01-02-2017, 03:23 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2017, 03:26 PM by Eric the Green.)
(01-02-2017, 03:08 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:(01-02-2017, 02:40 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: I don't see the difference in lobbying; private unions can lobby for their supporters to be on school boards too.
The difference is that public unions are doing contract negotiations with those school boards they lobby for; private unions are doing contract negotiations with private school management, whom they do not get to lobby for.
(01-02-2017, 02:35 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Yes, and it would be nice if the voters finally dump neo-liberalism, so that we can have politicians that care about the people again, instead of wealthy business interests. Then education would improve because teachers would have to please the representatives of the people.
That's not what Bob's sister said. From Bob's post:
(01-01-2017, 02:57 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: My sister taught first grade in a wealthy seacoast Boston suburb, and was for a time a low level union person. She always said the politicians promised easy answers that didn't help. Time spent doing politically mandated stuff could instead be spent teaching. The politicians were generally more interested in votes than the kids.
The politicians are always going to be "more interested in votes than the kids". That's inherent to a democratic system, neoliberal or not, and it's always going to result in suboptimal teaching in public schools.
And private school owners are always going to be more interested in profits than in the kids.
I suppose it's true that school boards can be lobbied. Democratic institutions can be lobbied by any person or group; unions, parents, etc. Private management can perhaps be lobbied too, though it is more deaf because dollars are perhaps a less threatening lobby stick than votes, but it's certainly there. In our society, the question is which do we want to have the lobbying power; dollars, or votes? Wealthy parents and corporations only, or all parents and all community folks?
A school board composed of people interested in education, chosen by a wise (instead of a neo-liberal, and/or former slave-based confederate) community, will make wise decisions for the kids. If we have politicians that are progressive instead of neo-liberal/confederate, then they will be interested in the votes of a community that cares about itself, rather than neo-liberal free-market slogans. So sure, they will have to be interested in the votes of a community that cares about education.
Democracy, or capitalism; which do you trust to run education? That's the question neo-liberals have imposed upon us, in this backward country called the USA.