Some unions have done worse then others, most specifically unions in the manufacturing sector. Whose fault is that though? One union which has not struggled over the years is the teachers union. Think about it, median wage for a teacher in New jersey is 55k, PLUS full medical dental and vision benefits for life for them and their entire family. Plus they retire on 75-100% wages as long as they slave away for an overwhelming 25 years. Full Dental, medical, and eye insurance would easily cost a person with no insurance 10-20k a year for a family of four. These guys also are guaranteed 5% per year annual raises, no matter what happens. So lets say the teaching median income happens right in the middle of their 25 year career. Which means at year 12.5 they make 55k. 12.5 years later they will retire on double the wage due to compunding wages, this means their retirement wage 12 years from now will be 110k, 90% of that means we will pay these guys close to 100k a year for the rest of their life, just based on salary. Lets say medical costs double as well in that time, that means we will easily pay these guys 120k a year when they retire after 25 years. This means you could easily etire as a teacher at the age of 55 and make 120k for 25-30 more years, and if you get in right out of college you get even more. In order for someone in the private sector to have a retirement 25 years from now where they were able to pull down 120k they would have to have somewhere in the area of 700k-1mill saved and they would be drawing down on the savings the entire time, hoping they dont die before they bleed their money dry. The average wage right now in the private sector is somewhere around 40k, lets say they lose nothing in taxes, but they raise a family of four, lets say they also have no healthcare since they cant afford it on one wage. Lets also say they somehow figure out how to live on 2k a month, that leaves them with roughly 400k at retirement, so if you work and live like a total jackass for 25 years in the private sector, you are still left with a number which is totally eclipsed by the teachers union. Surely there must be an advantage to working in the private sector you must think. Well teachers work for a whopping 8 months a year, and during the day they are responsible for 4 1 hour periods, and they get a 1 hour break period to "grade" tests which are all corrected now by a machine now anyways. Plus they get a 1 hour lunch break. So teachers work for tops 5-6 hours a day 8 months a year, and pull down double the average private sector wage. A guy in the private sector gets to work 11 months or more a year, 8+ hours a day, and if he calls in sick he is likely to be fired. HOW IS THIS SUSTAINABLE? I have used every single statistic to your advantage not mine, and the numbers are absolutely ridiculous.
"None of the findings" made so far by academic researchers, the GAO concluded, "can be considered definitive." I would love to meet with this group of pikers. How on earth could a logical person come to the conclusion that private sector schools who have to compete for funds, would not beat the ever loving shit out of the corrupt public teaching unions? The bottom line is no parent in their right mind would send a kid to a school which was scoring an "F" in every single subject. If we had standardised tests from a different (non partisan) schooling authority there is no doubt in my mind that we would weed out the shithead government union teachers in a heartbeat, it must have been an academic who was breathing his last couple breaths of pinko air who thought of an article as asinine as this. Oh nevermind his name is bigdavediode......
Hey, I'll believe whatever the evidence says works, so get off your lazy ass and show us evidence that it is working or has worked. Nobody really cares if "there's no doubt in your mind" -- show us the performance results by subject that contradict the GAO. Perhaps there's a more recent report they released.
President Obama and the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are big supporters of charter schools. You have to give the president credit for standing up to the Education machine.