Agreed. We need to get back to testing kids for acuity, talents, desired career paths and helping them achieve proficiency. We also need to make sure that industry stays in this country and that companies that outsource to foreign countries are penalized/Unions are not allowed to price American wages to the point that the companies can no longer stay competitive.
I was a union worker back a while ago, and I saw what corrupt, self-interested, company-ruining jerks the union leadership were.
I’ve mentioned this before. Bush II’s disastrous ‘No Child Left Behind’ program is the main reason there are no longer trades programs in high schools. NCLB tested only for math and English. And woe to the school with low scores.
So most schools eliminated their trades programs, and shoved everyone into advanced math and English classes.
I taught in an urban high school. We had a superb carpentry program. Inner city kids learned a skill that their neighborhoods needed. The program is gone now, for the reason stated above.
As for unions, before teaching I worked in a union steel mill. The union is a major reason that mill is now gone. They killed the golden goose. Killed it dead.