• Home
  • About
  • Contributors
  • Comment Policy

The Bayview Review

"Let his little flock be bold."

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« The Orwellian “Human Rights Code” is Finally Being Amended – Though A Free People Would Abolish it Altogether
The Isolation of Israel: Peril and Opportunity »

Why Bad Teachers Can’t Be Fired: Union Power

June 12, 2012 by craigcarter

Margaret Wente has a column in today’s Globe and Mail, which identifies the problem with the Canadian public education system as the teacher’s unions, as I argued in a post the other day.  She offers no solutions: apparently the obvious cannot be said out loud in the mainstream media yet.  But the fact remains that no significant improvement to the public school system will be possible until the teacher’s unions are broken.  

She writes:

Bad teachers are well defended by their unions, which makes it so hard to get rid of them that powerless school administrators generally give up. Instead, they try to get the bad eggs to move on – a process widely known as “passing the trash.” The regulators are captives of the unions, too. The OCT is dominated by former union executives who caucus together before meetings to hammer out the party line. In theory, their job is to serve the public. In reality, they serve their own.

The Star’s embarrassing revelations prompted the OCT to hire a distinguished retired judge, Patrick LeSage, to tell it how to reform itself. His sensible suggestions, released last week, are a laundry list of the obvious: Disclose the names of all teachers found guilty of misconduct, hold formal public hearings for the most serious cases and revoke the licences of teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct. He also recommended that more non-teachers should sit on the panels that hear misconduct cases.

But these measures don’t go far enough. So long as the unions are allowed to dominate the regulator, “no procedural overhaul, no matter how ingenious or rigorous, is likely to lead to increased effectiveness or public confidence,” writes Doretta Wilson of the Society for Quality Education.

Why she cannot draw the obvious conclusion is that left-wing ideology is so powerful in this country that we cannot even talk about the necessary steps we need to take to promote educational reform.  This is a sad commentary on late modern Canada.

Cross-posted at The Politics of the Cross Resurrected.

Advertisements

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Education |

  • Recent Posts

    • BLASPHEMY AS MARKET STRATEGY
    • EMMANUEL MACRON: A Man For Various Seasons.
    • THE BIBLICAL WITNESS TO THE BIRTH OF JESUS
  • Categories

    • Book Reviews
    • Comments
    • Culture
    • Economics
    • Education
    • Philosophy
    • Politics & Law
    • Theology
    • Uncategorized
  • Twitter Feed

    • BLASPHEMY AS MARKET STRATEGY thebayviewreview.com/2019/02/09/bla… via @wordpressdotcom 4 days ago
    • EMMANUEL MACRON: A Man For Various Seasons. thebayviewreview.com/2019/01/09/emm… via @wordpressdotcom 1 month ago
    • THE BIBLICAL WITNESS TO THE BIRTH OF JESUS thebayviewreview.com/2018/12/16/the… via @wordpressdotcom 2 months ago
    Follow @BayviewReview
  • Email Us

    Do you have thoughts, comments, or concerns you'd like to send to The Baview Review? Feel free to email them to comments@thebayviewreview.com
  • Social Media

    • Eric Crouse on Twitter
    • Paul Franks on Google+
    • Paul Franks on Twitter
  • Advertisements

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: