(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
HT: Whitney Tilson
Are the stars lining up against the teacher union reactionaries? Four years ago, Oprah felt the need to allow the Savage Inequalities guy babble out his cartoon for purposes of cover, but she didn’t bother with any of that this time. I’m starting to entertain the notion that Waiting for Superman might be a very big deal. The unions have lost the war of ideas, this film powerfully makes that point in an incredibly poignant fashion, and many union puppets will be looking for a new line of work in a few weeks.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Bill Gates IS the problem. He’s behind the nationalization of standards/testing/curriculum. He works with the very people/organizations who have destroyed our schools. He should have taken his money and used it to get the kids OUT of the public schools via private vouchers.
NOTE the producer of this propaganda film is the same one who made INCONVENIENT TRUTH.
Our schools SUCK because we have a monopoly. Reinforcing that monopoly does NOTHING to help
Well MOM, there’s actually quit a little coven of lefties who think vouchers, charters, teacher accountability and all the rest of it are very nice. Even some dust-covered, prehistoric lefties from the Citizens Committee for Civil Rights have chimed in on the side of substantive public education reform. I don’t find it all that tough to believe that some doctrinaire lefty, with an impeccable pedigree, would make a film about how crappy the public education system is.
Conspicuous by its absence, at least as far as I’m concerned is the national Republican Party. You’d think that an issue that has the potential to split back voters would be of interest to the Repubs but as far as I can see there’s no cohesive position on the subject.
The unions have indeed lost the war of ideas, which is not surprising, as they had very few ideas to begin with. What they do have is an ongoing supply of money and for that reason they will not go away easily or soon. But in time….
[…] appears from experts and popular attention that “Waiting for Superman” is going to make waves. Even Oprah […]
[…] reactions to the movie’s premiere: Writing at Jay Greene’s blog, Matt Ladner posts a relevant clip from the Oprah show and says he’s “starting to entertain the notion that Waiting for Superman might be a […]
On this show, I thought someone said teachers can earn tenure in as little as one year. If this is correct, where would that be? What is the range in years to earn tenure for teachers?
Thank you,