America’s failure in education: The unholy alliance between politicians and unions

by Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D.

Albert Shanker, the late head of the New York United Federation of Teachers union, once said, “When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576312880501768962.html

Politicians, especially Democrats, usually do what the unions want because they can benefit enormously from union contributions, votes and, more recently, borrowed thugs.

The unions want satisfied members, so that union leaders can get re-elected. Union leaders want more members, so their power, money and influence grow.

Union contracts can often comprise hundreds of pages, governing who can teach what and when, who can be assigned to hall-monitor or lunchroom duty and who can’t, who has to be given time off to do union work during the school day, and so on.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703730804576312880501768962.html

Too many American schools are run, not by education professionals, but by politicians and unions.

This cozy relationship between politicians and unions is threatened by any type of school choice. It is why they have vehemently opposed choice and why, despite ever growing investment, public education is getting worse.

Want to identify alternatives to the hopeless status quo?

Look to Finland, the world leader in kindergarten through 12th grade education, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

PISA conducts a worldwide test of the scholastic performance of 15-year-old school children under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

According to the December 2010 PISA report, U.S. students were ranked passable for science and literacy and below average in mathematics.

What accounts for the difference? Well, it isn’t money.

As of 2008 the medium family income in Finland was $21,010 compared to $26,990 for the United States. OECD data from 2009 comparing K-12 education expenditures shows that the US spends about $92,000 per pupil per year, while Finland spends $65,000.

And it is not a problem of union membership per se because 98% of Finnish teachers belong to a union.

Surprisingly, Finnish students also have fewer instructional hours compared to American students and teachers in Finland have three lessons per day on average, while American educators teach seven. http://asiasociety.org/education-learning/learning-world/what-accounts-finlands-high-student-achievement-rate

There are, however, other factors, which are important to Finland’s success.

Teachers in Finland are held in high esteem. Those who graduate at the top of their class are the only ones who can consider a career in education. It is the most competitive field, more so than medicine and law. http://asiasociety.org/education-learning/learning-world/what-accounts-finlands-high-student-achievement-rate

All Finnish teachers are required to be master’s degree graduates, whether they teach in primary or secondary schools. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/09/28/national/national_30113177.php

Although there are national standards, the Finnish educational system has been decentralized and the schools are run by the teachers in close cooperation with parents, not by politicians and unions.

Personal responsibility is taught early to students. Entrance into both middle school and high school is competitive requiring an entrance exam for each. Every student is permitted to choose three schools for which to compete and acceptance is determined by the exam score, previous performance and, occasionally, an interview.

Finnish high schools offer a solid liberal arts curriculum, some of which can be tailored toward an individual’s higher educational interests, e.g. engineering, medicine, teaching, literary arts.

There are also programs devoted to developing better citizens and encouraging independent and analytical thinking. http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/core/cas/index.cfm

The Creativity, Action, and Service program stresses the importance of life outside the world of scholarship:

- Creativity is interpreted broadly to include a wide range of arts activities as well as the creativity students demonstrate in designing and implementing service projects.
- Action can include not only participation in individual and team sports but also taking part in expeditions and in local or international projects.
- Service encompasses a host of community and social service activities. Some examples include helping children with special needs, visiting hospitals and working with refugees or homeless people.

The Theory of Knowledge program offers students and their teachers the
opportunity to:

- reflect critically on diverse ways of understanding, logic and on the acquisition of knowledge.
- consider the role and the nature of knowledge in their own culture, in other cultures and in the wider world.

The United States may win the most Nobel Prizes and have the most elite universities, but our country fails miserably in the most important category of education – kindergarten through 12th grade.

Without excellence in K-12 education, national decline is inevitable. The time is long past to remove politics from the classroom, break up the politician-union stranglehold on education and establish genuine school choice.

Our children are our most precious resource. We must shatter the status quo both for them and for the future of our country.

(Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a recently retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He receives hate mail at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com)