Posted on 03/20/2013 2:19:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, "Stupid in America," hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don't learn.
The union is a big reason kids don't like school and learn less. Union contracts limit flexibility, limit promotion of good teachers, waste money and make it hard for principals to fire even terrible teachers.
But I was wrong to imply that the union is the biggest problem. In states with weak unions, K-12 schools stagnate, too.
Education reformers have a name for the resistance: the education "Blob." The Blob includes the teachers unions, but also janitors and principals unions, school boards, PTA bureaucrats, local politicians and so on.
They hold power because the government's monopoly on K-12 education eliminates most competition. Kids are assigned to schools, and a bureaucracy decides who goes where and who learns what. Over time, its tentacles expand and strangle attempts to reform. Since they have no fear of losing their jobs to competitors, monopoly bureaucrats can resist innovation for decades.
As one advocate of competition put it, the Blob says: "We don't do that here. We have to requisition downtown. We got to get four or five people to sign off; the deputy director of curriculum has to say this is OK, etc." Most reformers just give up.
The Blob insists the schools need more money, but that's a myth. America tripled spending per student since I was in college without improving student achievement.
In Los Angeles, they spent half a billion dollars to build the most expensive school in America. They planted palm trees, put in a swimming pool and spent thousands of new dollars per student.
The school is beautiful, but how's the education? Not so good. The school graduates just 56 percent of its students.
Three schools in Oakland that Ben Chavis started aren't as fancy, but the students do better. They get top test scores. And Chavis doesn't just take the most promising or richest students, as teachers unions often claim competitive schools do. Chavis' schools take kids from the poorest neighborhoods.
So what does the education Blob decide to do? Shut his schools down.
School board members don't like Chavis. I understand why. He's obnoxious. Arrogant. He probably broke some rules. For example, he's accused of making a profit running his schools. Horrors! A profit!
If he did profit, I say, so what? He still got top test results with lessgovernment money. Good for him!
But the Blob doesn't like success that's outside its monopoly. It doesn't matter that Chavis has now resigned from the school's board. Oakland may still close his schools. Think about that. As measured by student achievement, his schools are the best. But the Blob doesn't care. And the Blob has the power of government behind it.
In New York City, the union teachers protesting outside my office said: "Our rules are good and necessary, and if cities would let us train teachers and run schools, we'd do a great job. ... We have the expertise, intelligence, the experience to do what works for children."
They said if charter schools must exist, the union should run one, and they "would create a school where all parents would want to send their children." So New York City gave the United Federation of Teachers a charter school of its own. The union boss called it an "oasis."
But what happened? Today, the teachers union school is one of New York's worst. It got a "D" on its city report card. Only a third of its students read at grade level. And the school still lost a million dollars.
Yet it's the union's model school! I assume they tried their best, staffed it with some of their best teachers. The union knew we were watching. But with union rules, and the Blob's bureaucracy, they failed miserably.
I really want to ask them why they hate competition, but they won't come on my Fox television show.
Ping
In my experience stupid children often have stupid parents (who do nothing to stimulate them intellectually); I’ve also noticed that many teachers (especially younger ones) are incredibly ignorant about many things we take for granted (in an education sense). Playing Trivial Pursuit with some public school teachers wasn’t just eye-opening; it was downright frightening.
Just goes to show what happens when the government mandates everyone be given something for “free”.
Follow the money. When the teachers returned from the Chicago strike they told the children that they’d done it for them. They had to strike so the kids could get a good education.
I asked these young people in government schools what was wrong before. They mentioned things like overcrowding, not being able to get into an appropriate skill level class, etc. I then asked, “Well, if the strike was for you which of those things changed?” Silence and then one spoke up saying, “Nothing changed.”
I replied, “Something changed: your teachers got more benefits and money.” At that point I’d thought my point made and a victory achieved.
Then someone else said, “The teachers work hard and they deserve it.”
At that moment I thought of Boxer or perhaps the children of Jessie and Bluebell.
I’d place the unions as #2 on the problem list. I think #1 is the “schools of education” that come up with stupid things like “new math” and “creative spelling”.
This ping list is for the “other” articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)
The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.
And they came up with new math and creative spelling because of.....unions!
I was in am EdD program from a well known university for a while, but gave up in disgust. The professors hadn’t been in a classroom for decades, were totally ignorant of computer teaching technology and had little practical knowledge of much else. With the EdD types running our schools it is no wonder they are failing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.