I think of myself as a progressive Democrat, and I understand knee-jerk liberal thinking. It’s my modus operandi most of the time. But not on the subject of school choice or independent schools.
Years ago my wife and a number of like-minded community members founded an independent middle school for our town’s seventh- and eighth-graders who would otherwise have to be bused to a neighboring town. (Full disclosure: I am currently a trustee of an independent school.) Thus began my education as an advocate for diverse choice in education.
As a Dem, I have always believed in the “greater good,” that our nation’s commitment to education means providing the best for the most. Such a mission de facto focuses on students. As most teachers are happy to acknowledge, no one school is the perfect fit for all students. Square pegs, round holes. Diversity of choice best serves all.
The teachers union would have you believe differently. Granted, it has laudably fought and succeeded in raising teachers’ salaries. But it is threatened by that which it cannot control: school choice and independent schools.
The union’s mission is about teacher welfare, not about student opportunity, no matter what it would have you believe. And if the union is against choice and independent schools, then so are the Dems. This is knee-jerk political nonthinking at its most destructive.
Typically unions strive to amass power and resources in order to lobby successfully for their constituencies. The teachers’ union insists that its considerable sway best serves students and that the potential “chaos” of school choice and the ongoing “sapping” of resources by independent schools will destroy public education as we now know it. This kind of quasi-logic and paranoia would be laughable were not so many people buying into it. It is regrettably successful fearmongering by the teachers’ union. Chicken Little! Chicken Little! The sky is falling!
If the union’s mission were truly student welfare, why would it not promote school choice and independent schools? Is this still Vermont? C’mon, Dems. Put on your thinking caps.
Robert Morgan
Peacham
