Subscribe to our Blog
The New Haven Experiment
Many people think that perhaps the most pernicious aspect of most teachers’ unions is their determination to protect bad teachers. These people will no doubt be heartened by an ongoing experiment in New Haven, CN, where - in exchange for higher pay and benefits - the teachers’ union is actually allowing weak teachers to be fired. Last year, 34 New Haven teachers (out of 1800 teachers) were shown the door, and this year another 50 teachers have been put on notice. Given recent advances in our understanding of just how crucial teachers are to children’s futures, this is a very important initiative.
Of course, it couldn’t happen in Ontario for all kinds of reasons - not least of which is the Ontario government’s economic-basket-case status. The province can no longer afford to bribe its teachers’ unions, and temperatures will have to drop to unprecedently-low levels in the place of everlasting fire before Ontario teachers’ unions would voluntarily surrender teacher tenure provisions. H/T LJCD