More Monopoly Power in Education

Josh’s letter to the editor of the Daily Cal is bolstered by this article from Joe Klein, writing in Time Magazine:

Toward the end of his life, Shanker began to realize the union was headed down the wrong path. In a 1993 speech, he talked about the need for more accountability: “I wouldn’t be saying these things … if I didn’t have the sense that we are at the same point that the auto industry was at a few years ago. They could see they were losing market share every year and still not believe that it really had anything to do with the quality of the product … I think that we will get — and deserve — the end of public education through some sort of privatization scheme if we don’t behave differently.”

Al Shanker, the man Klein is quoting, was a powerful teacher’s union leader from the sixties through the nineties. It’s bad news when a salty old  union boss is preaching about a lack of accountability in his union’s sector. The education monopoly in the United States a a crucial issue of reform. Apparently, a $4.8 billion stimulus program gave federal money to states that agreed to experiment with charter schools. The move was blocked in New York State by the powerful teaching union. For a nightmarish description of the New York public school system, check out this old episode of This American Life.

Stories like this make me hopeful that the country could be swept by a liberaltarian movement. Education reform should be a high priority of such a movement. By agreeing to commit large amounts of federal money to charter schools, liberaltarians could take the moral high ground from progressives that cling to a broken system that fails to deliver results for the worst-off members of society. If you are looking for evidence, Klein has it:

A recent study showed that students in New York City’s charter schools — who are selected randomly, by lottery, and are 90% African American and Latino — have closed 86% of the gap in test results between the poorest neighborhoods of the city and ritzy suburbs like Scarsdale, which is known for its excellent schools.

Klein argues that Obama needs to make this central to his future agenda. If health care falls through, maybe Obama could be the President remembered for reforming education.