State meddling hamstrings schools
February 05, 2010 Filed in:
Budget & Finance
| Unions
Steven Greenhut, The Orange County Register
(Updated March 22, 2010) To
show the results of union dominance of the public education system,
John Stossel, host of Fox News' "Stossel," on a recent show held up
a convoluted chart that detailed, in small print, the amazing
lengths to which New York school administrators must go to fire an
incompetent teacher. The viewer sees a long and detailed chart
filled with boxes connected by arrows. Then, Stossel reveals that
what he's holding up for the camera is only the beginning, as he
lets falls to the floor several more pages that had been hidden,
accordion-style, behind the first page of the termination
procedures chart. The joke – actually much sadder than funny – is
on us, as we realize that there's no way that even the worst
teacher can get sacked and that it's basically impossible to reform
the public school system as it is currently structured. Yet local,
state and federal officials go on proposing reforms that will
surely turn the nations' bureaucratic, government-controlled public
school systems into models of efficiency and high-performance
learning...