August 29, 2008

Uppity Teachers Talk Back Again

Filed under: Education by Leo Casey @ 6:09 pm

On cue, the Fordham Foundation’s Flypaper finds worthy the argument of Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein on behalf of Washington School Superintendent Michelle Rhee’s efforts to eliminate tenure.  “Sure, there will be times when teachers will be treated in an arbitrary and capricious way if they give up their tenure rights,” Pearlstein explains. “Guess what: It happens all the time in the private sector, where hiring, promotion and pay decisions are sometimes made with incomplete information, favoritism, or undue emphasis on one factor or another.”

In short, non-union employees are regularly screwed, so why should unionized teachers expect a fair shake?

Can anyone say “race to the bottom?”

Here is an example of the educational benefits of giving employers like Rhee the power to fire away.* Of course, some might call think that this qualifies as “shockingly dumb,” but what do they know?

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* Yes, we know we have just violated the Matt Yglesias - Kevin Carey rule that the designated role of  teachers and unions is Fenty-Rhee piñata. Heaven forbid that someone might actually respond to an attack.

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