Teacher's Union: the drag on education

(H/T: Shot In The Dark)
No matter what is done to the education system to improve it there is always going to be the HUGE drag on productivity in the schools. The teacher's unions continue to stand in the way of having better teachers. They would simply rather have teachers with longevity.

They stand against testing teachers to make certain the teachers know what they are teaching (I would say about 1/2 of the teachers I had throughout the country in k-12 did not understand the topics they were teaching). They stand in the way of competition (which makes the product better by necessity of survival) via vouchers.

They also do things that have nothing to do with education, like protest good companies for no good reason.

The MFT, along with the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, is urging parents and teachers who shop for school supplies to boycott Wal-Mart, the nation's leading discount retailer. The unions claim that Wal-Mart workers' wages and benefits are too low.

How about concentrating instead on teaching the kids. From what I have seen many districts are having issues with their graduation rates. From what I have witnessed of the incoming freshmen in college they do not have much in the way of independent cognitive ability. Too many high school kids in the workforce do not have simple math skills mastered.

I know, the scores on standardized tests are decent, but those tests are written and re-written for the lowest common idiot denominator. It is the real world that becomes the true test and it seems that too many are failing. That is a reflection of the teachers and I have to tell you, I am of the opinion that a complete overhaul of the teacher rosters and destroying the teachers unions would be a huge benefit for the education of this and future generations.