Back in 2012, we poked fun at the American Federation of Teachers. They’d sent out a pre-election survey to candidates. Twenty-Five questions, and not one of them was about children or education. Power and money. That was their agenda. And here comes the NEA a decade later.
Articles tagged as
Teacher Unions
Biden Hates Parental Rights, and More! – Stack of Stuff Part 24
The schools are open, but homeschooling continues to surge …Once they got the hang of doing homeschooling, a lot of parents decided to stick with it even after the public schools reopened. The coronavirus pandemic ushered in what may be the most rapid rise in homeschooling the U.S. has ever seen. Two years later, even … Read more
If Public Schools Are Better They Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Competition
SHOT: Kansas Teacher Unions hate curriculum transparency for Parents (e.g., prevent Parents from being able to access ALL of the materials we use to teach their kids).
Schools Exist For the Education of Children – Not to Provide Iron-Clad Jobs for Teachers…
“Schools exist for the education of children. Schools do not exist to provide iron-clad jobs for teachers, billions of dollars in union dues for teachers unions, monopolies for educational bureaucracies, a guaranteed market for teachers college degrees or a captive audience for indoctrinators.”
It’s All About the Kids… and the Tan… and the Fresh Caribbean Sea Food
Whenever it’s time to negotiate new teacher contracts, unions always frame their arguments to justify more lucrative contracts by saying, “It’s all about the kids.” But unfortunately, that’s rarely true.
“Job Creators Network Ad: Teachers’ Unions ‘Using Our Kids as Political Pawns’ for Their ‘Socialist Agenda’”
This ad is actually a fempto-documentary – the things that are in it can easily be found online from that the unions themselves have either said or written to School Boards around the nation.
If you Thought that the LA Teacher’s Union Demands (to go back to work) Was an Outlier…
Once again, it’s a union showing that they are all about the Union – not about the kids. It’s about Societal Change, and teaching “Social Justice” not academics. It is not about educating your kids.
The Lakes Region Charter School Project
Are you satisfied with the public schools in the Lakes Region? Are you satisfied with the way our public schools are being run into the ground by our elected school board members, members of the staff at the SAUs, and the teacher unions? Are you satisfied with Political Correctness run amok in our public schools … Read more
So, how effective are Teachers of today vs Teachers of 1970?
Only the same (but paid a whole more) – one would have thought in 40 years, much better. In the Wall Street Journal:
“Let’s hire another hundred thousand math and science teachers,” said President Obama…
…“For decades we have tried to boost academic outcomes by hiring more teachers, and we have essentially nothing to show for it. In 1970, public schools employed 2.06 million teachers, or one for every 22.3 students, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Digest of Education Statistics. In 2012, we have 3.27 million teachers, one for every 15.2 students. Yet math and reading scores for 17-year-olds have remained virtually unchanged since 1970, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress. The federal estimate of high-school graduation rates also shows no progress (with about 75% of students completing high school then and now). Unless the next teacher-hiring binge produces something that the last several couldn’t, there is no reason to expect it to contribute to student outcomes. . . . Parents like the idea of smaller class sizes in the same way that people like the idea of having a personal chef. Parents imagine that their kids will have one of the Iron Chefs. But when you have to hire almost 3.3 million chefs, you’re liable to end up with something closer to the fry-guy from the local burger joint.”
Problem is, in this economy, not even the kids aren’t getting the jobs where the tail end sentence is “Want fries with that”? The emphasis has been wrong headed on focusing on just class sizes – and that meme aided and abetted by Teachers Unions everywhere (e.g., more teachers = more dues = more political power). What the Unions DON’T want to take center stage is that a more primary determinant of student performance is actually the quality of the teacher in front of the class. Yes, much more Political Correctness to deal with (and whose fault is THAT!) and regulations and paperwork (thanks, govt and busybodies everywhere!).
And the Teachers’ unions can’t understand why we don’t believe them?
In my opinion, public education has gone down a path of disaster in many ways – too many teaching methodologies that are not much more than somebody’s fad idea instead of being verifiably certified effective, teachers who believe their mission is to indoctrinate students with “a worldview” instead of teaching subject basics well, and unions that want you to simply believe that higher salaries and perks are an instant panacea to what they’ve been doing the last 30 years.
So, DO watch this of a high school student asking other students some simple, basic American Civics and geography questions. Watch the utter cluelessness (with the exception of one young lady) and the blank stares of these high schoolers when the mic is offered in their general direction.
(H/T: The Blaze)
Well prepared and taught by their teachers, eh? The problem for parents and taxpayers is…
The Real Reason For Raising The Drop Out Age To 18?
I can tell you from long discussions about the various pathways to “graduation” that the goal is more geared toward getting kids through school on paper to make the numbers look good. Any reasonable path to that end is considered a win, but by any traditional standard it is anything but a public school success story.