Protecting union comes first with MSEA

What organization espouses freedom of choice to terminate the life of unborn children but opposes freedom of education to prepare children for life? The Democratic Party. What profession does not suffer the consequences of malpractice? Public school “educators.” What do these two entities have in common? Each protects the other.

In the 2017 session of the Mar yland General Assembly — controlled by the Democratic Party — the focus of government suppression was against freedom of education. The attack was led by the Mar yland State Education Association, the pretentious name for the state teachers union, allied with the Democratic Party.

The “Protect Our Schools Act of 2017” is a law to protect the teachers union and the public schools from accountability for a failed educational system. For example, it limits the academic testing of students and lessens the grading of schools based on academic success. Thus, fewer schools will be identified as low-performing. Further, the law prohibits the state board of education from inter vening in low-performing schools for three years, during which only educators and the union have the opportunity to remedy the problems they created.

As the MSEA heralded on its website, the act “prevents the state from converting schools into charters, issuing private school vouchers with federal school improvement funds, hiring for-profit management companies, and creating a state-run universal charter “Recovery District.” It also prevents indirect privatization efforts by prohibiting an A to F grading system for schools — used commonly to paint public schools as failing — and the issuing of federal school improvement funds through a competitive grant process.”

The MSEA noted the act states that no proposed remedies for low-performing schools can overrule an existing collective bargaining agreement. The teachers union mantra of “children first” belies the truth that protecting the union comes first.

No after-the-fact remedies for an inadequate education can overcome the harm done to children. For as long as there is no true freedom of education in Maryland, and no effective accountability for academic failure, the definition of “child abuse” should be inclusive of attendance in the public schools.

Vernon Gray, California