Yup … here I am again ragging on government education.  I guess I’m getting somewhat of a reputation for this, and of that you can just call me proud.  There’s one website out there – can really remember which one – dedicated to the removal of evil right-wing “hate show” hosts from the “public’s airwaves.”  In the sentenced or two that they dedicated to me (they spend most of their time on Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck) they highlighted my “outrageous” stated belief that America’s teachers unions constitute a greater danger to this country than Al Qaeda. 

Refer back to the section in today’s Nuze titled “The Battle Over Medicare.”  It’s about the Democrat victory in New York’s 26^th Congressional District.  The Democrat won that election principally because the voters did not understand the issue; and the lack of voter understanding allowed Democrats to demagogue the Republican’s plan for Medicare.  Let me ask you .. did you know that the GOP plan for Medicare reform would have absolutely no affect whatsoever on any American 55 and over?  Yet the Democrats showed television commercials of some evil Republican pushing grandma off a cliff.  The problem?  The voters in New York’s 26^th were just not bright enough to see what the Democrats were up to.  As Thomas Sowell said … the problem with the education in this system is that people are simply not educated to the point that they can see through political rhetoric.

That brings us to an article that appeared in The Atlantic (not exactly a conservative publication).  The title is “The Failure of American Schools,” and the author is Joel Klein, the former chancellor of the New York City school system.  Here’s the link for those of you who care enough to read the entire 13-page essay.  For those of you who aren’t quite ready to dedicate that amount of time, I’ve taken an excerpt and pasted it below.  This excerpt deals with the power of teachers unions.  If you have a child in a government school you must read this.  Read it even if you don’t have a child in government schools --- the failure of government education is affecting us all. 

To comprehend the depth of the problem, consider one episode that still shocks me. Starting in 2006, under federal law, the State of New York was required to test students in grades three through eight annually in math and English. The results of those tests would enable us, for the first time, to analyze year-to-year student progress and tie it to individual teacher performance—a metric known in the field as “teacher value-added.” In essence, you hold constant other factors—where the students start from the prior year, demographics, class size, teacher length of service, and so on—and, based on test results, seek to isolate the individual teacher’s contribution to a student’s progress. Some teachers, for example, move their class forward on average a quarter-year more than expected; others, a quarter-year less. Value-added isn’t a perfect metric, but it’s surely worth considering as part of an overall teacher evaluation.

After we developed data from this metric, we decided to factor them into the granting of tenure, an award that is made after three years and that provides virtual lifetime job security. Under state law at the time, we were free to use these data. But after the New York City teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, objected, I proposed that the City use value-added numbers only for the top and bottom 20 percent of teachers: the top 20 percent would get positive credit; the bottom would lose credit. And even then, principals would take value-added data into account only as part of a much larger, comprehensive tenure review. Even with these limitations, the UFT said “No way,” and headed to Albany to set up a legislative roadblock.

Seemingly overnight, a budget amendment barring the use of test data in tenure decisions materialized in the heavily Democratic State Assembly. Joe Bruno, then the Republican majority leader in the State Senate, assured me that this amendment would not pass: he controlled the majority and would make sure that it remained united in opposition. Fast-forward a few weeks: the next call I got from Senator Bruno was to say, apologetically, that several of his Republican colleagues had caved to the teachers union, which had threatened reprisals in the next election if they didn’t get on board.

As a result, even when making a lifetime tenure commitment, under New York law you could not consider a teacher’s impact on student learning. That Kafkaesque outcome demonstrates precisely the way the system is run: for the adults. The school system doesn’t want to change, because it serves the needs of the adult stakeholders quite well, both politically and financially.

But that’s OK, folks. I’m sure that the government school that you chose for YOUR children is just fine, so rest easy.