10 September 2012

Chicago Should Bust the Teachers' Union

I am sick of hearing about the teachers' union and their continuing obstruction of efforts to genuinely improve schools. Chicago should not compromise any further with the ridiculous union demands, and work towards busting the teachers' union.

There are highly qualified professionals who would gladly join the ranks of honorable, good teachers in public schools, if only they would be subject to a management and compensation structure that was truly merit based, like the vast majority of professionals expect in the private sector and other jobs. Instead, the unions have forced schools across the nation to minimize management authority and eliminate merit from how teachers are paid, resulting in good teachers suffering along side equally paid bad teachers, who have jobs for life.

Today's teachers' union strike is a desperate ploy to garner public support for their dying cause. People are passionately supportive of teachers and almost universally mistake support for the union as equivalent support for teachers. To truly help the teachers, the union must be defeated.

The current situation with the strike in Chicago deeply hurts all the children and continues a long running pattern of harm to America's productivity, leadership, and global competitiveness.