Standing up for teachers

[proud2BlibKansan]

Teachers are heroes, not villains, and it’s time to stop demonizing them.

It has become fashionable to blame all of society’s manifold sins and wickedness on “teachers unions,” as if it were possible to separate these supposedly evil organizations from the dedicated public servants who belong to them. News flash: Collective bargaining is not the problem, and taking that right away from teachers will not fix the schools.

It is true that teachers in Chicago have dug in their heels against Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s demands for “reform,” some of which are not unreasonable. I’d dig in, too, if I were constantly being lectured by self-righteous crusaders whose knowledge of the inner-city schools crisis comes from a Hollywood movie.

The problems that afflict public education go far beyond what George W. Bush memorably called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” They go beyond whatever measure of institutional sclerosis may be attributed to tenure, beyond the inevitable cases of burnout, beyond the fact that teachers in some jurisdictions actually earn halfway decent salaries.

more . .
https://apps.facebook.com/wpsocialreader/me/channels/read/content/845L9?utm_source=redirect&utm_medium=headline&utm_campaign=gen_redirect&denyRedirect=http%3A%2F%2Fwpsocialreader.washingtonpost.com%2Ffbwapolabs%2Fme%2Fredirect%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2Feugene-robinson-standing-up-for-teachers%2F2012%2F09%2F17%2Fad3ee650-00fd-11e2-b257-e1c2b3548a4a_story.html%3Fsocialreader_check%3D0%26denied%3D1

[Wheezy]

1. I agree.

I have met countless teachers who are heroes.

[iemitsu]

2. thank you mr robinson.

income is the greatest indicator of school success. study after study has concluded that this is the case.
charter schools have the effect of segregating students by income and making low income serving schools sure failures.
the current reform goals are not to improve public education but to demonstrate their failure and turn them over to private interests.
the advocates of charter schools or vouchers seek to both get their hands on the public purse and destroy the teachers unions under the guise of better choice.
they are masters at sales. they know how to sell something with little value for a huge price.
their goal is to increase income inequality even more.
public educators and public employees in general provide a much better product and for less of a price. we are not in the business for profit.