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The Los Angeles Times is facing a boycott from the city’s teachers union after publishing a study that analyzed the effectiveness of over 6,000 elementary school teachers.
Union president A.J. Duffy instead of praising the study for its transparency and the potential effect it will have on improving teaching and therefore education for students in the L.A. Unified School District is asking other labor groups to join his effort to boycott the paper.
The Times isn’t backing down from this threat and is planning on publishing a database of the teacher evaluations after a brief comment period by the teachers so that the public can judge for themselves if their children are receiving a good education.
Duffy doesn’t like this concept and has blasted the evaluations which are based on test scores while at the same time citing an index that measures academic performance in a positive light but which is also based on standardized tests. So he wants it both ways. Criticize test scores when they shed a negative light on his members while praising them when they do. He would make the perfect politician.
The news for the teachers wasn’t all bad. The Times discovered good teachers as well and if Duffy was really interested in education and not self preservation of the union he should join the bandwagon for more teacher accountability but then again that would run counter to the union way.
For far too long educators have been more focused on self-esteem issues and a gradual dumbing down of the curriculum which has resulted in more students being ill prepared for college and unable to compete in the world marketplace. By evaluating teachers and removing those that don’t meet minimum standards as Michelle Rhee has done in Washington, D.C. will cause some short-term pain the benefits for the students and our country will be felt for decades to come.
Duffy needs to get off his duff and fight for good education no matter what the cost to the union. Once again though I won’t be holding my breath waiting for this to happen.
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About the author
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.
3 Comments for Teachers Union Calls for Boycott of L.A. Times
To FD,,I agree. I have been in Unions from age 16 to 51. I’ve seen the good & the bad.it’s only getting worse. If I did not show for work,I did NOT get paid,union or no union,,company rules.The Teachers union ,on the other hand,protects bad or lecherous teachers by putting them in the “Rubber room”until their “Hearing”,,which takes years,,some times so long that the teacher “Retires” with an advanced degree he acquired at the computer in the ‘rubber room’,,while waiting all of that time. All on the Taxpayer’s dime. My EX-wife said that the city unions like mine will price ourselves out of existance,,& in a lot of cases,she is right.Thank God she was wrong in my case, or I’d still be “On the Job”,in stead of retired.
Why does this type of action against truth by Unions surprise anyone? Unions have become just another “mob” which, under protection from the Democrats, control its members with goons and fear (losing job, physical attack, harm to family). I live in a very strong union area and it is falling apart before their eyes and they refuse to see it. Plants galore once provided good jobs, they have closed and MOVED out of the area, many outside the US, but few have closed down. They still supply their markets but the US and US workers are out of the picture. And the unions continue their strikes, etc, in this terribly shrinking labor market. The worst are Federal Employees – without strikes they make from 50 to 100% more than those with jobs in the private sector. Teachers are not to be believed; like so many Repaciouss hungry street-walkers, these predators, who are paid several times what they are worth (the grades are uniformly lower that all other areas in the State), should be fired, but no, their UNION protects them, and the kids suffer for a lifetime!!
Time to shut down all unions. They are nothing more than criminal organizations and their leaders should be charged under RICO statutes. My father, who was an ardent union supporter from the 1920s, said, before he died in 1996, “Unions have outlived their usefulness. They cause more jobs to be shipped overseas and enrich only their leaders.”