A couple of weeks ago ABC’s house libertarian John Stossel did a “TV special on education, Stupid in America, which was critical of union work rules.” Stossel is an advocate of school choice.
Pretty soon, a posse of teachers-union types turned up at his office to protest. They came to make “a demand for respect for teachers and students.” (Why should this be necessary, anyway?)
But the protesters turned out to be pretty clueless. They told Stossel that
school choice, whose value I had shown in the broadcast, would "take money away from . . . our union leaders" and a special program they had built to pay college tuition for a special-interest group within their union.
Oh my. That would never do. Then they told him that
a country without strong public schools "lends itself to authoritarian thinking."
...
I guess having a unionized government monopoly running most of our schools, and forcing students to attend those schools regardless of whether they or their parents approve of what's taught there, will make sure that the government can never indoctrinate our children -- and neither can labor unions.
One speaker insisted that public education was needed to ensure that children got an education “regardless of income . . . or geography.”
But that is exactly what school choice provides. It gives the parent the right to send their children to the schools of their choice, regardless of income, or geography, or the reigning fashions at the Department of Education.
How long till we free our children from the influence of these clueless timeservers?
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