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“When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.”
That quote is by Albert Shanker, the teachers’ union president, in a moment of brutal honesty.
John Stossel has a question: If education spending is at an all-time high, why are test scores flat-lining?
Answer: Gubmint.
School spending has gone through the roof and test scores are flat.
While most every other service in life has gotten faster, better, and cheaper, one of the most important things we buy — education — has remained completely stagnant, unchanged since we started measuring it in 1970.
Why no improvement?
Because K-12 education is a government monopoly and monopolies don’t improve.
The government-school monopoly claims: Education is too important to leave to the free market. At a teachers’ union rally, even actor Matt Damon showed up to deride market competition as “MBA style thinking.”
“Competition may be okay for selling movies and cell phones, but education is different,” says the establishment. Learning is complex. Parents aren’t real “customers” because they don’t have the expertise to know which school is best. They don’t know enough about curricula, teachers’ credentials, etc. That’s why public education must be centrally planned by government “experts”.
Those experts have been in charge for years. They are what school reformers call the “Blob.” Jeanne Allen from the Center for Education Reform says for years attempts at reform have run, “smack into federations, alliances, departments, councils, boards, commissions, panels, herds, flocks and convoys, that make up the education industrial complex, or the Blob.
Taken individually they were frustrating enough, each with its own bureaucracy, but taken as a whole they were (and are) maddening in their resistance to change. Not really a wall — they always talk about change — but more like quicksand, or a tar pit where ideas slowly sink.
And the most powerful part of the Blob is the teachers’ union.
Ornery1
September 18th, 2011
Matt Damon is a college drop-out—albeit a Harvard University, English Major college drop-out– so that qualifies him to deride MBAs in what way? He knows MBA-style thinking about as well as he knows quantum physics style thinking.
If schools had a few more MBAs and a lot less Education PhDs I guarantee there would be improvements in test scores.
Union goon gives up the plot of the education-industrial complex
September 18th, 2011
[...] don’t care about kids, they just want to keep laundering taxpayer money to the [...]
ingvard
September 18th, 2011
“Competition may be okay for selling movies and cell phones, but education is different,” says the establishment. Learning is complex. Parents aren’t real “customers” because they don’t have the expertise to know which school is best. They don’t know enough about curricula, teachers’ credentials, etc. That’s why public education must be centrally planned by government “experts”.
Is why our son was home schooled, universities want HS young adults, study habits, team leadership,critical thinking, cleaner living, higher grades, all above the most gov school grads that is IF they graduate.
Dianne
September 18th, 2011
Why is he even putting in his two cents? His kids won’t be going to public school.
Is he receiving union money to be their spokesman?
even steven
September 18th, 2011
The reuirement in my state for the teachers have a degree in “education” in order to teach is a huge part of the problem. According the state standards, someone who has a MS in Systems Management, a BS in Mechanical Engineering, taught economics history classes at the college level, and has 25 years experience as a registered investment advisor isn’t qualified to teach a high school business class, but a guy with a Education degree and minor in business is. We can thank the teachers unions for that.
Rightwingfeather
September 18th, 2011
@ES
I noticed the same thing. I was not qualified to teach high school chemistry, even though I had a Ph.D. in Chemistry, had worked as a chemist and had taught chemistry at a college level for years. I just didn’t have those “education” courses.
Clearly, getting the best qualified teachers to educate our young is not the goal of our government. The real goal is keeping the union members happy. Even as we sacrifice our own children, their future and our own. Sad.
Ornery1
September 18th, 2011
@Rightwingfeather
Ph.D. in Chemistry–It’s fine in practice, but will it work in theory?
I took a look at a CUNY site to see what it takes to get an education degree.
Now I see the problem. How can you expect to effectively teach Chemistry without these:
EDD 691 Perspectives on Managing Diverse Learning Settings
EDD 614 Different Minds: Exploring Cognitive Diversity
EDD 634 Teaching In America: The Lives of Teachers
EDD 623 The Cultural Context of Thinking and Learning
Col. Angus
September 18th, 2011
What’s up with celebs and the hand sign? Are they ordering two appletinis? Saying I like two balls on my chin? Volvos rule? Gimme a break, they make a living in front of a camera.
plf5403
September 18th, 2011
Are you sure it’s not Albert Chancre?
chan·cre/ˈkaNGkər/
Noun:(1) A painless ulcer, particularly one developing on the genitals as a result of venereal disease…
(2) The initial lesion of syphilis and certain other infectious diseases, commonly a more or less distinct ulcer or sore with a hard (Left) base.
tenore
September 18th, 2011
I am not nor have I ever been an admirer of Albert Shanker. But I think there’s grounds to think that the quote is not authentic:
http://shankerblog.org/?p=2562
The quote you printed doesn’t sound a lot like Shanker. It sounds too stupid and thuggy and Presidential (2009-2013).
Ima Souperconservative
September 18th, 2011
The evil, capitalistic business that my husband and I own assists people with disabilities. Often times, we work with college students who have severe dyslexia and cannot read, write, or spell.
Want to guess what 8 out of 10 of those college students are majoring in?
Education. They all want to be teachers. I kid you not.
The fact they they even graduated high school astonishes me. Some of them are reading on a 4th grade level.
The Morning Links (9/19) | From the Desk of Lady Liberty
September 19th, 2011
[...] Gubmint: iOwnTheWorld showcases one of my favorite union quotes of all time and it’s attached to a good read. [...]
NancyT
September 19th, 2011
I went to Matt Damon’s fan page and all of his stories on politics have the comments turned off. I guess he couldn’t take the criticism of those who actually live in the real world?
How many people does Matt employ?
Doesn’t he see a disparity with his expoundings and his life style?
Do his children go to public school?
Does he ever have to worry about the water heater breaking down?
We all know that answer to the last one. The addest part of this is that I have always enjoyed his work. He should have stuck to it.
centrifuge separation
October 11th, 2011
6-S Shaking Table,table concentrator,shaker table for gold,concentrator tables—Gravity Separation Equipment