Back Talk

The teachers union’s goals seem to be a constant demand for higher teacher pay and benefits, hanging on to the tenure policy that protects incompetent teachers, fighting efforts to require standard testing, pay increases based upon proficiency, enriching union management and generally maintaining the status quo. The writer made the odd argument that every “adult should care deeply about school children because they are our future care givers and tax base.” And, that “They are the ones who will take care of us in rest homes in our final years.” No, we care about our kids’ education because we want them to get the best shot at learning the things they need for a fulfilling life and real chance to compete in the world. As I said earlier, our students’ scores keep dropping yearly relative to all other countries. We now rank below Latvia, right down there with Romania, Croatia, and Albania, far below western European countries. During this failure, the Teachers union has ignored or blocked every single attempt at innovation in fixing our collapsing Government school system. Nero fiddles while Rome burns. The union resisted school vouchers in the face of successful voucher programs - a couple of inner city voucher programs were very successful. The union fought hard, and is still fighting, home schooling, once again, in the face of hard evidence showing home school kids score better than our government school kids. The union, being one of the country’s most powerful, and therefore rich with funds they take involuntarily from the teachers, has bought and paid for our California legislature. That legislature is going to require parents to have a teaching credential before they can home school. Another blow for dumbing down our young people.