I love when we get bored of say "Democrats ruin everything" so we move on to the Unions.
You do realize unions came about in this country because employers were taking laborers and paying them very small wages, not treating them with respect, not giving them really any adequete treatment - union were a method of fighting that. AND IT WORKED. The idea that unions somehow control everything is a claim I have never, I repeat, NEVER seen supported. I know several teachers and several union members and the union exists FOR their members, so if you have a problem with the way things are run, don't blame the union, blame the members.
That said, I'm sick of people complaining about teachers and blaming unions and Democrats, when it is NOT the fault of our teachers - go into a classroom and you will see 40 kids in a single room attempting to learn with outdated textbooks, very minimal technology, and outside of that classroom few support services. The problem is the curriculum (set by a district, not the teachers), the support services (set by the district and to an extent the state) and the technology (budget issue) in most of our schools are outdated, poorly resourced and generally doesn't prepare kids for anything.
We still base MOST of our educational system, even in elementary school, on a visual/audial learning system, when especially young kids typically learn with visual/kinesthetic learning system best. This isn't even a new development - kids learn best when they're doing, most adults learn best this way too. It's the way we're portraying information and the technology we're using that's doing us in.
Also, "school funding is through the roof" - what is their frame of reference for this, because in California it's been cut consistently for the past three years (K-12, community colleges, and state colleges). But then, it's an opinion piece and this guy probably doesn't fact check.
The fact of the matter is, we used to have free market schooling. And even back in the days where most people didn't need an education to do okay it could still be devastating because ONLY the rich and prestigious were let in - ONLY. You either had a lot of money or were really well known or preferably both.
Now it would be even WORSE because for the majority of jobs you need a college degree, the career field is so wide, and if private colleges have taught us anything, they don't follow the rules of supply and demand - they follow the rules of "we can charge literally whatever we want because people will still attend" even though with the exception of Ivy League colleges, no special credence is given to a private school as opposed to a UC (I've talked to several counselors and they all say, it's one of the last things on the list unless it's an Ivy League - they're much more concerned with your grades, your leadership experience, your extracurriculars, etc.)
So if you want to go ahead and try and recreate the 1700's only we have absolutely no one working, you go ahead and try. People talk about shutting down state colleges so casually but they aren't actually THINKING. There are CONSEQUENCES to actions, and the consequences to shutting down public schooling in the country and replacing it with free market schooling would be devastating because history has already demonstrated that if schools know they don't need to be cheap to still make more than enough profit - which brings me to a final point.
How can you complain about unions and overpaid teachers, and then in the same breath, suggest we move to a system that effectively makes all of our schools for profit? You honestly don't see the hypocrisy in that? Private schools are notorious for being, well, businesses - if enough of their "customers" (i.e. parents) asked, they would teach that the world is flat and pigs can fly - they don't care about actually teaching they care about their money and the thousands being poured in by the parents who can therefore design the curriculum whether it's factual or not. THAT is the real reason Republicans push for complete privatization - because it's much easier to force schools to teach what you want when they're private and all you have to do is throw money at them. As usual they claim FACTS are "liberal bias" and then offer a "solution" that essentially just lets them stick in their bias.
Well no, I'm sick of hearing about it. Realistically it's not going to happen since the majority of this country, even children of Republicans, have attended a public educational institution - the day you could get anything close to this implemented is the day hell freezes over.
