Unions in the Schoolhouse Door

It was 1963 when George Wallace famously stood in the schoolhouse door, proclaiming "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Almost sixty years later, minority children are falling behind in those schools Wallace tried to bar them from attending. Not in every public school, but especially in the largest urban school districts nationwide. It's not all minorities, either. Asians, as a whole, are still outperforming Whites in most public schools. For some reason, Black and Latino students are not getting the education they deserve from our public schools. This column examines some of those reasons, and common sense solutions.

It's important to remember who controls these public school districts. Virtually all of them are controlled by Democrat administrations, and have been for decades. These administrations have remained in power thanks to the power of the public sector unions, especially the teachers' unions. In fact, in many jurisdictions, it could be said that the teachers' unions run the schools, not the appointed school officials. While the elected politicians in these cities claim to be progressive, and helping minority communities, the evidence shows that they are doing the exact opposite, by catering to the unions.

It's varied over the years, but today's politicians blame the learning gap on "systemic racism." One would think that the unions representing teachers and administrators might take offense at this, but they don't. Apparently, the term doesn't apply to the people working in the education system, but the "system" itself. This explains why their goal is to dismantle the existing education system, but what do they want to replace it with? From all the available evidence, they are replacing traditional education with ideological indoctrination. When schools start seeing racism in mathematics, it gives away the game.

The way the educrats and their enabling politicians are going about this destruction is fairly straightforward. They reduce or remove academic standards, starting with testing. Testing has been under attack for years, from many quarters. Some decry "teaching to the test" (as if that's a bad thing), while others rail about the ability of some to pay for extra test preparation. Of course, those who can afford it often send their kids to schools that actually teach, and don't require extra test prep. Of late, though, it is fashionable to label tests as "racially biased," and anyone who disagrees faces the same charge.

The problem for these people is it is all a scam. Minority children can and do perform at the same levels as White kids today, as they have in the past. The key is what is expected of children, and how hard they are challenged in school. It turns out that charter schools have been putting the lie to every one of the progressive excuses regarding why minority children are being failed by so many public school districts. Sometimes these schools are housed in the same buildings as regular public schools, serving the same communities, and still have markedly better outcomes.

Here's the kicker: Charter schools are tuition-free public schools. They use less taxpayer money than regular public schools, and are generally not unionized. Unlike regular public schools, they are held accountable, because their charter can be revoked if they fail to educate their students. This all explains why charter schools typically have many times more applications than actual slots for students, and often have to use a lottery system for accepting them. 

One would think charters are a win-win answer to the problem of the racial education gap, and the soaring cost of public education. They are, but there is a different figure standing in the schoolhouse door these days. The teachers' unions have declared war on charters, and the progressive politicians they support have followed their lead. This has led to caps on the numbers of charter schools, and other restrictions that keep minority children from receiving the quality education every child deserves.

The segregationists of the past may be gone, but today there is a new type of person who wants to keep minority children stuck in lousy schools. What's worse about these modern-day figures in the doorway is that they claim to care about children's education, especially minorities. However, they use what's known as "the soft bigotry of low expectations" to disguise the fact that they are simply in the pocket of the teachers' unions, and those unions don't give a damn about educating children. They only care about the well being of their membership. If a politician doesn't support charter schools, and school choice, they are no better than George Wallace was in 1963.