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Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
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Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 15, 2006 / 15 Adar, 5766

They want to teach me a lesson

By John Stossel


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Several hundred people showed up at my door Wednesday to teach me a lesson by offering me a job. They were unionized public-school teachers, and they wanted me to go into a school and teach for a week. "Teach, John, teach!" they chanted.


I wasn't expecting that .


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.


One speaker took issue with my statement that schools already get plenty of money because she had to get thousands of signatures to get science equipment for her child's school. But the money is going into the school system, more than $10,000 of it per student per year nationally; the problem isn't funding, it's that the public bureaucracy had to see thousands of signatures before it would buy equipment. If we gave the $10,000 to whichever school each student chose to attend, thousands of signatures wouldn't have been necessary — just a willingness to transfer to a school with science equipment.


Another speaker said the union's goal was to ensure that a quality education was "free and accessible to all of New York City's children, regardless of income . . . or geography." Ironically that's what school choice would provide. If the education dollars were attached to the student, then parents could pick a school for their kids regardless of geography or income. It would free parents and kids from the current education system's school-zone bureaucracy and give them real choice. Today, geography is often the only determining factor in a child's assignment to a public school. With school choice, you might be able to send your child to any school within commuting range, not just the one in your school zone.


Other speakers insisted that there are good public schools. I'm sure there are. But if a public school is good, it has no reason to fear school choice: Parents and students will choose it.


One theme the speakers repeated several times was a demand for respect for teachers and students. I'm filled with respect for teachers who do good jobs despite the public schools' restrictive rules. I even said on "Stupid in America" that "some teachers are heroes." I meant it. But I don't respect teachers who are lazy and incompetent. The union protects bad teachers at the expense of good ones, and of their students.


And I still don't see how it shows the students any disrespect to say that they should be free to attend schools of their choice in order to obtain a quality education that reflects their priorities. It seems to me that what fails to respect students is forcing them into a school system that has no incentive to concern itself with what they or their parents think, but just gives them whatever the bureaucrats deign to give them.


But I do respect students, and I do think good teachers are essential for kids to get the education they deserve. And I do think I have a lot to learn. So I would like to take the union up on its offer for me to teach in a public school for a week. I'm sure it will be difficult. I'm sure I'll learn a great deal.


But I'd like to give it a try.

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