Teachers Unions vs. Students
Shortly after taking office, President Barack
Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, acknowledged that America’s public school
system is broken. “It’s obvious the system’s broken,” he said. “Let’s admit it’s broken,
let’s admit it’s dysfunctional, and let’s do something dramatically different, and let’s
do it now. Let’s fix the thing.” Why are America’s public schools failing?
Why, after more than a quarter century of perpetual reform, has the nation been unable
to bring real change to public education? While a complete answer, of course, would
be very complicated. But at the heart of it lies the power of the teachers unions — the
National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and their state and
local affiliates. I don’t say this out of some sort of anti-union
ideology. I say it as an objective description of reality, backed by an enormous amount of data. Union power has created insurmountable problems for effective schools. Why has this happened? Partly, it’s because the teachers unions are by far the most powerful groups in American education. More than that, they are special interest groups, which means that they use their power to promote the special interests — the job interests — of their
members. They are not in the business of representing the interests of children, and no one should
expect them to do that. The purpose of a union is to represent the
job interests of its members — and these interests are simply not the same as the interests
of children. How, then, do they pursue these job interests?
They do it in two ways. The first is through collective bargaining,
which takes place in local school districts. Through collective bargaining, the unions
are able to win countless restrictive work rules, written into binding contracts that
specify how the schools must be organized. Typically, for example, these contracts include
salary rules requiring that teachers be paid entirely on the basis of seniority and credentials,
without any regard for whether their students are actually learning anything. Often, these contracts also include seniority rules that allow senior teachers to take desirable jobs that come open — even if these teachers are mediocre in the classroom or a bad fit for the school. There are also seniority rules requiring that,
in layoff situations, excellent young teachers must be let go — automatically — and their
senior colleagues must be kept on no matter how incompetent they may be. Labor contracts are just filled with these kinds of perverse rules. No one who’s thinking only of what is best for kids would ever organize the schools in
this way. Yet this is how America’s schools are actually organized. The other way teachers unions shape the public schools is through the political process — where
they simply have far more clout than any other education groups, by many orders of magnitude. They have over four million members, they’re top contributors to political campaigns, they have armies of activists in the electoral trenches, they have lobbying organizations in all fifty states, and much more. They have used this political clout to block
or substantially weaken major reforms. For decades, for example, reformers have tried to bring accountability to American education, but the unions have stood in the way. They’ve opposed using test scores to measure teacher performance. They’ve opposed performance-based pay. They have even opposed moving bad teachers out of the classroom. As a result, there are rarely any consequences for low performance — no one’s pay suffers, no one loses a job. We have accountability systems in which no one is actually held accountable when kids don’t learn. The unions have also fiercely opposed the
second major reform movement of our time: the movement for school choice — which seeks
to give families new options, to empower them to leave bad schools, and to give the regular
public schools stronger incentives to improve. Here, too, the unions fight for their members,
not for students and their families, in this case because school choice allows children
— and thus money and jobs — to leave the schools where union members teach.
Indeed, the unions are so opposed to choice that they fight to defeat it even for the
poorest kids trapped in the nation’s worst schools. As a result, after decades of reform
efforts, only 4% of public school kids are in charter schools, and less than 1% receive
government funded scholarships for private schools. But here’s what it comes down to. The teachers unions have used their power from the bottom
up, through collective bargaining, to burden the schools with organizations that are literally
not designed to be effective. And they’ve used their power from the top down, through
politics, to stand in the way of accountability, choice, and other major reform efforts.
As Arne Duncan well expressed, the nation is fully aware that it has a problem with
its public schools. But the main reason that problem persists is that there’s another problem,
a more fundamental one that prevents real change and improvement — the problem of union power. Until the nation is able to recognize that problem — and do something about it — America’s public schools will never be organized to provide kids with the most effective education possible. I’m Terry Moe, Professor of Political Science
at Stanford University, for Prager University.
While a couple good points about union power were brought up, as an educator, there are a lot of claims in this video that either are flat out wrong or don’t come with enough details to give someone an accurate picture of the issue, making the claim extremely misleading at best. No school I’ve worked at across two states has allowed teachers with seniority to slide into job openings before less experienced teachers (they’ve all had interview processes), and while I’m sure there are some schools out there that do that, where are the stats? This is a five-minute video that makes a whole bunch of different claims without presenting any evidence or statistics and makes it seem as if teachers unions do a lot of harm in schools all over the country. Ask any educator in the public school system; they’d tell you to watch a different video about teachers unions than this.
Get old teachers out of the school system. They get filthy rich and don't know anything about kids. My history teacher doesn't even teach, just flexes on us about how many cars he has and how if kids just listened adhd wouldn't exist.
Can i get 3 likes plz
Teachers unions like police unions aren't in themselves the problem. The problem is what "we've" allowed these unions to get away with for so long.
So let me get this straight, teachers should be paid whether or not students achieve? Should everything work this way? What about Special Education and ID students? The problem isn't teacher unions. They protect teachers, who don't make enough money anyway, from lower wages and the inability to live where they teach. Teachers aren't the problem. Don't get me wrong there are some that aren't the best…however, students' parents are the problem. A lot of time parents don't care about their children's academic progress. Also, standardize testing has pigeon holed teachers to teach to a test and not just skills necessary to be successful. Schools also have a growing number of students who don't believe college is the way to go so they believe they just have to get through high school so they can become You Tubers. It's amazing to me that these ideas are never spoken about.
Nick Nolte starred in a movie called Teachers. That addressed this problem.
And when teachers diddle students they get pain administrative leave
Wow 1st Prager U video I disagree with
The video talks about teacher performance, but how do you measure it?
A great teacher in a good school/neighborhood will perform better than the same teacher in a bad school/neighborhood.
Student Performance comes from many factors.
What is a good education? Too many holes.
All that matters in life as we know it, ALL OF IT, depends on one thing, the rights of the working class, PERIOD. All love, peace, decency, comrodary, oxygen, etc… depends upon COLLECTIVE BARGAINING. Without workers rights, there is NO REASON TO INHABIT THE PLANET EARTH. First comes the rights of the worker, then comes EVERYTHING ELSE. We shall forever precede from this starting point and never stop believing in our Gods, our children, our morality, our ethics, our basic human rights while always keeping close to our hearts and minds the core of our very existence, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING POWER THROUGH UNION SOLIDARITY. The next time anyone wishes to analyze the increasingly complex issues facing our countrys workforce, children, or anything else remember it ALL BEGINS AND ENDS WITH UNION SOLIDARITY. Thank you. ✌
Far more clout
I love Prager U and this is the first video I’ve disagreed with. I’m not a teacher and I’m not related to one but even I can see the flaw in this argument. This argument is made on the assumption that kids will, or want to, succeed if given the chance. Many kids, and parents, just don’t care anymore and we’re supposed to judge teachers based on the performance of these students? The true issues for teachers lie in the students’ home with the students’ family.
Terry Moe works for a think tank housed at Stanford University, with a goal of promoting free eneterprise. His statement that he is not attacking unions does not fit with the goals of who he works for and what he said, and should be dismissed. The only thing that Mr Moe said that is valid is that the problem is complex. He condradicts this accurate statement by suggest that it is the unions that cause the only problem, and if we just get rid of them the problems can be fixed. Praeger is an amasing mouth piece, but I have found few of their comments that don't distort reality to influence public opinion.
Democraps ruined school
My 11th grade teacher told us that we were the last bunch of kids to get a decent education.
Sooo… why can't teachers just choose a location where to teach to people and be paid directly?
Oh yeah, the Maf- Government made it illegal, riiiiight…
My STEM teacher is so dumb he doesn’t know how to do the things he is teaching us and he is so dumb that instead of putting up work online he put up his Salary we got to see what he makes. Which is really high for someone that hasn’t taught anything and doesn’t know what we are learning
So sad, looks like there is another swamp to be drained…
Great job! Unfortunately Obama and Duncan are from my neighborhood in Chicago and are 100% corrupt. They are bought and paid for by the Union's and Organized Crime. Who do you think gets all the work in public schools?
Not to worry: online education will collapse the whole structure.
I wonder who came here after the L.A.U.S.D strike
Liberal teachers are about as handy as a soup sandwich. Fire them all and give Conservatives Tenure for a REAL change.
Republicans just want everyone else to work for less money .
when you say "clout" and "orders of magnitude" in the same sentence
Unions are the lifeblood of the workforce
While I agree that there are many aspects of the unions that are problematic, I don't think it's right to base a teacher's wages on students' test scores since there are so many factors regarding the students themselves ALSO having some responsibility in how they do on tests and the parents have some responsibility in encouraging them to do their best. It's harder to motivate students whose parents aren't interested in the students doing well.
My high school let loads of first-year teachers go after every school year, yet they allowed terrible teachers with tenure to stay. My 10th grade US history teacher Mr. Weeks never taught us a single lesson and just had us answer questions from the back of the book every class. One year, they let him teach AP Psych, though he had no knowledge of this subject, and he was so bad that a friend of mine started a petition among the students to get him fired. Unfortunately, he'd been there for years and had tenure, so nothing came of it.
I usually LOVE Prager U videos, but this one downright upsets me. As a teacher, there are so many issues and variables that this guy is not addressing at all. He is actually perpetuating the mindset that student learning is directly and solely a result of the teacher. This is totally untrue and unfair. Why oh why does the media continue this narrative that teachers are under-qualified and inept?! Almost every teacher I've seen (and I've seen dozens across the US and abroad) are highly motivated and dedicated. The training involved in teaching is extremely thorough. Teachers and unions fight for students as well. There is so much more to say to this but I'm beside myself. When I hear stuff like this I want to get out of teaching. Is it because the unions are getting so much for teachers that a high percentage of teachers quit before they've been at it for five years? I work in China now and my American colleague moved to China to get out of the American school system. I'm not in a hurry to go back, either.
Soooo what’s Betsy Devos doing to clean this up? Anyone?
The decline of the school system is attributed more than just teachers unions. From someone who is a product of the NYC school system, I, as a former student and now, as a parent, am a witness to both teacher, principal and administrative factors…..!
It's not just the government it's the whole system.
How is someone supposed to fix it? When all people are being fooled and blinded
All unions I ever encountered do this same thing described in this video; chemical worker's union, health care seiu etc… DONT JOIN A UNION!!!
Honestly the teachers seem like just a minor problem compared to everything else. In my opinion it's a total waste to spend 12 years educating a student on things he/she will never use, like really an hour a day for nine months on biology and I could list everything I remember in 100 words or less it's ridiculous. If I were in charge students would be tested for learning style then taught basic practical things like people skills and how to manage money then in later grades they would choose a career, being ready to join the work force as a trained professional by the time they graduate.
They just want money they don’t care about the students at all they just want a better salary
Meanwhile the CEO of pragur u which is a non profit supposedly in education makes $96 k a year for working 8 hours a week. But teachers are over paid?
There would probably be a lot of favoritism if it wasn’t based on seniority I mean what really is the least biased way of making those decisions and who is gonna make that unbiased decision based on how good of a teacher they are and it’s just gonna be someone’s opinion it sounds like seniority is a better idea
I have really enjoyed the videos by Prager, but after watching this one I question the validity of the rest of the videos. So they question the union based on political power. They are very for capitalism, as am I, however they never complain about the money and the people lobbying for capitalism and the laws around it. Why not? Those people are doing the same thing teacher's unions are doing.
I agree there needs to be more accountability in schools. When I was a kid if you missed more than 10% of the school year you were retained because it was assumed you could not learn what you needed to know missing all that time. No questions, no meetings, you were held back. I have seen students miss 60 plus days, over 1/3 of the school year and still be promoted because the parents disagree with them being held back. That same student who missed 60 days of school also take the state tests. So teachers should be blamed for that. I have had students of my own who outright refused to do any work, no parent support at home because when they are with me, they are no longer the parents problem anymore. These kids learn nothing then take the test and fail. Teachers should be blamed for that. That same kids will fail each year after that because they will be promoted because the parents don't agree and will almost never catch up because of the pace that classes move. Teachers should be blamed for that.
Why am I against merit pay? Because frankly I find it insulting. The idea of merit pay resides around the idea that I am not working as hard as I can, and that more money will motivate me to work harder. I disagree. Why am I against school choice? Well if parents can choose which school their children go to, we should be able to choose which students we take. School choice is also a scam because it only gives the money the public school would have gotten for the student, so lets say it is $2500 if the tuition at private school is $10,000 then the families have to come up with the rest. This will hurt poor families more than wealthy families.
There is so much half information in this video, I am quite disappointed.
sad poverty inequality does exist? I don't know, I doubt about it, politics don't allow to be true. Sad picture .
Wanna see something more corrupt than teacher unions. How about a private school’s elected board.
Send in the Pinkertons to the teacher union headquarters. Only private school teachers should be allowed to unionize.
You have absolutely NO clue about public school education!
The reform will ONLY happen when you make STUDENTS accountable for their education!
Public schools biggest problem is the funding is based on graduation numbers. There are so many safety nets under these students, it is nearly impossible to fail!
The classroom with a quality teacher is only the first step to learning. I have students that tell me “ If it is not fun, I will not learn! There is also the statement, It is your job to teach me, NOT my job to learn”
The answer is VERY simple. The education needs to be based on performance! The student meets the standards or they don’t meet the standards. They perform to stay, or they MUST fund their education themselves.
When you pass students on to the next grade because of the many of alternative pathways to graduation, it sends the message that there is always another method waiting if you don’t like this outcome.
Most adults realize the world is NOT going to give you ANYTHING, and unlimited opportunities to succeed is NOT reality.
This is a simple math question! How much time do you spend on academics, compared to the time you spend on entertainment?
The answer is obviously different for the successful students, compared to the unsuccessful students!
Observation will definitely give you the answer to the question of why public education is failing at entertaining your child!
Wondering who's paying this guy? The DeVos family? The Wilks? Or the Kotch Brothers?
The entire education system worldwide needs significant reform and change. The US is not the only country suffering from the problem with the schools. This problem also applies to universities too. Fix education by teaching kids about how to survive in this world and then we can read on our own and the internet is available once we can have a job, earn money to be able to pay for internet with all the info there.
So you need to find the balance between giving enough power to the unions so that their employers don't become slaves under awfull conditions, but you most also make sure that you don't give too much power to the unions so that they abuse it and become ineffective.
And this is why I've pulled my son out of the system and I am now exercising the freedom of homeschooling. He's already doing much better. No more jerky kids and teachers to deal with. Just real life skills!
(Having said that, shout out to actual great teachers who are also prisoners of the system!)
These are bad things, but working in public schools my self; I'd say the number 1 difficulty is parents who don't care and don't discipline their children. I can teach any kid who wants to learn and is taught to love learning at home. If they aren't, I'm just fighting the parents day in and day out. Even if they are nice to me and care for and love their kids.
ALL unions are economic suicide.
This guy looks like the villian in the first Johnny English movie.
Union is an arm of the mob.
well, us students should start a union of our own to fight back!
he should have mentioned when the government got involved the schools got bad so the government got the schools the 20th in the world when before it was at first
Get rid of the unions, but treat teachers like proper professionals: set high standards but pay them well. Ultimately the government and tax payer don't want to pay decent teacher salaries which means the best candidates will never enter the profession. For example, why would someone good at math become a teacher when they can get respectable, well paid jobs in many industries?
Performance pay sounds like a great idea but it's too difficult to determine how much of a role the teacher has in the kids results. An okay teacher in a good area will have high achieving kids whereas a far better teacher in a truly hopeless area will struggle to improve the kids grades even a little bit
Proud shop steward till the day I die.
cite your research, professor
If we could just do an end run, and just eliminate the department of so called education. No wonder Trump is so despised.
There may be bad teachers out there, but there are a lot more bad administrators in charge of them that need to go.
Considering how little the vast majority of teachers are paid, unions are the only thing keeping the profession attracting any new teachers. Want statistics to back that up? Look up average pay of a teacher in states with "right to work" laws, essentially anti-union legislation, and see if you can't spot the pattern.
It'd be really nice if education wasn't funded by liberals
And then they say beign homeschooled is bad
THANK YOU.
Bunch of nonsense.
In Quebec, the school bureaucracy is insane.
It is breathtaking that absolutely EVERY “reform” is tried EXCEPT the most obvious: school choice!
This will not change UNTIL people rise up and vote for politicians that support school choice
Unions are for the benefit of unions. That’s it. As someone working for a wage, i have gone 180 and now reject that I should support unions because in some magical way, I, let alone, “the working class” also benefits . The irony is that they simply employ the tactics of the capitalist- restrict supply and competition to drive up price (wages). In the process, the quality of the product or service declines.
My wife is a fairly new teacher (a few years teaching) and she does it for the kids. We are a family who stands against these unions because it is just a bunch of self loving older wemon who only fight for this "seniority" and pay. We live in west Virginia and its rediculous here. The only reason they oppose charter schools is because you cant be in a union and work there but there needs to be that competition in schools to constantly increase the quality of all schools. Also my wife did face that problem of potential unfair termination as well. At the end of the school year they gathered all 1st year teachers and made them draw numbers to see who would get fired or not….my wife got lucky but no-one else did……..in a state that says it has hundreds of vacant positions in teaching. Although she had to face it the teachers that had low scores and/or didnt attend the mandatory trainings and meetings were worry free because they know that they have "seniority". My wife dedicated her life to teaching because a teacher in her childhood changed her life and she wants to do that for the kids but these other ladies do the bare minimum to get an easy check. My wife had a rough pregnancy recently and used her sick days up but went to work up to 39 weeks and got induced and took her maternity leave (unpaid) and still showed up to the school to see her kids and help the sub out (there was only a couple days left of the year because it was just a little bit ago she had said baby). She loves kids and hates the union and that's the way all teachers should be. Of course she wishes she earned more but anyone who gets paid 36k a year would but she still is happy with her job because she is passionate. We need to abolish these unions and there are teachers just like my wife who agree, they are wrong and hurt the options and growth of children more than they help.
Thank you for sharing.👍
Abolish the Department of Education!! Make education a private enterprise! Competition would fix the education mess.
Amen. Same story for police unions
I had a teacher in high school who reeked of pot and was completely inattentive and inept! Worst of all, he was a math teacher! I was so ill-prepared going into college, that I had to retake Pre-Calc, and pay for a course that I should’ve been taught already!! Unions destroy everything they come in contact with! Keep them in the private sector, not the public sector!
Amen to this truth. And, I'm envious of this guys haircut. I miss my long hair =)
The federal government SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED IN EDUCATION IN ANY WAY! That's the problem in the first place.
Holy shit are you really doing a video on how bad is people fighting for their wages and lives. Holy shit you have no logic you say u have but then come the irl example where your logic flops
The public school system is performing exactly as it was intended. To promote nothing but how wonderful the government is and how great your life will be if you will just bow to unjust authority and be a good little worker slave to your government. They claim to teach the 3R's but the majority of teachers could not pass a history test if it were based on the facts, they are public school and college educated so they have come to believe their own lies.
Unions SUCK!!!!!!!!!
I heard of a case where a teacher committed a felony, because the felony did not involve a child they had to reinstate him after getting out of jail. The decision was appealed never did hear if he got his job back.
Where are the mountains of data?
Just homeschool your kids instead. The ones I know that are much smarter than public school educated kids.
New south wales, Australia teachers federation fights for students and funding and well being.
This video is being presented by a hippie with long hair? I wouldn’t trust anything he has to say.
Union = Federal Reserve.
Congress in our gov't is corrupt.
I'm watching this because of a college class talking about unions and It seems like they are only pushing us to accept and agree with having unions.
In Spain, I See USA as pure liberalism, in Spain if you sell your own used Products, you need to pay a 2nd hand tax, Scholls are poor and shitty, Everthing you buy have 21% tax + an import tax because we don't produce anything, and if you want to sell an used product, you pay tax, but if you buy second hand products, you pay taxes also, that is crazy
American education can be great again! Focus on the children that will take our place! We have all the resources and we waste it with excuses. Only when family is focused will we move forward.
If the schools have been loosing younger more up to date and agile instructors to keep more senior and less capable one's why not give the unions an ultimatum that would allow early retirement for older less able teachers. If you can get the unions to agree to a new compact on education it would allow the changes sought with minimal ripples for all parties but if they want to continue to play hardball then Ronald Reagan them, fire them and replace them all….with those less senior and more capable teacher's they let go or marginalized. WIN WIN!
Speaking from experience, during my grammar school years I spent some years in public schools and some years in private schools. The education I received in private schools was vastly superior to the public education. This took place in the state of New Jersey.
Moreover, the private schools had a shorter school day and a shorter school year. We started classes later and went home earlier. We also had FAR less homework, while simultaneously learning more in virtually every subject.
When my parents put me back in public school again, the curriculum seemed easier and less advanced. I began to be given 5 times more homework every night and it all seemed so pointless and unnecessary. It was all just time-consuming busy work rather than useful material.
DAAAMMMMMM HE SAID CLOUT
As usual another obstacle by demorats that's how much they care about the country and us the people
There are accountability systems, If you don't learn no matter who's fault it is you'll get the stick at home.
Teachers should teach children to think for themselves while teaching facts only without political bias! Liberal based education has extremely hurt our country psychologically more than anything to date! When we have college kids who made it to college without even knowing basic things like who America's first president was, it's not only sad but extremely pathetic! Many do not know their correct history, or even the constitution! How can America itself survive by making our youth into miseducated puppets? Soft minds are easier to control when they are taught to have someone else do their thinking for them! When the majority of the news networks are owned by the left, and most of our public schools are the same way, why wouldn't anyone want to have a different choice? Not a single educator deserves a raise for doing a crappy job or being politically biased!
I'll add this to my book regarding this H🌍NKiNG CL🌏WN W🌎RLD we live in❣😎
Teachers performance should be based on student test scores? It sounds great on paper, but how would you do that? Also, define a a”bad” teacher. Someone who received a bad evaluation from a very subjective evaluation tool or do the students decide if he/she is “bad” by failing a test?
Arne Duncan said that teachers get licenses to easy. It should be like a doctor or a lawyer. who would do it? Once you quoted Duncan you lost this argument.
Luckily for us, this is probably the last generation that will be subjected to government "schools." The unions have given the politicians a choice. They may either jettison the unions and their INSANE retirement programs or close the schools. The politicians will never do the first — at least not willingly. So they will be forced to do the second. That will be an excellent development for the children and the nation.
Preformanse baised pay is garbage. As a young child I failed dibbles and AR test but latter got a 35 on the reading portion of the act. This goes to show that what the governmend deams secsessful is often trash… Just like the senyority rule. What should happen is insentavised improvements and a relationship betwwn teacher, student, and higher managment.
Public funding of education- in its entirety, is unconstitutional.I do a logical proof of this on my channel.
These snakes hate school choice want your children dependent on the government, therefore they're an enemy to your kids and your freedom
There is too much corruption everywhere, and it is linked to money and power.
But it also appears to be linked to an extreme appetite to destroy the existing institutions as a way to demonstrate innovation and progress. But blow back is happening, I am calling that the midterm and long term effect, the actual truth sieving through the shadows and smoke screen.
The reading and math problems do not justify developing complicated schemes that cloud what is actually an important priority, neither does competition justify all the passive aggression found today everywhere in any work place. Clean competition will show the best results, and it is dependent on the rules set and how they are regulated.
Regulation is not a welcomed word in the field of business, but it is a general feature of NATURE, so it is a natural law that keeps things working well and facilitates the valuable innovations, and clouds the damaging schemes to neutralize them. Find reported examples in nature and some probably already reported.
Fix the value of money to ease the confusion in math and improve accountability at every level.
Aim for 100% occupational work, make it also a choice program but enforce clear rules and their regulation, then the validity of whatever reforms are in place will become self evident, and if it is reproducible it should be kept as such.
One argument for constant changes is the need to innovate, but they are defeating what works well, and that is a NO NO to achieve real useful changes and is piling up more problems that will never be solved due to the weird idea of generational competition, among others. A mockery/joke not needed.