Can Bipartisanship Actually Do Something Good, Like Smack Down Teachers’ Unions?
Teachers’ unions took another publicity hit over
the weekend as hundreds of mayors across the country announced
their support for “parent trigger” laws.
Reuters reports:
Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend
called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing
public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or
turn the schools over to private management.The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on
Saturday unanimously endorsed “parent trigger” laws aimed at
bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst
public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate
change.Such laws are fiercely opposed by teachers’ unions, which stand
to lose members in school takeovers. Union leaders say there is no
proof such upheaval will improve learning. And they argue that
public investment in struggling communities, rather than private
management of struggling schools, is the key to boosting student
achievement.
The unions’ intransigence in the matter is costing them
Democratic support. Mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles,
Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and Kevin Johnson of Sacramento (of
all places) support parent trigger efforts, creating a bipartisan
effort that, for once, might retract the power of government rather
than expand it.
Unfortunately, mayors don’t necessarily have all that much power
over what the school districts do. California already has a parent
trigger law, but teachers’ unions have managed to block efforts to
use them in both Compton and Adelanto.
Change is in the air, maybe:
In Los Angeles, Mayor Villaraigosa blasted union leaders as an
“unwavering roadblock to reform.” In Philadelphia, Mayor Nutter has
backed a plan to close dozens of neighborhood schools and convert
many others to charters, which are publicly funded but privately
run – and typically non-union.And in Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel successfully pushed to cancel
a scheduled 4 percent raise for teachers and extend the school day
by more than an hour. Teachers are so angry, nearly 90 percent of
union members just voted to authorize a strike if ongoing contract
negotiations falter.“We are on the path to
You can read the rest of this article at: http://reason.com/blog/2012/06/18/can-bipartisanship-actually-do-something
Short URL: http://www.txwclp.org/?p=11471
Posted by rbutler on Jun 18 2012. Filed under Libertarian News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
