“Governor [Mitt] Romney doesn’t think we need more teachers,” President Obama said last night. “I do.” The President’s confidence that “we need more teachers” to improve education is misplaced, and his proposal to subsidize teacher hiring using federal dollars would do more harm than good. Adding teachers is intended to …
Stories like the Chicago Teachers Union strike or SAT scores hitting a 40-year low have brought the urgency of educational underperformance to the fore this fall. Walden Media’s new movie Won’t Back Down is certain to further a much-needed discussion about education reform that couldn’t come soon enough. At The …
When Chicago teachers began their strike on Monday, critics rightly pointed out that the city already pays one of the highest average teacher salaries in the nation. Even more important, however, is the generous retirement package received by Chicago public school teachers. A Chicago teacher who retired in 2011 after …
“Unthinkable and intolerable.” So President Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered strikes by government employees. Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU), has a different view. She called a strike to block Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s (D) education reforms. Chicago Public Schools have a 40 percent dropout rate. Emanuel considers …
