How Teachers Unions Lead the Way to Better Schools = Diane Ravitch

[Coyotl]

How Teachers Unions Lead the Way to Better Schools
Diane Ravitch upends the “bad teachers” narrative.
http://inthesetimes.com/article/14160/how_teachers_unions_can_lead_the_way_to_better_schools/



BY Amy Dean

Part of what I object to is the assumption that somehow the problems in American education are all tied up with teachers. The teachers are causing low performance, and if we could just find the ideal teacher evaluation system, we would be the highest performing nation in the world. I think that’s a false narrative.

I have a concern: Teachers are getting pummeled. Too often, they are being demonized in the media and blamed by politicians for being the cause of bad schools. Right-wing governors, power-hungry mayors and corporate “reformers”—all ignoring root issues such as poverty and inequality—have scapegoated the people who have devoted their lives to educating our children. Moreover, these forces are seeking to destroy the collective organizations formed by educators: teachers unions.

The stakes for our country could not be more profound. The labor movement and the public education system are two critical institutions of American democracy. And they are two that go hand in hand. Teachers unions have played a critical role in advocating for public education, but you'd never know it from mainstream media coverage. Therefore, there is a great need to lift up this tradition and highlight the efforts of teachers to collectively push for top-notch public schools.

To figure out how we can push forward on this issue, I talked with Diane Ravitch, one of the country's leading education historians and public school advocates. A professor at New York University, Ravitch is a former Assistant Secretary of Education and the author of several books ....

[LWolf]

1. Thanks for the read.

It's good to have a very few people speaking up for us.

[Coyotl]

2. This should be the focus on DU

rather than neo-con sexploits and Karl Rove

[d_r]

4. +1

[LWolf]

6. Agreed. nt

[YoungDemCA]

8. Definitely

nt

[Starry Messenger]

10. Thumbsup.

Thank you.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. What the gen public doesn't understand is that ONLY unionized teachers can advocate....

.... for students against institutional predation. ( Budget cuts, financial flim-flam of all varieties, failure to deliver services, etc.).

ONLY unionized teachers can do this.

Hint: There is *always* institutional predation at work in public education. *ALWAYS*.

ONLY teachers are in a position to know about this stuff and ONLY *unionized* teachers are in a position to blow the whistle on them.

Diane's great; but she tends to get wordy.

[YoungDemCA]

7. Well said.

Unionized public school teachers are the most powerful advocates for education in the US, and so that is why they are such a threat to the corporate raiders.

[Bozita]

5. K&R

[YoungDemCA]

9. Kicked and Recommended.

Important article.