Posted by Tina
Murdoch canes US teachers, Paola Totaro, Davos, Switzerland The Age (AU)
** RUPERT Murdoch has issued a combative challenge to the Obama Administration: take on the American teaching unions to rescue America’s failing education system. *** Speaking at a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Murdoch said that the greatest challenge to ensure US competitiveness in world markets is investment in human capital and the American public school system had failed its students. **
** He savaged America’s education retention statistics, saying up to 40 per cent of students never complete high school. He said children who do not finish their education were inducted into a permanent underclass, or worse still a criminal class, and the education system, despite massive funding over decades, had gleaned no improvements. *** “This is the greatest test for President Obama because this will be a great confrontation with the teachers’ union they are a very, very rich union and a number one contributor to the Democratic Party,” he said. *** “The President must have the courage and the strength to take on the teachers and win if the United States is going to continue to lead the world over the next 30 or 40 years, education must be the way.” **
We need to have more emphasis on classrooms and on basics that prepare students for adulthood and less emphasis on upper management and the massive power structure of the teachers’ union. Untangling these structures might be next to impossible but it would certainly place the emphasis in education on the classroom once again. Our teachers must be supported and empowered more and supervised and “represented” less.
President Obama enjoys popular support and may be in a good position to make a difference in education. Resolving the problem may depend on his willingness to tear down these old power structures. Is he up to that challenge? Would he be willing to forsake popularity if it would make a difference to our children and teachers? If the president is serious about serving the country he will consider this proposal carefully and act.