Let's destroy the Education 'Cartel'

Jonathan Turley has long been an advocate for public education. He affirmed that in this Hill op-ed. He wrote "Despite my long support for public schools, I believe vouchers may be the only way to wrest control away from the education cartel by introducing real competition based on academic performance." Earlier in that op-ed, he wrote "In a prior column, I was particularly moved by the frustration of a mother in Baltimore who complained that her son was in the top half of his class despite failing all but three of his classes. Her story led to my changing my view of school vouchers."

This will require a partnership between reform-oriented teachers and deep-pocketed philanthropist who share a vision for competition in K-12 education. This isn't meant to imply that increased funding leads to better outcomes. It's saying that we need philanthropisats to establish scholarahip funds that lead to greater competition. Without competition, rebuilding K-12 education doesn't happen.

Rebuilding the system WITH competition as imperative muat happen. Without competition, this initiative fails.

Faced with low proficiency scores, teachers’ unions and school administrators have continued to lower proficiency requirements. They are simply pushing students out the door without basic skills, robbing these kids of any chance to break out of cycles of poverty and unemployment. When confronted with their poor performance, school board members have declared meritocracy to be a form of "white supremacy." Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of so-called "equity."

Democrats and teacher unions (pardon the repetition) don't listen. That's the opposite of who they are. Democrats are the true oligarchs. The students and parents are the serfs. Randi Weingarten told the Biden administration that they wouldn't work during COVID to protect children. Talk about BS. Healthy children were the least vulnerable to COVID. Weingarten TOLD! the Biden administration what they'd do.

In any other field, such generational failure would be unthinkable. No business or enterprise could sustain itself. However, that is the point. There is little competition in this system. Blue states have largely blocked voucher systems while protecting teachers from performance-based standards.

Actual students have become irrelevant to budgets. In Chicago, there are schools that remain open despite 80 percent vacancy rates. One school, Frederick Douglass Academy High School has only 27 students, or 2 percent of its building’s capacity. The school system spends $55,000 for each student at Frederick Douglass Academy.

Overall, 35 percent of Chicago schools are half full or less. But that did not stop the schools from spending a couple million on transcendental meditation sessions or giving teachers and students days off to join May Day protests (with city-subsidized buses).

It's reaching a tipping point. Parents are frustrated. (They aren't GETTING frustrated. That's in the rear view mirror.) If teacher unions continue acting like they're the bosses, things might get ugly quickly. The late, great Charles Krauthammer once said that if something is unsustainable, it won't be:

The Education Cartel is becoming one of the greatest and most insidious forms of such anti-competitive conduct. Teacher unions have used hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to acquire unchallenged power in blue states where they can dictate ever-increasing salaries, pensions, and budgets. One estimate found that, since 2015, the nation’s two largest teachers unions — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers — spent $669 million on federal campaigns and another $336 million on state and local campaigns.

Parents are frustrated to the point that they're willing to throw the Cartel off the top floor of a tall building. Wealthy philanthropists need high-quality employees. While the Cartel plays hardball, these philanthropists will use their wealth to build school systems that work. This won't be easy. It'll have significant fights but it'll be worth it. That's why it'll happen. We need advocates for students. Let's start here: