Tag Archives: Student

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 less ;government 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 show. … Read More