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Nicholas Kristof (via azspot)
This is a ridiculous argument. Unions are the only means for overworked, underpaid people like teachers to earn a decent living, since our society has shown that we don’t care about them enough to throw money at them. But it’s trendy to bash teacher’s unions now, so Kristof doesn’t want to be out of that mix. He offers no other solution for teacher compensation, other than that we should pay them more.
The corporate people who fund the people and organizations that bash teachers unions want to privatize the public commons. In US political discussion, there’s no suggestion of doing things for the common good. Politicians talk about any program the works for the public benefit as a stain on humanity.
(via ziatroyano)
And, it must be added, the now popularly touted alternative for payment, pay for performance, has been shown repeatedly to be ineffective.
The rest of this article, though, I pretty firmly agree with. Teachers are grossly underpaid and undervalued in America, and the general hostility toward teachers expressed so often by lawmakers only makes the field that much less appealing.