Future of U.S. Education: From Milwaukee to Mexico?
Posted July 7th, 2010 at 6:00pm
Stephen Moore has a good case study in the July 7 Wall Street Journaldetailing the intransigence of the Milwaukee Teachers’ union, which is refusing to give an inch in negotiations with the local school board as it tries to close a funding gap and avoid teacher layoffs. Rather than agree to a sensible and fair proposal to reduce the cost of teacher health benefits, the union is stonewalling and counting on the Obama Administration to bail it out one more time.
For a nightmarish vision of where this sort of public sector union heavy-handedness will lead the U.S., one need look no further than Mexico. Students in that country have been victimized for decades by the immense and politically powerful National Educational Workers’ Union (SNTE, according to its initials in Spanish), the largest labor union in Latin America.
As renowned expert on Mexico and long-time College of William & Mary Political Science Professor George Grayson puts it, “Mexico’s public schools are an abomination” and the primary explanation is “the colonization of the public-education system by the SNTE.” The “hugely corrupt 1.4 million-member” union consistently blocks reforms and answers every complaint about educational performance with demands for yet more taxpayer funding of its failed system.
Prof. Grayson describes elementary schools in Mexico that provide only four hours of daily instruction using “an outmoded curriculum that has been handed down from generation to generation and is zealously guarded by the change-averse SNTE.” Teachers stress rote learning, harsh discipline, and their mantra: “be quiet, pay attention, and work in your own seat!” Meanwhile, as Grayson notes, “U.S. taxpayers pick up the bill for poorly educated Mexicans who cross into this country unlawfully.”
Students in some large U.S. cities know all too well how politically muscular teachers unions can hinder their learning. For example, powerful teachers’ unions in Washington, D.C. have fought to end the highly-successful and very popular D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which allows poor children to receive a scholarship to attend a private school of their choice.
LOOKS LIKE OUR REPRESENTATIVES TO CONGRESS HAVE FAILED CONNECTICUT IN GETTING SOME OF THE EDUCATIONAL FUNDING ..."It's obvious if the economy doesn't turn around and we continue to have dire fiscal straits in Connecticut, we will have to push back various reforms," said State Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee.
"We're going to have to find the dollars to implement this. We cannot create some kind of unfunded mandate for cities and towns that are already strapped."
House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, said that without the funding, taxpayers will now be expected to foot the cost of the state school reform legislation, a prospect he warned about during floor debate this spring. He noted that the bill puts several mandates on local school systems, including increasing graduation credit requirements by 25 percent.
"The attitude in the legislature has been that there's no need to worry because someone else is going to pay for this," Cafero said.
Tom Murphy, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the state might have to delay the planned start of the high school reform package in 2014, as well as plans to emphasize math, science, technology and engineering in the classroom. It could also delay planned professional development programs for teachers and administrators designed to encourage engagement of parents in their child's school.
"We won't be able to do as much of this as fast as we'd like," Murphy said, "but that doesn't mean we won't be doing these things. It's just going to take longer."
Connecticut was among 39 applicants vying for the $3.4 billion in federal economic stimulus money. Although it wasn't a finalist, neighboring Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island were.
