Some of my family hate the unions and some love them. I can say the great teachers in my family dislike the unions, while the weak or mediocre ones love them. Why is that? The great ones can't advance themselves while they see weak tenured teachers in higher paying positions.
Steve Jobs got it right the other day when he said this comparing schools and principals to businesses and CEOs:
"What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?"
"Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, 'I can't win.'"
"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.
"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."
What's most interesting is Jobs is a big liberal.
Andy - Believe it or not, sometimes liberals actually do think.
ReplyDeleteAnd are immediately punished for it.
As a former teacher, I can say that you are wrong about this. The kinds of union protections teachers currently enjoy in way mean they cannot be fired; I saw tenured teachers removed during my short three year stint in the education world. Furthermore, the way that teachers get better paid positions is through professional development and experience in the district; there is not really competition between teachers for pay as you seem to indicate.
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