So we agree completely it seems. The problem is crooked politicians and the stupid voters who put them in office. It has nothing at all to do with teachers.
When I was young, the kids in class who had trouble learning all came from homes or parents you could trace the cause to. Abuse, neglect, divorce, poverty, disease... I don't think teachers have become worse, I think home environments have become worse and parental responsibility less common.
Not at all. If we make the assumption that all politicians faithfully and honestly represent their constituency and all voters are intelligent enough to choose their own representatives through a ballot process I don't see how teachers can tip the scales at all.
I don't agree. I know that politicians are most concerned about getting elected. The reasons for wanting to be elected can be markedly different, of course, but they all know they need to be in power to make a difference. It doesn't make all politicians bad or liars, though. A politician might want to do good in ten different areas, and she might not be merely moderate regarding teacher unions... by receiving money and support, though, from an organization that is focused on teacher union issues, though, the politician could easily (and justifiably) do a calculation that in order to do good in nine areas, she has to do less-than-good in the tenth. It is the sources of the focused support, then, that causes the less-than-good in the tenth item, and when the source is one like a public union, it leads to a spiral of government spending and union entrenchment that is not good for society. Ed O.
