Teachers unions have turned our schools into woke brainwashing camps

[Geee]

Telegraph

You have to be utterly delusional – or a member of a teacher’s union – to think that the US education system isn’t a total disaster. The most recent National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP, or “The Nation’s Report Card”) found barely a quarter of students are proficient in reading, geography and American history. While school lockdowns certainly accelerated decline, falling educational standards have long been observable. 

In the lower grades, it’s now common to hear talk of “zombie schools”, the product of more than 20 per cent of pupils being “chronically absent”. It’s no surprise, then, that many parents and some states are looking at alternatives, notably school choice and charter schools: this year alone twenty states expanded their charter programs. 

The number of publicly funded charter schools has doubled since 2005, while the student count has grown by more than threefold. That’s no surprise, considering that they have consistently outperformed their traditional public school rivals in terms of academic results. 

Yet better performance seems barely a priority for those who run public schools, particularly in the deepest blue states. In   California, charters are under unremitting attack: Los Angeles is working overtime to prevent the creation of new schools while harassing those that already exist. It’s a bizarre fixation considering the fact that California’s K-12 system, which serves nearly six million students, fails to educate the majority of them. 

This year, notes former State Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, the state will spend about $128 billion on K–12 public education, an amount exceeding the entire budget of all states except New York. Yet school test scores continue to disappoint, particularly for minority students. :snip: