Education reform requires more than blaming teachers unions.

Many of my fellow conservatives begin and end comments on education reform by blaming all the problems in education on teachers unions. This is not a program. At the national level, the union role is the worst. Even there they are part of a larger coalition that seeks to black all attempts  at serious effort to change our educational  system, for the better. By the way, the late Al Shanker was an advocate for reform and was hated by liberal elements in the AFT (the American Federation of Teachers) because of this. 

At the local level the unions are the least of the problems. This is especially true in the urban districts where the schools are the worst.Many conservative innovations would be welcomed by most teachers, even liberal ones. They and the students they teach are the most victimized be the bureaucratic blight, that begins at the top. Boards of education from the state board on down are a major hindrance to the improvement of our schools. They are political. not educational entities.

 the local school district bureaucracy is usually overstaffed and under competent. In many Cleveland schools the internet was still nonfunctional two weeks after the beginning of the school year.

In one school, I know middle school students, many of them gang related, have been shoved into an elementary school where they are terrorizing children in lower grades and destroying the school's new computers. The computers were obtained through a grant, applied for, by two elementary teachers  working on their own time.The system was designed for elementary students but unsupervised middle school students are trashing the computers, scrawling obscene graffiti on them and trying to download pornography. His response was to berate the grant writing teachers for calling upon him to take action.
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As is usually the case, the principal is a failed teacher who makes pronouncements and does little else. Principals like this are the norm not the exception. In over two decades in one school, my wife has encountered one competent principal. He lasted one year. One with whom I am familiar does nothing to correct school secretaries who fail to do their jobs. He takes no action to correct grossly incompetent teachers.  In fact he made the teacher with the worst test scores in the school, " Teacher of the year". Contrary to popular opinion, it is not the union which prevents the dismissal of bad teachers. It is the failure of the principal to document their failures and discipline them appropriately.

 He is paid to spend the month before teachers arrive to make preparations for the new school year. He blamed his failure to do anything on "Negotiating a new union contract". Of course, he had nothing to do with that process and the negotiations ended amicably, with no disruptions. Those of my fellow conservative who advocate giving more autonomy to principals are asking that the fox have autonomy in the hen house.

The Unions deserve to get their share of criticism, for their role in blocking education reform.  However, when we blame unions alone for the sorry state of education. We are just providing  excuses, for the malfeasance and misfeasance of school district administrators at all levels. At the local level, they are the prime culprits. I welcome your comments on this topic. If you disagree, let me have. Your criticism is my brain food,