Posted on 02/16/2007 8:15:54 PM PST by Swordmaker
AUSTIN - Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions Friday, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers.
Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs.
"What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference.
"Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, 'I can't win.'"
In a rare joint appearance, Jobs shared the stage with competitor Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc. Both spoke to the gathering about the potential for bringing technological advances to classrooms.
"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.
"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."
At various pauses, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Dell sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.
"Apple just lost some business in this state, I'm sure," Jobs said.
Dell responded that unions were created because "the employer was treating his employees unfairly and that was not good.
"So now you have these enterprises where they take good care of their people. The employees won, they do really well and succeed."
Dell also blamed problems in public schools on the lack of a competitive job market for principals.
Earlier in the panel discussion, Jobs told the crowd about his vision for textbook-free schools in the future. Textbooks would be replaced with a free, online information source that was constantly updated by experts, much like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
"I think we'd have far more current material available to our students and we'd be freeing up a tremendous amount of funds that we could buy delivery vehicles with - computers, faster Internet, things like that," Jobs said. "And I also think we'd get some of the best minds in the country contributing."
democrat, or republican, Jobs is right. the schools are screwed up, and the unions as a whole have outlived their usefulness.
Ping
Someone should send him the works of Milton Friedman.
Gore is going to try to bring back John Sculley. LOL
Even a liberal is capable of seeing the truth once in a while...
But in this case - I am very happy to hear this point of view!
Liberals who run businesses learn to live with a certain Cognitive Dissonance. It doesn't mean he's turning over a new leaf, but it is fascinating to watch.
Jobs is a longtime advocate of home schooling, and Apple has a homeschool page with product discounts.
Jobs has also spoken in favor of vouchers for private schools.
HOLY CRAP! I might just go out and get myself a Mac after reading this!
Thanks for clearing that up, I was trying to figure what you were talking about. I was under the impression you were talking about Microsoft's flagship product.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs_pr.html
Scroll down about halfway the page to this question - Could technology help by improving education?
Steve, you of all people should know that "there is no such thing as a 'free' lunch".Wiki needs to be viewed with the knowledge that content providers aren't paid; only the owners are making any money...
Did hell freeze over while I wasn't looking????
Age = Experience, does that.
Actually, design by committee has allowed plenty of products to be introduced that should have never seen the light of day. I'd consider the Zune to be a good counter example of a product introduced by a "safe" company that just was not good enough for the marketplace.
By contrast, even Apple's flops have attracted groups of loyal users. If you want to stick with the Jobs era, the G4 Cube is probably the best example. There are still people who love their Cubes and who have upgraded the processors to make a more modern computer out of them.
Really, it's been a long time since Apple's had a product that was a complete failure in the marketplace. Steve learned from his mistakes. In the case of the Cube it was a product that was had maybe 50% of the PowerMac's functionality at 75% of the price, never a good sign.
You could certainly call the Mac Mini a worthy successor to the Cube and it's been a hit. Getting costs down was the big key.
D
I wouldn't bet on it. He might know how but not know why
Could be his Prostate Cancer diagnosis that's changed his reality.
I hope he's winning that battle.
B59
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.