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March 21, 2006

unions show their true colors (again)

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario.  You live in Pasadena, California.  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which has been running the ongoing exploration of Mars, is right in your backyard.  Your high school junior has a chance to have regular visits from a real, live, currently employed NASA engineer for more instruction in physics and calculus. 

And your friendly neighborhood NEA union local moves to shut the program down. 

This sort of collaboration might sound non-controversial, but it's not. Teachers' union leaders are resisting a plan by President Bush to build an “adjunct teacher corps” of 30,000 experienced scientists and mathematicians, like those at Aberdeen, to assist in the nation's schools. The union leaders say raising teacher pay and improving working conditions, not bring in outside experts, is the way to enhance math and science teaching. (emphasis added)

Those objections miss the larger point. The USA faces a challenge to its technology leadership that can't be ignored. Although this country was built on innovation, it now risks passing that mantle to international competitors, according to several recent credible reports.

Business and government leaders say retaining a creative edge requires doubling the number of math and technology majors by the year 2015. Meeting that goal requires reaching students early with instruction that is both competent and inspirational.

As it is now, fewer than a third of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students score at the proficient level in math. And U.S. students score below the international average on tests of math and science knowledge.

Inadequate instruction is at least part of the reason for those scores. An estimated 38% of math teachers in grades 7-12 lack either a major or minor in math.

Just sit and absorb this situation a minute.  The government is trying to bring in the brightest minds we have to offer to teach in U.S. schools, people whose business is science, math and technology--and the unions are so bloody busy gritching for more money that they see such a move as a threat rather than an opportunity. 

Moral: the spirit of Albert Shanker is alive and well. 

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