Education and Accountability

This article on Michelle Rhee and what she’s doing with D.C. schools is fascinating. I wholly applaud her. SN. She’s a Korean who grew up in Toledo. I can think of at least 10 Korean women I know who grew up in Ohio. I can’t think of a single Korean man. Oh wait, one, Mike from my frosh dorm. But that’s all. That’s a weird disparity.

I’d say I’m politically way more liberal than Henry is, even though he claims to be more liberal than people think he is. But we once had this conversation on an issue where it seems we’re reversed – I’m really against unions in their current form, whereas he seemed sympathetic towards them.

Like Jibin, I voted for Proposition 74, which would have increased the probationary period before a teacher gets tenure from 2 years to 5 years. Like him, I think there needs to be more free-market principles when it comes to education. My main issue is with public sector unions is that there’s no accountability. In the private sector, if unions’ demands become too unrealistic, the companies go bankrupt, and all the union members lose their jobs. So there’s accountability there, reason for unions to be realistic in their negotiations, and unions willingly give up benefits from time to time, like airline unions when a bunch were on the verge of going under.

No such thing happens in the public sector. Unions can make and keep ridiculous benefits, there’s no accountability, and the public suffers. I’ve railed against this before, but it causes a buttload of issues. Teachers’ unions make it impossible to get of bad teachers. Vallejo’s firemen and police unions bankrupted the city. The same issues Vallejo had are happening to a lesser extent to other cities in CA and the state itself. I’m not against people wanting to get all they can. But when there’s no accountability when they overreach, it’s screwed up.

Anyway, I love what she’s doing. Pay teachers 6 figures (which they deserve), force accountability. And I also like how there’s still accountability if she fails, since D.C. has vouchers now, and thus a viable alternative to public schools. We’ll see what happens.