Are Teachers
Unions To Blame For Failing Schools?
By National Public Radio where you can hear
the debate…
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125019386
March 23, 2010
In the quest to remake America's public schools, teachers
unions have frequently been blasted as an obstacle to improvement.
Critics say the unions shield poor teachers and make it
difficult for districts to implement changes to improve the quality of teaching
in the classroom. Some even argue that the current union structure is the main
factor undermining U.S.
schools today.
But do unions really deserve more of the blame than
shrinking budgets and the poverty and other problems students face at home?
A group of experts recently took on that question in an
Oxford-style debate, part of the Intelligence Squared U.S. series. Three argued for the
motion "Don't Blame Teachers Unions For Our
Failing Schools," and three argued against.
In a vote before the debate, the audience at New York
University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
voted 24 percent in favor of the motion "Don't Blame Teachers Unions For
Our Failing Schools," and 43 percent voted against. A third of the
audience was undecided.
The team arguing against the proposition moved the most
minds — 68 percent of the audience disagreed with the motion "Don't Blame
Teachers Unions For Our Failing Schools" by the
end of the debate. Twenty-five percent supported the motion and 7 percent
remained undecided.
The March 16 debate was moderated by John Donvan, correspondent for ABC News' Nightline. Those
debating were:
FOR THE MOTION
Kate McLaughlin has been an elementary teacher in the
Lowell, Mass., public schools since 1999. She is currently a mathematics coach working
with both teachers and students from kindergarten through fourth grade. In
addition to her full-time teaching assignment, she serves as the executive vice
president of the United Teachers of Lowell #495, a local of the American
Federation of Teachers.
Gary Smuts is superintendent of the ABC Unified School
District, known throughout California
as a leader in educational planning and innovation. He began his teaching
career in 1972 at Pius X High School in Downey, Calif., and for eight years, served as principal of Cerritos High School. In 1998, Smuts was
appointed director of curriculum and instruction for the ABC Unified
School District, where he
served in several positions before becoming superintendent in 2005. He was
recently named 2009 Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.
Randi Weingarten is president of the 1.4 million-member American
Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. She was elected in July 2008, following 11
years of service as an AFT vice president, and has launched major efforts to
place education reform and innovation high on the nation’s agenda. Weingarten
served for 12 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT
Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 nonsupervisory
educators in the New York City
public school system.
AGAINST THE MOTION
Terry Moe is the William Bennett Munro professor of
political science at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Hoover
Institution and a member of Hoover's Koret Task Force
on K-12 Education. He is an expert on educational policy, U.S. political
institutions, and organization theory and in 2005 received the Thomas B.
Fordham Foundation Prize for Excellence in Education. Moe is
co-author of Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of
American Education.
Rod Paige is the former U.S. secretary of education
(2001-2005). As secretary, Paige advocated for student achievement, employing
"best of breed" solutions to achieve results toward the department's
goal of raising national standards of educational excellence. He has previously
served as dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University and as
a trustee and then as superintendent of the Houston Independent School
District, the nation's seventh-largest district.
Larry Sand began his teaching career in New York in 1971. Since 1984, he has taught
elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District,
including English, math, history and English as a
second language at Webster
Middle School, where he
also served as a Title 1 coordinator. Recently retired, he is the president of
the California
Teachers Empowerment Network.
The Intelligence Squared U.S.
series is produced in New York City
by The Rosenkranz Foundation.