DGS49
Diamond Member
Whilst packing up for a coming move, I came across this small book - not much more than a pamphlet, really - by Dan C. Alexander, Copyright 1986, in which he makes a very strong case that the NEA (and that other teachers' union as well) were ruining American public education.
Facilitated by the Left's disastrous decision to allow teachers (and public employees generally) to unionize, the NEA was reeking havoc on American public education by "dumbing down" the academic workforce, effectively prohibiting the removal of unqualified, incompetent, and underperforming teachers, and contributing to an overall situation where teachers' colleges were accepting and graduating the bottom of the figurative academic barrel, and there were no controls in place to weed out teachers who lacked even basic academic skills that one would expect of a real high school graduate.
Interestingly, Alexander relates a tale from Arkansas, where the governor was pushing a very basic written "competence" test for in-service teachers, and the Union was absolutely adamant that no written test could be used. The governor, believe it or not was one William Jefferson, "Horndog" Clinton.
Can you imagine a prominent democrat crossing the teachers' unions today???
Facilitated by the Left's disastrous decision to allow teachers (and public employees generally) to unionize, the NEA was reeking havoc on American public education by "dumbing down" the academic workforce, effectively prohibiting the removal of unqualified, incompetent, and underperforming teachers, and contributing to an overall situation where teachers' colleges were accepting and graduating the bottom of the figurative academic barrel, and there were no controls in place to weed out teachers who lacked even basic academic skills that one would expect of a real high school graduate.
Interestingly, Alexander relates a tale from Arkansas, where the governor was pushing a very basic written "competence" test for in-service teachers, and the Union was absolutely adamant that no written test could be used. The governor, believe it or not was one William Jefferson, "Horndog" Clinton.
Can you imagine a prominent democrat crossing the teachers' unions today???