Paul Krugman just finished speaking to an annual American Federation of Teachers conference in Washington, D.C. Unlike many of his fellow Times columnists--most notably David Brooks and Thomas Friedman, who tend to support standards and accountability reforms--Krugman rarely writes explicitly about education policy. Given his role as a sort of national spokesman for disaffected liberals, I tuned in with interest to hear what Krugman would say in front of an audience of teachers.
The current anti-union, anti-public sector mood is based upon a faulty reading of economic history, Krugman said: the belief that the recession of the 1970s was caused by "excess government and too much labor power" instead of the decline of American manufacturing, the energy crisis, and bad monetary policy.
This faulty belief resulted in the rise of Reaganomic economic theories, which have never ceased to hold sway over our national political debate, Krugman said, despite evidence that they do not lead to increased prosperity.
The reason why public sector workers earn more than the typical American, Krugman added, is because so many public sector workers are teachers, and teachers are more highly-educated than the average American. Even so, teachers continue to earn less than similarly-educated workers in the private sector.
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http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/07/krugman-to-teachers-union-youre-not-to-blame-for-the-economic-crisis.html