Nope.
Should some teachers be fired?
Yup.
Do I think curbing a unions right to collective bargaining will solve this problem?
HELL NO.
My high school experience was set in a small White town as socially conservative as many of these small White Midwest towns are. There were teachers who were openly sexist, racist, and homophobic and had such a wonderful influence on so many small minded students whose minds continued to stay small. Were they being protected by their unions against a community and administration that wanted them fired? Um, no. They were a REFLECTION of the community and the administration. The so-called "godless liberals" (some not actually godless and not all were even that liberal) who actually focused on teaching and learning were the protected ones. These were teachers who taught critical thinking skills instead of regurgitating stereotypes and cracking extremely offensive jokes. Despite some teachers pandering to the lowest common denominator it was still often the most exceptional teachers who captivated students, at least while they were in the room, before reverting back to their anti intellectual selves, a self that is congratulated and welcomed in every other area of their existence.
Did my old school ever change? No. The school board's recent track record on discriminating against disabled students leaves me with zero hope for them. But they continue to attract settlers with a standardized teaching record somehow higher than surrounding urban areas and they're a "safe" community. Their record on safety is even attracting my sister who wants to replace my nephew's religious private school (which she selected to avoid the "scary" city public schools) with a safe school in our old backwards community. How exactly did this sort of teaching somehow become "safer" than attending a public city school? If you're gay and you go to Jackson Public you can at least join the gay straight alliance, last year there was even a gay prom! But if you're at our old school and you find yourself feeling gay or just confused, uh, enjoy the closet (there's even a teacher in the closet, and oddly with zero political ambitions) and good luck at not wanting to kill yourself at some point. Oh, and try and avoid the standard dangers of date rape and this new explosion of heroin that suddenly people actually care about because it's happening to all those pretty White kids who moved to the burbs or country specifically to avoid this kind of thing.
Yes there are teachers/coaches who pad the grades of his or her athletes and never teach critical thinking skills because he or she doesn't actually possess any. Yes, I went to a school where every single sport budget eclipsed any academic extracurricular activity (such as debate, you know, that thing Ivy League students and world leaders do). But hey, if your administration cares more about sports than learning, and if your community cares more about sports than learning, and if we all care more about partisan politics than actual LEARNING, don't be a fucking douche bag idiot who thinks it's the UNION protecting that mentality. That mentality would exist with or without unions.
This train of thought blows my mind. Just look at what the free market values these days. Pregnant teenagers who are only famous for being pregnant are on the cover of magazines in the checkout aisles. Why put in the time and energy to accomplish anything when fame and fortune is just a sex tape and a reality show away? I'm afraid social conservatives don't know what they are getting into when they support the corporate model of education. I know there are complaints about sex education now but just imagine how it'll be when a Kardashian is teaching your kids how to give blow jobs on film.
Anyway. . .
In a previous semester I took a class with a young person who was barely literate. I could hardly understand her posts but from what I managed to discern the student was an anti union conservative who didn't want government regulation because we already had the (fill in the blank of a government agency). When someone tried to point out to this student that the organization IS a government agency this seemed to fly over her head. It was impossible to have meaningful discussions because she had so little in the way of comprehension skills. And yet I am sure she will go on to vote and make her opinion against unions and government protections known, perhaps she'll eventually vote down a milage to support a school because she'll think, "Don't Ke$ha's unicorns shit twenty dollar bills?"
No offense, Ke$ha.
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