Government is in the “problem-solving” business.
Which means they want to create problems, they oppose any solutions, and they need a tax increase.
I don’t know any way to test this, but are charter and parochial schools significantly better at teaching, or because of the work the parents need to do to get their kids into them are they just a way of sorting out the good parents from the bad ones? Then having a better set of parents and students you get a virtuous cycle of more studying, less screwing around in class and a better education.
I have mentioned this before. Teachers’ unions are corrupt. (I should know. I was a forced member of a teachers’ union for decades.)
But teachers’ unions have zero power over what is being taught in the schools. Zero, as in none at all.
It’s true that a union can express its opinion on what should be taught. The same goes for the PTA, or any other group. And it’s also true that individual teachers sometimes go off the rails.
But it’s the school board (and sometimes the state) that makes all the curriculum decisions. They have ALL the power. Folks who are blaming a union are aiming at the wrong target entirely.
And permit me to mention on more thing. Most teachers are horrified over what we are forced to teach.
Let me give you just one example. In my school district math teachers are not permitted to teach the times tables! Everything must be done by calculator. It is forbidden to have the students memorize facts like 2x4 = 8.
The math teachers hate this. But it’s school board policy.
And the union had nothing to do with it.
Don’t forget that if a black child does well in school, he gets accused of “acting white”.