-By Warner Todd Huston
Being a good conservative, I am torn on this story! It seems that the teachers union in New York State refused to comply with some simple requirements in cooperation with the state government so that New York could qualify for $700 million in federal stimulus money from a program known as Race to the Top.
Now, on my fiscally conservative side I am glad that the federal government won’t be sending this $700 million to New York. In fact, I’d like to see every state be refused this money. In fact, I’d like the federal government itself to be refused this money by the taxpayers!
But this story also reveals how illegitimate these unions are because the requirements were very simple. All the union had to do was agree with teacher merit pay. But, you see, the United Federation of Teachers doesn’t believe that its membership should be held to any standards. Why should a bad teacher be able to be fired they wonder?
What this shows is that teachers unions aren’t about the kids, they aren’t about any serious attempt to work within the system, nor about education. This is yet another example of a greedy teachers union wholly uninterested in holding its own bad employees to account for their failures.
This union couldn’t care less if the kids get money for their schools nor if the kids have good teachers.
(Cross posted at TheUnionLabelBlog.com“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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