There has been a great deal said recently about the root causes of our crisis in education in America. One of the prime causes consistently trotted out by those on the right is that the teachers' unions protect bad teachers, thus promoting bad education. They also claim that teachers' unions drive up the cost of providing education to our children and have exacerbated a bad financial situation. It's no surprise that those making these claims are those who advocate more privatization of public schools and who also oppose universal healthcare in America. In short, we are talking about those who take it as an article of faith that less government is better, and less government in your schools is also better.
In a recent Op-Ed piece printed in the Chicago Sun-Times conservative activist, Star Parker, basically made the argument that unions in general are bad, and unions in our schools are especially bad and the result of all this unionization of our public schools is a bad education for minorities. She then goes on to argue in favor of more charter schools and vouchers to send kids to private schools.
What this is advocating is, in essence, dangerous. There is only one pot of public money and taking money from already underfunded public schools to give it to private schools and charter schools denies yet more funding to public schools already in need of more funding. Yes unions fight against this trend. They fight to preserve the viability of public schools. The movement toward more charter schools and funding of private schools through vouchers, if taken seriously, will eventually lead to the total destruction of the public school system.
There is an argument that private schools and charter schools do a better job of educating children, despite paying their teachers less. This is very selective fact finding. Now that the charter school movement in America has been a reality for a decade or more, the real facts are in. They do not provide a better education for our children. Those charter schools, and private schools that practice selective enrollment have better results. Well, of course they do. They cherry pick the best students, those who were already doing better than the average public school student, and voila they have success.
The truth is that public alternatives also do better. There are college preparatory high schools in every large city in this nation, and they all have selective enrollments, and they all have better success than do neighborhood schools that take any kid, regardless of ability, regardless of behavior issues, regardless of any number of personal and social issues that cause charter schools and private schools to exclude them from their ranks. I will put graduates of Northside College Prep and Whitney Young in Chicago up against the best and brightest from any of the elite private schools in the city.
The real truth is that there are not enough charter schools and private schools in existence to handle the load from the public schools, if we wish the total demise of the public schools. The real truth is that only the best students from the public schools get into those schools and the students who are struggling are left behind in neighborhood schools that constantly have more resources drained from them by sending those resources to private enterprises that don't operate by the same rules. Kids are violent and disruptive and display criminal behavior? Expel them...., unless of course you are a neighborhood public school. Then you educate them as best you can. You can't just rid yourself of them because of the detrimental effect on the rest of the students. They are the public. These are public schools.
Public schools deserve funding. Most of the kids in America can't go to private schools or charter schools. Furthermore, we need a well-paid, well-educated, well-trained force of teachers in those schools. Arguments against unions because they get reasonable salaries and benefits for the teachers, while keeping classroom size down are spurious. Why would any reasonable person with a college degree, a Master's Degree, a PhD want to work in a school that pays them pitifully low wages and scrimps on the benefit package? Plain old good sense will tell you that most people will go elsewhere to someplace that rewards education and competence with remuneration. How can teachers be expected to provide a world class education to students when they are asked to teach 30-35 kids in a classroom. Data shows that the larger the classroom, the more behavior issues occur, and subsequently the teachers have less time to actually meet the needs of individual students.
So let's just stop this "Unions are ruining our schools nonsense." Unions look out for the job security of teachers, yes. However, they also look out for the best interests of the schools, by ensuring that quality teachers can afford to work in education, by ensuring that teachers can reach the individual students in classes of reasonable sizes. They are looking out for, not just the best and brightest students, but also the students with challenges and disabilities. In short, teachers' unions are looking out for the education of America's children, all of America's children. Efforts at destroying unions and privatizing our schools are misguided. A great many dedicated to doing their best to provide quality educations for all, despite overwhelming odds. Walk a mile in their shoes sometime. Go to one of these so-called poorly performing schools and follow a teacher around for a week or two. Then tell me that they and their unions are ruining education in America.
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