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Politico...
The politics of
education upended
In Wisconsin, about 1,000 teachers called in sick Wednesday to protest
Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to strip their union bargaining rights.
In Washington, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recounted his battle with
his state’s teachers unions Wednesday, calling their leaders “greedy”
and “selfish.”
And in Nevada, Indiana and Florida, Republican governors are targeting
teachers contracts and work rules to fix a system they say is broken.
“The status quo has put us at the bottom of the heap,” Nevada Gov.
Brian Sandoval told POLITICO.
The events point to a convergence that is remaking the politics of
education. Teachers unions, historically one of the most powerful
interest groups in American politics, are being besieged like never
before — under attack from conservative GOP governors with a zeal for
budget-cutting even while taking fire from some Democrats, including
President Barack Obama, who has suggested he agrees that unions can be
an impediment to better schools.
Obama’s education secretary Arne Duncan sounded surprisingly like the
Republican governors when he told teachers unions and administrators at
a conference Tuesday in Denver, “Clearly, the status quo isn’t working
for children.”
The backlash threatens to undercut one of the Democratic Party’s most
stalwart backers — and upset a mutually beneficial relationship where
the unions provided financial support and foot soldiers for Democratic
campaigns, in return for political cover to protect their prerogatives
in the U.S. Congress and state capitols across the nation.
The National Education Association, the largest teachers union, spent
$40 million on the 2010 elections alone, making the union one of the
largest outside funders of Democratic campaigns.
But things are changing...
Read the full story at Politico
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