On September 8, The New York Times published a story titled “30 Ideas for Fixing U.S. Schools, Ranked by Experts.” The subhead read, “Math and reading scores are in a decade-long slump. We asked three dozen experts: What could turn things around?”
The pundits went through a litany of ways to improve America’s schools. They placed great importance on small-group tutoring, teaching the “science of reading,” expanding universal pre-K, and other measures.
But there were several glaring omissions. For one, the list ignored the deleterious effects of the nation’s teachers’ unions, as best summarized by Apple founder Steve Jobs in an April 1995 comment, when he declared, “The unions are the worst thing that ever happened to education because it’s not a meritocracy. It turns into a bureaucracy, which is exactly what has happened… Nobody can be fired. It’s terrible…”
The latest evidence of the union’s malign influence came from a study by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), a left-of-center think tank. The results, released in September, found that Democrat-run states with school systems represented by strong teachers’ unions have lower student literacy rates.
Conversely, Republican-majority states with weak teacher-union representation had some of the highest literacy rates, including Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Indiana.
This is not surprising, as Jobs noted, because in states with unions, it is nearly impossible to fire an educator for poor performance. Also, if a teacher must be dismissed for fiscal reasons, the newest hire, not the poorest performer, is let go.
In addition, the PPI study reports that blue states with strong teachers’ unions adopt far fewer literacy reforms than Republican states, where unions have less political influence.
In dark-blue New York, more than half of third- to fifth-grade students failed their reading proficiency exams this year. Unsurprisingly, the state, home to some of the country’s strongest teachers’ unions, has implemented few reforms.
The teachers’ unions also damage the education process by insisting on the step-and-column pay system for educators. Under this setup, teachers receive salary increases not because they are effective, but because of years on the job and attending so-called professional development classes, which often center on left-wing political ideology rather than improving their teaching ability.
Generally speaking, the teachers’ unions aren’t really interested in education; they’re focused on advancing their radical political agenda.
On September 1, Princess Moss assumed leadership of the National Education Association, the country’s largest union, with about three million members. She maintains that a teacher can’t separate teaching from activism.
However, this is hardly new thought. A report released in April by Defending Education found that the two national teachers’ unions have donated nearly $700 million to left-leaning political groups and causes since 2015.
In addition to failing to address the teacher-union issue, The New York Times panel also neglected the state of the nation’s schools of education, which renowned economics professor Walter Williams called “the academic slums of most any college.” A paper in the journal Education Policy Analysis Archives supports Williams’ assertion, finding that education majors face considerably lower grading standards than other college students.
Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, adds that states do not devote enough attention to teacher effectiveness and need to ensure that teachers are prepared and supported from the time they enter teacher preparation programs to the time they enter classrooms.
It gets worse. Not only do schools of education have low standards, but, as Daniel Buck, Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, notes, they currently advance “dogmas grounded in progressive and critical theory frameworks rather than exposing prospective teachers to intellectually diverse ideas and training them in pragmatic instructional and classroom management methods.”
Buck reviewed curricula from courses at eight graduate schools of education and found that they are deeply partisan institutions, advancing dogmas largely grounded in progressive and critical frameworks—belief systems that focus on “immutable characteristics and political activism while remaining actively hostile toward Western ideals and anything resembling traditional education. In particular, what stands out are the fringes to which many of the assigned texts reach—that teachers are being taught to ‘queer education’ rather than teach math, for example, that special education demands an ‘anti-capitalist politic’ and ‘collective liberation’ rather than instructional techniques to manage challenged learners.”
Cal State, Northridge exemplifies this trend. Prospective educators take courses such as “Toward an Anti-Racist Linguistic Anthropology: An Indigenous Response to White Supremacy,” “Class Consciousness and Teacher Education: The Socialist Challenge and the Historical Context,” “The Guide for White Women Who Teach Black Boys,” and others that focus on left-wing ideology.
Interestingly, The New York Times panel dismissed “private school vouchers,” placing it in the “worst value” category.
However, that is a major mistake. School choice is essential and must be expanded nationwide. Monopolies don’t work. Competition improves everything. As U.S. Congressman Tom McClintock once noted, “What makes Ford a good car? Chevrolet. Competition. That creative and constructive force is what drives quality up and prices down.”
The value of parental freedom cannot be overstated. Numerous studies show that students who participate in choice programs often see gains in test scores and higher high school graduation rates.
Contrary to myths that choice drains resources, most research shows that students who remain in public schools achieve better academic outcomes due to healthy competition.
Choice programs are also more fiscally efficient. Analyses show that these programs typically save taxpayers money because scholarship amounts are usually lower than per-pupil spending in district schools.
Additionally, parents consistently report higher satisfaction and improved perceptions of student safety when they have the option to choose their child’s school.
Importantly, many more families will soon have more choices for their children through the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, which goes into effect on January 1, 2027.
In sum, until we eliminate—or at least limit—teacher-union power, radically reform teacher training, and provide all parents with school choice, the experts’ suggestions will do little to improve the sorry state of many government-run schools in the United States.
Larry Sand is former president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.
