Of all the things I have targeted as problems in America's public school system up to this point, I have left out arguably the most problematic aspect of public education to date: teacher unions. Admittedly (and shamefully), I did not know much about teacher unions or that they even were a problem up until a few days ago when I watched a documentary entitled "Waiting for Superman." This documentary looks deeper into public education in the United States to explain why exactly so many schools in our nation are failing. It follows 5 students and their families on a journey of trying to find a better education--which for them means getting out of the public sphere and into charter schools. Up until the 1970s, the United States had the best public school system in the entire world. Now out of 30 developed countries, we rank 25th in math and 21st in science.
America? The world's super power? The country that we like to believe everyone looks up to? It's true folks. Since 1971, reading scores in the U.S have flat lined. Amazingly, with all of the advances we have been able to make in medicine, technology, and transportation, we have been unable to make much progress in education. How did this happen? If you're thinking teacher unions, you read my mind.
Unions. You either love them or hate them, and unless you're a part of one, it's probably the latter. But what is so bad about teacher unions? Let me break it down:
- Tenure. After 2 years of teaching, it is basically guaranteed that teachers will not lose their jobs. In fact, only 1 in 2,500 teachers lose their teaching credentials. Compare that to 1 in 57 doctors and 1 in 97 lawyers who lose their jobs.
- 23. That is how many steps it takes for a teacher to get fired. It is an extremely long process that most people don't even want to bother with. So teachers, unless you have committed murder, consider your job safe.
- Distinctions are not made between teachers. No matter how well, or not so well, students perform, teachers will not get paid any more or less. Good teachers don't get paid for doing a better job, and bad teachers don't get fired for doing a terrible job. This leaves a lot of room open for mediocre teachers who don't see the point in going above and beyond when they will get no greater pay or benefits.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much emphasis put on improving our students and how they perform on state-mandated tests, but there is a lack of focus on working to improve our teachers. Sure, with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act came a provision entitled the "highly qualified teacher" which requires all teachers have at least a bachelor's degree, full state certification, and be knowledgeable in their content area, but does "highly qualified" equal "highly effective?" I'd argue no.
We have lots of "qualified" teachers in America according to this standard, but we are lacking in teachers who exude effectiveness and accountability. We seem to be more concerned with acquiring good teachers and less concerned with getting rid of the bad ones.
A common belief is that failing neighborhoods are responsible for our failing schools. Reformers believe quite the opposite. Failing schools are responsible for failing neighborhoods, and teacher unions are the biggest reason schools fail. One man in the documentary went so far as to call teacher unions an impediment to reform. A statistic provided by the documentary for one of the high schools they looked at states that in the past 4 years, out of 60,000 students that had went to the school, only 20,000 graduated. Is this because of the low-income neighborhood that the school resides in? Partially. Is this because of the often shattered and tragic home lives the children come from? Possibly. Is it because these students had teachers that were not fit to teach them? Perhaps. Yet when talking about the problems in education, we tend to discount the possibility that teachers are failing our students.
Yes it is difficult to help students overcome poverty, abuse, and troubled home lives, but that doesn't mean teachers shouldn't try. We cannot reduce the inability of students to score well on tests or do well in school solely to the neighborhood in which they are in. At some point teachers have to start being accountable, administrators have to fire inferior teachers, and teacher unions have to be reformed. Unfortunately until the latter happens, I find it unlikely that progress will be made. Until we reform union contracts, our public school system will continue to fail thanks in large part to insufficient teachers.
