscore this last paragraph. Yes, ideally that is absolutely what we as taxpayers should want for our schools. Unfortunately, the schools that are most deeply in crisis, are precisely the same schools that have the strongest teacher's unions that make it impossible to examine the individual teacher.Separating specific examples of both kinds of teachers requires putting down the broad negative brush and closely examining individual cases....the same approach we would want a good teacher to use when his/her students enter the classroom each day.
I went into a union building during a teachers' strike many moons ago, and whatever educational issue was on my mind, they said that the school board meeting scheduled at a certain time on a certain day would discuss that issue. I wasn't the only parent there, by any means - but the chairman of the school board had to dismiss us. He explained that the meeting was explicitly called to discuss negotiating positions in the teachers' strike, and therefore had to be closed to the public! I absorbed that for a moment, and realized that the only reason any of us parents were there was because of a calculated strategy of the union - and thus a calculated lie by the teacher I spoke to - to sow confusion at the board meeting. I bolted upright and led the way out of the meeting, hoping that in that sense my presence there wasn't a total loss.People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or some contrivance to raise prices." - Adam SmithA union is "a conspiracy against the public" - nothing more. You may be sure that I never had any respect for that teacher again!