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Posted on 12/10/2001 5:48:12 AM PST by Constitution Day

Taking back control of schools

December 7, 2001

Studies of fourth graders from poor families indicate that 60 percent of them cannot read at grade level. It is also generally known that a significant portion of high school graduates in this country are functionally illiterate.

Nowhere is the failure of leftist policy more evident than in our public school system.

Step one, of course, is to identify the culprit. When there were allegations that tobacco executives deliberately hooked teenagers on cigarettes, there was justifiable outrage. But a high school graduate with a cigarette habit is in much better shape in modern America than one who is unable to read and write. And, surprise, surprise, the same people who were most outraged at the evil tobacco corporations are ardent supporters of those responsible for the education debacle.

Let’s agree at the outset that a part of the problem in public schools is caused by the breakdown of the family unit. But, another reason for the degradation of schools is the power of the teachers’ unions. And correcting the problems caused by union bosses is easier than correcting the family unit problem, so let’s focus on that. And since Democrats always twist any criticism of education union bosses into a criticism of teachers, this is not a criticism of teachers; repeat, this is not a criticism of teachers.

Because of the union bosses, in some areas, it is virtually impossible to fire an incompetent teacher. In New York City, it takes 22 months to fire a teacher accused of sexual molestation and it costs $200,000 in legal fees to fire an incompetent teacher. For union bosses, allowing hundreds of children to be affected by a bad teacher is preferable to losing any power.

Union policy has an effect on competent teachers as well. Suppose a violin player in the Podunk Symphony is told he has a job for life, no matter how poorly he plays. Further, he will receive raises based on years experience and cost of living, but will never get a raise based on performance. Does anyone actually believe he would perform as well? But, this is exactly analogous to the unions’ position, with opposition to merit pay and support for the job-for-life benefit. When presented with an opportunity to support merit pay for teachers, (Abraham amendment to Educational Opportunities Act, S. 2, May 4, 2000), North Carolina’s Sen. John Edwards voted with union bosses, and against improved education. He displays his 100 percent rating with the union bosses on his Web site. As anyone paying attention knows, Edwards talks like a moderate but he votes the straight Democratic Party line.

Union bosses (www.nea.org) considered the vote against merit pay to be among the five U.S. Senate votes in the year 2000 most critical to their agenda. That fact alone illustrates their complete and utter disregard for school children.

What can be done to counteract union bosses? On the federal level, the Department of Education should provide all the legal costs required to fire any teacher. (If a school board abused that power, local voters would correct the problem.) In the current situation, a school board choosing between spending $100,000 in legal fees to fire an incompetent teacher or using the money to fix the roof, will fix the roof. Then they just transfer the incompetent teacher to a poor neighborhood, where parents’ expectations are lower.

The second action element would be to declare a national firing day. Pick a day, say next Tuesday. While most teachers are excellent, many are incompetent, and if thousands nationwide were fired on the same day, the unions’ legal resources would be stretched to the limit.

School reform proposals from Republicans should continue to include vouchers, an escape hatch for poor kids trapped in public schools. And, while we are at it, let’s change the term “vouchers” to “school stamps,” to more closely identify them with the food stamp program. If a Catholic church opened a grocery store in a poor neighborhood and accepted food stamps, would anyone be calling for the elimination of food stamps? Of course not. The difference between food stamps and school stamps is that food stamps don’t affect the power of union bosses.

Vouchers are another word for competition. When Japanese car manufacturers began competing with U.S. manufacturers in earnest in the ’80s, the UAW squealed as loudly as the teachers’ unions do today. But when competition came anyway, they snapped into shape and quality improved. The same thing can happen with public schools.

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John Fogle, a Times-News community columnist, operates a computer software company in Hendersonville. Contact him at info@fogle.com

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