tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6883415296937284014.post349973429748493233..comments2024-01-08T02:16:57.647-08:00Comments on Religion, Sets, and Politics: Public Schools, Unions, New Haven Promise, and GPFMJoshuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00637936588223855248noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6883415296937284014.post-91676925078266910202010-12-03T09:11:43.639-08:002010-12-03T09:11:43.639-08:00Joshua, I've been barking about this since I w...Joshua, I've been barking about this since I was a child. Unions, irrevocable tenure - they've contributed to the ruin of our public educational system. I remember being incredulous when I first learned of it. I had a teacher who gave me a very hard time, complained to my mother, and she replied, "They can't do anything about it, they can't fire her - she has tenure." No other profession has that kind of safeguard built into it.<br /><br />In fact, my sister had a teacher, a woman who was clinically mentally ill, who terrorized her and her classmates. For a while, she was literally living in the psych ward of our local community hospital, leaving during the days to "teach" and going back at night, and there was nothing the school administration could do about it - or, more likely, nothing they cared to attempt, as they were probably terrified of a lawsuit.<br /><br />An extreme example, certainly, but it shows how bad the system was even then, nearly forty years ago - and I see no evidence to convince me it's gotten any better since.Jeff Eygeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11967707883565162538noreply@blogger.com