“Answering the Teachers Unions” John Stossel

Answering the Teachers Unions is a piece by John Stossel at RealClearPolitics.com. Stossel rattled a few cages recently with a TV special he did called "Stupid in America," where he was critical of teachers' unions. It seems some union members showed up at his door in protest.

I did expect them to demand an apology for my TV special on education, "Stupid in America," which was critical of union work rules.

I didn't expect one of the speakers to be so blunt as to complain that school choice, whose value I had shown in the broadcast, would "take money away from . . . our union leaders" and a special program they had built to pay college tuition for a special-interest group within their union.

And I was especially surprised by one history lesson they taught me: "Public schools are what distinguish democracies from every other system in the world," and a country without strong public schools "lends itself to authoritarian thinking."

Fascinating. I guess the Communists all went to private school. And I guess having a unionized government monopoly running most of our schools, and forcing students to attend those schools regardless of whether they or their parents approve of what's taught there, will make sure that the government can never indoctrinate our children — and neither can labor unions.