Schools Won't Improve Without Labor Reform

There is common agreement between education reformers and the status quo protectors that the most important element to a good education is a good teacher.

Teachers unions suggest that the way to retain “good” teachers is to pay them all more. The collectivist mentality is that every teacher is equal, works equally hard and should be compensated equally.

Many reformers believe that the way to spur improvement and innovation is to reward success, hard work and hold the adults accountable for student achievement. That, of course, flies in the face of collectivism because it incentivizes individual teacher achievement.

This is a result of organized labor having such an iron grip on many American public schools. Weak-kneed school boards and administrators have allowed Big Labor to be the gate-keepers of reform efforts.

And worse, apathetic taxpayers allow Big Labor to call the shots. Just ask Washington, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Fenty has been aggressive at reforming DC Public Schools, which has frittered away hundreds of millions of dollars over the years and produced some of the worse results in the country. Fenty hired Michelle Rhee, a reformer that pushed for performance pay for teachers, making it easier to remove ineffective teachers and other reforms that are an affront to labor leaders.

According to Politico, the American Federation of Teachers plopped $1 million down to defeat Fenty and thus Rhee. It was successful and now Rhee’s DC days are limited.

So labor unions know if they can’t knee-cap the reform initiatives, they can defeat the leaders pushing the ideas.

School employee unions have been steadfast in their defense of their members. The end result? Bad teachers stay in the system.

A New York City principal was quoted in New Yorker magazine as saying Weingarten “would protect a dead body in the classroom.”

One has to wonder what type of quality education a “dead body” could deliver to students.

With “Waiting for Superman,” a new documentary on the state of public education, as well as NBC’s Education Nation taking center stage this week, a serious debate over labor reform must accompany any discussions about the education system.

If teachers want to take the credit for pockets of success, they must also share the blame for widespread failure.