January 14, 2003
THE NEA VS. BLACKS:
White educators flee black schools (AP, 1/13/03)Three Georgia State University professors found that during the late 1990s white elementary school teachers in Georgia were much more likely to quit at schools with higher proportions of black students.After the 1999-2000 school year, 31 percent of white teachers quit their jobs at schools where the student population was more than 70 percent black, and those who changed jobs went to schools that served lower proportions of black and poor pupils.
"The race of the student body is the driving factor behind teacher turnover," the researchers wrote. Other studies have found increasing numbers of white teachers leaving public schools - in California, New York, Texas and North Carolina - but only the Georgia State study singled out how race factored into the phenomenon.
If we analyze this with the same cool dispassion that the Left has brought to its examination of conservative positions on racial issues, mightn't we conclude that it explains why the teachers' unions oppose school voucher programs, which would bring black students into their classrooms? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 14, 2003 7:27 PM
Orrin, I don't see why you think school vouchers would distribute kids across town and neighborhood boundaries any more than they are already. If vouchers were offered by towns for use within town limits, there's no reason to suppose there'd be significant busing of students. People prefer neighborhood schools, even if they're not as good.
Posted by: pj at January 14, 2003 8:01 PMI took public transportation to get away from my inner city school.
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2003 11:48 PMOne would expect, I would think, the opposite reaction out of the teachers' unions, insofar as they're (at least where I'm from) more prevalent at public than private schools. In fact, one of the big advantages to the Catholic schools (one of the few) I attended in late elementary and junior high was that the teachers weren't unionized, and sometimes actually had to be accountable for their work.
In fact -- and again, this is based on where I've lived, not the nation as a whole, for which I cannot speak -- it was my understanding that one of the big advantages of private schools is that teachers' unions are not present in the school -- or if they are, it's a loose, informal association, not part of the NFT or whatever they're calling themselves these days.
Christopher:
but vouchers aren't restricted to private schools. One would assume most kids would just go to a public school that's better than the one they're in now.
I confess I'm a little baffled at the fierce opposition from teachers. They must either think that vouchers mean less money per student and therefore less money per teacher, or else that they are personally incompetent and will lose their jobs if not part of a govt nomenklatura.
Still, read accounts from inner-city teachers like this one
and you can't help but think many teachers would celebrate the opportunity to teach in voucherized schools.
I suspect it's the union leadership, which has gained wealth and power from their cozy relationship to government, that is opposed to vouchers, and gullible teachers who think the union leaders work for their interests follow them lemmingly.
PJ has hit the nail on the head. As a teacher in a private school I back the idea of vouchers. If parents have a say in which school their child will attend it says to me that they will also work with teachers to educate their young.
The primary problem in schools today is that many parents look at them as babysitters only. Some parents NEVER contact the school or teacher about their child's grades. The more parent/teacher interaction that occurs the more successful students will be. Also the students MUST be held accountable for the actions (or inaction as the case may be).