In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal this week, Antonio Villaraigosa, lfe-long Democrat and former L.A. mayor and union leader, decried the regressive policies pushed in the recent teachers' unions national conventions in L.A. and Denver, asking "Why are teachers unions so opposed to change?”
Villaraigosa began by saying that JFK’s call to embrace change as “the law of life” is apparently lost on teachers' unions leaders “who used their recent national conventions in Los Angeles and Denver to argue against desperately needed changes in our public schools.” The unions maintain their regressive positions, he pointed out, despite the damning statistics:
At a time when only one in 10 low-income children is earning a four-year college degree and two out of three jobs of the future will require one, change is needed. At a time when more than half of young people attending community college need to retake high-school classes because the education they received was not rigorous enough, change is needed. At a time when American 15-year-olds trail their counterparts in 30 countries in math, 23 in science and 20 in reading, change is needed.
Villaraigosa highlighted all of the “bold” advancements made and endorsed by teachers, politicians, community and business leaders, alike, who have rewritten curriculum, improved technology, and made huge gains in public charter school programs—much of which he witnessed firsthand during his time as mayor of L.A. from 2005-13.
Despite all of the advancements, however, teachers' unions leaders are consistently working against the progress, in “full-throated denial” of the consequences of their policies:
As a former union leader and a lifelong Democrat who supports collective bargaining, I am deeply troubled by the rhetoric and strategy we heard at both national conventions. They attacked an administration in Washington that helped protect 400,000 teaching jobs during the recession, has actively promoted labor-management collaboration and has empowered classroom teachers to help shape policy.
Others are in full-throated denial over the recent California court ruling striking down the state's public-school teacher tenure and seniority laws—despite compelling evidence that it is nearly impossible to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom and that the least effective teachers disproportionately end up in classrooms with low-income children. We should be working together to fix the problem rather than defending a broken system.
Villaraigosa particularly focused on union leaders’ attempts to block measures, like standardized tests, intended to keep teachers accountable, saying it is crucial that we are able “to identify the small percentage who lack the passion or capacity to teach and counsel them out of the field.”
That's not an indictment of the teaching profession nor is it antiunion. It's a fact of life in every field. Countless teachers and many union leaders agree with these common-sense measures, yet at their conventions, the most regressive voices are amplified while the reasonable, fair-minded voices aren't heard.
He concluded by pointing out that parents are “voting with their feet”—almost 10 million students now opting out of traditional public school, choosing private and charter schools and homeschooling instead, with another million on charter school waiting lists.
Parents will not tolerate resistance to common-sense changes that are necessary for preparing our children for the future. We can do the right thing for our children and for our teachers. We can hold ourselves accountable without demonizing one another and we can all be honest about our shortcomings. Let's cool the rhetoric, find common ground and get to work.