Back in 2003, the anti-education apparatchiks who run the Nevada teachers union used their clout in the Legislature to pass a law banning teachers from being evaluated based on, you know, something so objective as how well their students performed on standard tests. Teacher competence, you see, shouldn’t be based on how well teachers teach our kids, but on how well they make our kids feel.
That was then. This is now. Now that law the teachers union foisted on an unsuspecting public has come back to bite us.
Because of the law, Nevada is unable to compete for a slot at the $4.3 billion federal “Race to the Top” trough. According to the Department of Education, if Nevada wasn’t the ONLY state barring the use of test scores in evaluating the performance of public school teachers, the state could be eligible for upwards of $200 million to throw down the government-run public education monopoly rathole.
The money won’t help fix our broken education system, but it’ll sure make school bureaucrats feel better. And isn’t that what public education is supposed to be all about?
Anyway, the teachers union is doing a 180. Union bosses are now saying they’re willing to work with legislators to undo the damage they themselves inflicted upon the state six years ago. Which is kinda like OJ helping law enforcement officers look for the “real killers.”
Adding insult to insult, Ruben Murillo, the union chief for Clark County teachers, is now sounding like….well, a conservative.
“It’s unfortunate that the Obama administration is going further with No Child Left Behind and tying money and grants to school districts on this criteria,” Murillo whined to Las Vegas Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz on Tuesday. “It’s part of a federal takeover of our schools.”
Well, duh. Where the hell has Murillo been for the last 30 years? The federal government has been trying to take over our schools, with spectacular and regrettable success, ever since Jimmy Carter rewarded the teachers union for supporting him by creating the federal Department of Education. Hello?
And remind me again who the teachers union endorsed for president last year? Oh, yeah. That Obama guy. So let’s all whip out our “World’s Smallest Violins” for Mr. Murillo, shall we?
And in conclusion, you honor, consider this quote from Lynn Warne, the Nevada teachers union chief, explaining to Mr. Schwartz why she now backs repeal of her own 2003 law: “We are reformists. We are agents of change.”
No, no. Really. She actually said that. And when she did, she was struck down by a bolt of lightning, injuring 23 others who were standing nearby when she said it.
On this Thanksgiving, I’m eternally grateful that Gia and I are able to home-school our kids so they don’t have to be subjected to the Murillo/Warne system of educational mediocrity. And that more and more average citizens are beginning to see that the teachers union is the cause of our education problems, not the solution.
Happy Turkey Day everybody!
