Obviously, We’re Not Asking the Right Questions?

The saying goes something like this:  Ask the right question, and you’ll get the right answer.

It’s painfully obvious, therefore, that we’re asking the wrong questions about why there is such a powerful, organized AND effective resistance by teacher unions to parent choice — “the civil rights issue of today”.

Here are some of my questions:

1 Which scholarly discipline will best unravel the enigma of teacher unions opposing parental choice in public education?  Sociology 101, Political Science 101, Economics 101, Psychology 101, Criminology 101, Ethics 101, Public Policy 101? ? ?

2 Why are teacher unions opposed to parent choice?

3 Which teacher unions, internationally, are mounting the biggest challenges to parent choice, and what proportion of union fees are assigned to this?

4 Here are some of the issues to be addressed:

a) Why are poor children targeted by unions in their opposition to vouchers for parents of poor or special needs children to be able to leave failing schools for another?

b) Are teacher unions also, along with a good number of university professors, behind general opposition to teaching basic reading skills to all children?  In effect, not teaching basic reading to all children causes poverty and increased prison populations.  Why would teacher unions abide by this contradiction to their stated acceptance of the principles of egalitarianism?

c) Why are legislators so accommodating to teacher union pressure in educational decisions?

5 Is there any existing research or literature already available from which to build either a tentative or comprehensive analysis that can be used in shaping discussion and hopefully, solutions, to this blockade by teachers unions against parent choice?