McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers
For the McClatchy news chain, Rob Hotakainen chose an interesting way to spin a discussion on the seeming failure of late of teacher’s unions to push their agenda. Instead of writing that it is teacher’s unions that are “feeling squeezed from all sides,” Hotakainen writes that it is the “teachers” themselves feeling this squeeze. In other words, Hotakainen tried to make it seem as if reform forces are against teachers, not the unions that represent them.
The truth is, of course, that no reform minded government official or non-governmental organization is against teachers. They are against the fraud and waste of union practices and are against union intransigence that fights against the best interests of our children’s educations.
Hotakainen points out that both the California NAACP and local Hispanic groups — groups that are traditionally on the side of unions — have supported recent moves to increase state funding for privately operated schools and instituting merit pay for teachers. He then claims that this is causing “teachers” to feel beset by all sides, left and right.
The nation’s public school teachers are feeling the squeeze from all sides these days, and some of the heat is coming from unlikely sources: minorities and longtime Democratic allies.
This is not the proper way to frame this debate. Teachers aren’t feeling any squeeze. Teacher’s unions are and they are not one and the same.
The fact is that teachers unions have been the single party most resistant to the sorts of changes that must be made to fix our broken schools. The unions have opposed nearly every experiment, every policy to tie pay to test scores, every effort to institute merit measures, every increase in private schools, satellite schools, and charter schools, every attempt to push vouchers and plans for educational dollars to follow the student instead of the school systems… in short any attempt to look for ways to improve our failing educational system is opposed by teachers unions.
Despite how Hotakainen wants to frame the debate, no one, not any group or organization that wants school reform, is antagonistic to teachers themselves. He presents a false dichotomy. It isn’t reformers against teachers. It is reformers against intransigent unions.
Hotakainen does go on to focus more on the claims and complaints of unions in his piece, but the way he frames the debate at the outset is simply not legitimate.
(Shorter post cross posted at National Review Insititute.)
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Posted by Warner Todd Huston on September 22, 2009 12:57 pm
» Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Anti-Capitalism, Barack Obama, Delusional Dupes and DUmmies, Democrats, Education, Government, Government corruption, Journalistic incompetence, Liberal Media/Bias, Liberal World, N.E.A., News, State Government, liberalism
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One Response to “McClatchy: School Reformers are Against Teachers”
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So increasing funding for private schools that employ teachers is anti-teachers. That is some weird logic.
I can see where it anti-union if those teachers are not members of a union.