Comments on: Voucher Opponents Losing PR Battle

By: Pajamas Media » LAUSD’s Big School ‘Reform’ Is Already DOA

Pajamas Media » LAUSD’s Big School ‘Reform’ Is Already DOA — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:52:10 +0000

[...] touted the move as an open admission that the government monopoly status quo is a failure, and as yet another sign of the increasing turn against the teacher unions on the political [...]

By: Jim Baker

Jim Baker — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:39:15 +0000

Rachel,
I just can’t figure out where you found that frivolous lawsuits are more prevalent in ‘flyover’ country. But I do know that it is the taxpayers, who pay all of the administrative costs for the schools, who ultimately end up footing the bill for defending against these frivolous lawsuits. Whomever has the deep pockets, gets served with the lawsuit. So usually it is the school system, not the teacher, who gets sued. At least I agree with you that frivolous lawsuits create major administrative problems for our school systems, as do the labor unions and the governments.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:41:54 +0000

The main reason most teachers are in the unions is for protection against (phony) lawsuits from students and their parents. Esp those who teach in ‘flyover’ country. If there was a program which still gave the same protection those unions would truly start to sweat.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:20:20 +0000

why indeed.

the last thing the liberals/socialists want is educated people.

they worked hard to destroy the education system in public schools and are not going to allow anyone to try to correct the situation.

By: Marc Malone

Marc Malone — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:00:01 +0000

It’s about money and power. These union bosses are protecting the best job they could possibly get… like so many Congressmen and Senators do.

By: Jim Baker

Jim Baker — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:10:51 +0000

Unions are unions, no matter what political stripe they attach themselves to. Members of all unions have one thing in common, they hire other people to represent them when it comes time to ask the boss for a raise. They have no confidence in their own ability to negotiate a deal based on what they have produced for their organization. It fits perfectly in an environment where the boss doesn’t worry about the outcome of the negotiation, for example, our government schools.

By: Fred2

Fred2 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:33:20 +0000

DavidN wrote:

The trouble is that it may not matter if people aren’t happy with what goes on. Unions like the NEA have money coming out their eyeballs. Imagine if they manage to unionize private schools (a serious possibility if the EFCA passes). Then, public or private school, the job of teaching will be poorly done, and it’ll be impossible to fire bad teachers, regardless of their infractions. In the meanwhile, they pour massive amounts of money into the coffers of the same officials they negotiate their union contracts with, so that they of course get pretty much everything they want whenever a contract is signed.

Of course, this can only occur if the NEA has a steady cash flow, i.e., membership dues. If the dues start drying up, so does the NEA’s political influence.

So, the NEA is not happy as Christian teachers have begun leaving for conservative unions liek the CEAI that don’t promote dangerous Leftist agendas:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=616046

These teachers understand that you must hit Leftists where it REALLY hurts, the pocketbook.

By: Jim Baker

Jim Baker — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:20:11 +0000

Except for the huge and politically powerful government labor union, which educates our kids, we would have had vouchers 25 years ago. Don’t think, with the Democrats in bed with labor unions, that we will ever have a vouchers system in our lifetimes. They will fight this tooth and nail, because the government schools are producing Democrat voters by the millions every year.

By: Blackwell

Blackwell — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:38:43 +0000

Seismic shifts have indeed taken place in what was once a solid wall of people with hands over their ears shouting “the schools are fine!”

In a jaw-dropping rift in the wall, the Los Angeles Times-willfully deaf and blind to union abuses for decades–sharply criticized their resistance to Charter schools and rigid union rules that shield incompetent teachers and actual child abusers. vouchers may be the castor oil the Times is willing to endorse next. The Times has finally become fed up with the same tired excuses for elevating teachers over kids.

Obama’s administration has threatened to withhold federal money from states that fail to consider how well students are doing with partiular teachers–somehting the LAUSD has resisted for decades more. In California there is a firewall between student evaluations of teachers and teacher tenure and compensation.

The LAUSD is currently spending millions on teachers kept at home because the District won’t allow them in the classroom but they cannot be fired.

The unions are still fighting meaningful reforms tooth and nail, and another generation of kids are shoveled out the doors by teachers that wouldn’t last a minute if their performance was fairly judged. Vouchers are begining to look absolutely reasonable to people who wouldn’t allow them on the asme planet five years ago.

Its terrific that even the unions’ stalwart defenders are seeing the light.

By: Seamus

Seamus — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:30:31 +0000

I’m not optimistic either. Private Universities and Colleges indoctrinate their students with liberal ideas and Marxist drivel. They aren’t unionized (formally), yet they subscribe to all the policies and practices of the lefty unions that do exist. How will private schools combat the liberal training teachers get from these bastions of higher learning? And once hired, we are mired.