Whenever I write something about the public educational system, people try to say that I hate teachers. This is simply not true. Many are very hard working people who struggle themselves under a bureaucracy and unions that hinder them every step of the way. This is my point exactly. It is time to get rid of the teacher’s unions and their willing accomplices.

Alan Greenspan in his memoir, “The Age of Turbulence,” writes that: “Our primary and secondary education system is deeply deficient in providing homegrown talent to operate our increasingly complex infrastructure.” His conclusion is that “Too many of our students languish at too low a level of skill upon graduation, adding to the supply of lesser-skilled labor in the face of an apparently declining demand.” He is probably correct in his assessment. But the Democrats, nor the teachers unions are about to change anything. Throwing your tax dollars at a failing system is the only answer they consistently voice.

One must remember that the teacher unions are an incredibly important source of money and volunteers for the Democratic Party — about one in 10 delegates at recent Democratic national conventions have been teacher union members or their spouses. When they snap their fingers, the Democrats jump. In Clark County the school districts are the largest employers, far exceeding all others put together.

What is worse, however, is the impact these liberal unions have had on the social restructuring of our children. Currently, for many, the debate on global warming is a done deal with no alternate discussion. Children have been turned into the recycle “Nazis” and little “Greenpeacer” patrolmen. They have infected our children with a “feel-goodism,” that does them little good and makes them in to uncontrollable brats, where all children are seen as “female” in their comportment, actions, and attitudes. Boys are made to conform or get drugged into doing so.

Recently, they tried to make another end run at doing away with the Washington State taxpayer’s only protection against their filling their collective pockets with more of our money, and they were resoundingly defeated. Do not worry, they will return and try again to trash the super majority claiming that it hinders “the children.” As if they truly cared that 25% of teens drop out before graduating and most can barely read, write, or do simple math if they stagger to the finish line and receive a diploma that means next to nothing. But at least they are “honored” students, right?

They fear the only real answers that will solve our educational problems: Vouchers and total accountability. Parents, as far as teachers unions are concerned, should never have control of their children’s education. At best, parents should be made to feel they are part of the solution, when in actuality they have little say at all. Vouchers would solve this problem within a few short years. Also where teachers and administrators were held accountable for schools that failed, or the inability for our children to read, write, and do arithmetic: Salaries should be reduced, people fired, and certification taken permanently away. No other business allows such shoddy workmanship to go unpunished. If private schools allowed this to occur within their ranks, there would be none.

After wasting billions of our hard earned tax dollars ($11,000.00 per child in Washington State alone!) and getting very little in return to show for it, it is time for parents and taxpayers to demand vouchers and accountability. Teacher unions that do not adhere to these requirements should not be allowed to be at the bargaining table. It is time for change in our “public” educational system and truly make it public again whereby it is run by the public because we pay for it, not the unions and their sycophants in the Democratic Party.
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This article is copyrighted by Pastor Lee Hemen © 2007 and the property of Pastor Lee Hemen. You are welcome to copy it, email it, or use it but if you copy it, email it, or use it you must do so in its entirety.