Teachers Union Ruins NY Shot at $700M in Stimulus

29 Jan, 2010 by Warner Todd Huston

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Being a good conservative, I am torn on this story! It seems that the teachers union in New York State refused to comply with some simple requirements in cooperation with the state government so that New York could qualify for $700 million in federal stimulus money from a program known as Race to the Top.

Now, on my fiscally conservative side I am glad that the federal government won’t be sending this $700 million to New York. In fact, I’d like to see every state be refused this money. In fact, I’d like the federal government itself to be refused this money by the taxpayers!

But this story also reveals how illegitimate these unions are because the requirements were very simple. All the union had to do was agree with teacher merit pay. But, you see, the United Federation of Teachers doesn’t believe that its membership should be held to any standards. Why should a bad teacher be able to be fired they wonder?

What this shows is that teachers unions aren’t about the kids, they aren’t about any serious attempt to work within the system, nor about education. This is yet another example of a greedy teachers union wholly uninterested in holding its own bad employees to account for their failures.

This union couldn’t care less if the kids get money for their schools nor if the kids have good teachers.

(Cross posted at TheUnionLabelBlog.com