when a patient is sufficiently sick, they become immuno-compromised.

at that point, opportunistic infections move in.

the same is true of societies, and we're seeing it right now.

one such infection that has become particularly virulent and threatening is teachers unions.

they are using this period of social fear and disarray to extort america using its children as hostages.

the 3 broad demands are:

1. more money
2. less competition/end charter schools
3. end to standardized testing

translation:

1.more pay
2. more monopoly
3. no accountability

can literally anyone think this is a good idea?

imagine doing this for a the grocery store in your town.

higher prices, no competition, and no accountability on quality?

that's a soviet breadline, not a modern grocery store.

voting to put that into place is madness.

the US already spends more per pupil than any country (save a few tiny ones) in the world. it's $13,600/student per year

$272k per class of 20. can someone please try, with a straight face, to explain to me how this is insufficient money to educate 20 3rd graders?

thought not

these unions have been a rapacious one way ratchet of demands and under-performance that are so riddled with corruption and malfeasance that any private entity that did what they do would be broken up under RICO and jailed.

they are some of the largest political donors in the US and have heavy influence on local, state, and national elections. they donate and play kingmaker with the bosses and city councils that then negotiate their contracts.

this is bribery and influence peddling.

do this across a border and you'll be in fed-pen for violating the foreign corrupt practices act so fast it will make your head spin.

but do in in the NYC mayor's office and council chamber and it's "business as usual, here's more job protection and a pension bump."

this has led to the massive extraction of resources and contracts so horrific that it's basically impossible to fire a teacher no matter what they do (or do not) do, apparently including "actually teach."

let's look at some stats (from the always excellent @Mark_J_Perry )

since 1970, US pupils are up 10%. teachers are up 57%

so pupil to teacher ratio is down 30% (23:1 dropped to 16:1)

but "non teaching staff" the fat in any good union hog is up 151%

in 1970 there were 1.3mm admin and 2 mm teachers

now it's 3.4 to 3.2

admin outnumber teachers

this has driven a 154% rise in real (adjusted for inflation) spend per pupil.

and what have we gotten for this massive outlay?

nothing.

now, if we were top of the charts & were just maintaining a high standard of excellence, that would be one thing, but we're not

frankly, we lag. the US, despite this massive spend, is nowhere near the leaders

we look like the slovak republic, not switzerland or korea or china

and money is not the problem. the problem is that we have a school system that has been hijacked by a set of rapacious unions that are bleeding us dry while failing to get results.

small wonder they want to abolish competition and testing.

it's clear they cannot compete.

but there is a silver lining here: the same infection that has led to these unions being able to hold your children hostage by refusing to come to work is also pioneering all new manner of cures and different kinds of schooling.

necessity breeds innovation.

we've already seen big successes for less money at charters, but now a whole new crop of experimentation is beginning.

parents are hiring tutors, creating "pods," and have suddenly warmed to all manner of new educational innovation.

and this is a wonderful thing.

and this is a GRAVE miscalculation on the part of the teacher's unions.

letting this genie out of the bottle is something they may never recover from.

it's something they SHOULD never recover from.

the DESERVE not to recover from it.

"home schooled" has carried a stigma like "oh, i didn't know you were a jehovah's witness" or "does your religion allow buttons on clothing?"

but suddenly, it's HIP. "can i get in your pod?" "what curriculum are you using?" "let's get our kids together for a science project"

parents are trying it, getting serious about it, getting competitive about it, and getting results with it.

what happens when 3 months from now, parents realize that their kids just learned a semester or more in a quarter?

what happens when scores and satisfaction spike?

will these people want to send their kids back?

will homeschool pods go from "weird" to "cutting edge, gotta have it?"

this may put the private schools on notice as well.

my old HS now costs $55k a year. this is absurd and out of line.

they could use real competition.

and public schools desperately need it.

they have become sink holes for money that produce nothing for all the additional expense.

competition breeds competence and schools have not been getting it.

demand that they do.

the teachers have overplayed their hand, so let's go all in and clean them out.

pods are going to work. choice is going to work. and it's all going to be obvious in 3 months.

it's also going to be INCREDIBLY biased toward the well off who can afford this

it will exclude and harm the poor who cannot. 37% of kids in LA never joined even one distance learning class

and this is GROSSLY unfair to them

so let's break these unions and break these monopolies

it's really simple. every kid gets a voucher worth $13k to spend on school

go pick one. make it ALL private. make schools compete for kids the way grocery stores compete for shoppers.

look at how much better a grocery store is than in 1970.

so what are schools the freaking same?

because they have had no pressure to evolve.

why can i find 40 kinds of grocery store and only one kind of school?

because schools have no need to serve you. they serve themselves.

it's a monopoly.

so let's break it and give our kids a real education.

"too important to be left to free markets" is the single stupidest phrase on earth.

that's how you get amtrack.

schools are too important NOT to be left to free markets.

people who say this is not so are literally creationists arguing for intelligent design.

competition is what drives evolution.

it will provide us with schools that teach what needs to be taught and teach it well.

it will offer choice and specialization and opportunity.

the money is there, it's just spent badly.

this needs to be the top issue of this election.