Re: 2012 Elections: Corndogs for everyone!
There are many factors that add up to a failing educational system. I think that a LOT of those factors come in ahead of teacher's unions on that list. And a lot of them are unintended consequences such as the one you brought up. The fact is, eliminating unions is not going to fix the system. It probably won't even make a significant improvement and I believe that it might very well hurt the system. And like you said, why should good people turn to teaching? Maybe as a society, we should try to make teaching an attractive field rather than villifying the entire profession, which a LOT of people do. (For the record, I am NOT referring to Old Pio or anyone else on the board specifically here, just a trend in our country)
And as far as unions go overall, I still believe that all things considered they do more good than harm. The bad directly affects relatively few of us, but the good indirectly affects everyone. At least that's how I feel about it.
I think we have major areas of agreement there. We are committing a hugely expensive disservice to hundreds of thousands of kids who really need good educations to compete in today's world. Look at the scandal in Atlanta. My hunch is that's just the tip of the ice berg. And maybe standardized tests aren't the best way to gauge student progress. Okay, then let's find what is and implement that. My nephew tells me of kids whose only reason for being in school is to play basketball (and he coaches JV!). So does he take the hardline on classroom attendance and boot them off the team for absences, or does he employ a more flexible standard? These and dozens of other quandries are faced in classrooms around the country every day. Kids come to class so lacking in basic skills or motivation to learn, Ralph Bunche couldn't make much progress with them.
In Seattle a few years ago a high ranking Microsoft executive was volunteering to teach in an inner city school. One of his students referred to someone or something as being "so gay." The guy asked the kid what he'd think if somebody referred to him by the N-word ( mistake, certainly). This created the customary stink with the customary "community spokesmen" expressing the customary "outrage" at the guy's choice of words. He had to go, they said. And he did. Thus a powerhouse human resource was denied to kids who desperately needed exposure to a successful businessman, or a successful anybody. It simply wouldn't have occurred to these "community spokesmen" to demand that the guy not use the word again, give him a little sensitivity training, and let him resume his good volunteer work. "Community spokesmen" diminishing in a measurable way the education their kids were receiving. Sort of like that guy in the DC administration a few years ago who got into trouble up to his lips for using the word "niggardly," which has nothing whatsoever to do with race. But it "sounded" racist and stupid people forced him to resign, although he was later given another job after this hilarious bit of PC made the DC administration the laughing stock of the nation, again.
A few years ago standout NFL player Dexter Manley of the Redskins tearfully testified before congress that he was illiterate. He'd made it through grade school, middle school, high school and four years of football at Iowa State without learning how to read. Marva Collins of Chicago's famed West Side Prep wound up teaching a basketball player from Creighton how to read. Incidentally, teachers unions in Chicago did everything in their power to downplay and diminish her many academic accomplishments, but that's another story.
So there are lots of factors which contribute to a failing education system. And as you say, unionized teachers aren't necessarily the biggest factor. However, I believe the unions and their bosses are a different matter altogether. I once worked with a pro-union reporter at a Houston radio station who, when reporting from Austin, would always refer to "teacher groups" rather than "teacher unions." I pointed out that there were doubtless teacher groups interested in origami or square dancing who took no position on wage and hour negotiations. Use of the word "union" would clearly establish who he was talking about in the minds of our listeners. But, no, they were teacher "groups." The largest of these "groups," the National Education Association, in my view covers up its purpose with that title. After all, without knowing for sure, an enterprise calling itself the NEA could easily be mistaken for an ad hoc group of citizens trying to reform our education system. And not a powerful union seeking to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for its members. Which, as I have previously noted, is not directly related to improving the education our kids get.
