Even liberals think all unions do is protect bad teachers.

Arne Duncan was a topic on Morning Joe this morning and I couldn’t believe I what I was hearing. First they showed a complete lack of knowledge about the situation and I have to say being ignorant is okay it’s when you start to comment that I have a problem.

At first they thought the kerfuffle was just because people had become too politically corrects and that his comments were taken but not meant to be racial and where there were racial undertones, I felt they were more sexist and dismissive of women and people who disagreed with him. In short as well as being misinformed and completely made up, they were elitist and ignorant. The morning Joe cast seemed to agree Duncan’s remarks weren’t racist but the inverse, saying urban black moms, would have been

Then they talked about how everybody gets a trophy and how students are no longer pushed to be successful. Mike Barnicle said teachers in a “preponderance” of schools will tell parents how great their children are while at the same time the kids can’t perform simple tasks like add four plus four but as bad and insulting as that was it wasn’t the humdinger of the segment. No, that came from Donny Deutsch.

He said he understood people’s frustrations with public schools but they were doomed to fail since unions main purpose was to protect bad teachers. What!!!  

My union does not protect bad teachers. In fact my problem with my union is they don’t protect good teachers from the intimidation practices of various administrations, being overworked and from often being put in no-win situations. Talk about pay and benefits and you have their attention, talk about being brow beaten, marginalized or given more work than one person can possible be expected to do and you can’t get a call returned. The last thing they do is protect bad teachers.

Not only has Deutsch bought the talking point that unions protect bad teachers but he is selling it on Morning Joe too and doing so as if that somehow gives Duncan the right to marginalize parents and teachers who he insulted over the weekend.

So there you have it, the hosts of morning Joe think kid getting trophies whether they deserve them or not and unions protecting bad teachers sum up the problems in education.  

Oy vey!

I am beginning to think public school supporters have been doing it wrong. We have waited and hoped the administration and left leaning outlets like MSNBC and the New York Times came to their senses and started standing up for public schools (and yes there are a few exceptions) but the problem is the weekly charter school scandals, and the lack of evidence that corporate reforms work seem to go in one ear and out the other while the story they heard from their neighbors, cousins, brothers, uncle about a union protecting a bad teacher resonates, it takes hold.

Public school supporters need to find allies where they can and I am sure there are some on the right because waiting for help from traditional friends hasn’t been working.