Today’s quote comes to us from randi weingarten, who runs the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
Here is weingarten’s reaction to the existence of charter schools – i.e. an alternative to the public schools that, during her time as a so-called educational “leader” – have fallen so far in educating our children:
“They have not one thing that they offer as a solution other than privatizing or voucherizing schools which is about undermining democracy and undermining civil discourse and undermining pluralism because 90% of our kids go to public schools still., They just divide. Divide. Divide. Divide.”
Funny thing, though; weingarten did not have much to say about the fact that when alternatives to public schools are made available in lower income, often minority, areas, they are oversubscribed in about two seconds flat.
Why would this happen? Hey, here’s a thought: maybe it is because there are actually parents who want their children to learn, to be proficient in basics such as english and math, to be able to capably function in the world they will enter as adults.
What a surprise! There are parents who want real education for their children!
And (gasp!!!) t seem to want it more than they want their children to endure an “education” that includes teaching indoctrination as well as – sometimes instead of – the tools they need to function in the real world, forgoing high-achievement classes (which insures that excellent students will neither be rewarded nor have an opportunity to exploit their excellence), leaving disruptive students in class for “equity” reasons (guaranteeing that no one will get a real chance to learn), etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.
And let’s not forget that weingarten’s organization never fails to demand that teachers be paid more and more for these “results”.
See, the problem is not the policies AFT supports, it’s not the indoctrineducation AFT teachers provide, it’s that the teachers are underpaid for providing this quality of “education” to their students. If only they were paid more (and more and more) the students would all be candidates for Oxford.
I award randi weingarten Quote Of The Day (dis)honors for demonstrating again – as she has in the past – that she, and her organization, see actual education as a secondary issue, if even that much.
And I lament the fact that so many children are trapped in the public schools she, and they, have irreparably damaged.
