Can Teachers’ Unions Do For America What They’ve Done For Detroit?

11 Dec, 2012 by John Hawkins

Print this article Font size -16+

Let’s hope not.: Only 7% of Detroit public school 8th graders are proficient in reading.

In the public schools in Detroit, Mich., according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 7 percent of the eighth graders are grade-level proficient or better in reading.

Some public school teachers in the City of Detroit and around the state of Michigan are reportedly taking a vacation or a sick day today to protest right-to-work legislation likely to be approved by the state legislature. Under current law, Michigan public school teachers must pay dues to the teachers’ union. If the right-to-work law is enacted, Michigan public-school teachers will be free to join the union and pay dues to it if they wish, but they will also be free not to join the union and not to pay it dues.

Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading, according to the Department of Education. While only 7 percent scored highly enough on the department’s National Assessment of Educational Progress test in 2011 to be rated “proficient” or better in reading, only 4 percent scored highly enough to be rated “proficient” or better in math.

A whole generation of children in Detroit are being strapped to the altar and having their futures slaughtered to appease the unions. That isn’t educating children; it’s child sacrifice.