Teachers unions continue to use empty rhetoric to bash promising school privatization efforts

By Larry Sand at UnionWatch

It is a given – and understandable – that teachers unions deplore vouchers or opportunity scholarships, arrangements whereby public monies are used to fund a private school education; it hurts their bottom line.

With very few exceptions, private schools are not unionized, and every time students leave their public schools, fewer unionized teachers are needed. That translates to fewer dues dollars for the union.  So like pushy salesmen with an inferior product, the unions resort to evasions, distortions and outright lies to sell their wares.

The unions say, “Vouchers don’t improve outcomes.” Actually, the data say otherwise…...

The unions say, “Vouchers are unpopular with the public.” That may have been true 20 years ago, but not today…..

The unions say, “… (Voucher) programs cost taxpayers millions of dollars and increase bureaucratic and administrative costs.”  This is a perennial union talking point. It’s also a crock,…..

The unions say, “A pure voucher system would only encourage economic, racial, ethnic, and religious stratification in our society.”  …..But the opposite is true……

The unions have a specific agenda and will pursue it at all costs. Whatever claims they make about vouchers serve to further that agenda and have little to do with reality. Their efforts to keep people in the dark forever – and their children in failing schools – are doomed to fail.....To Read More.....