By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public school teachers are apparently embarrassed by the weak links in their profession who remain on school payrolls, year after year, despite their ineffectiveness in the classroom.

Education Sector, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., has released the findings of a recent poll of more than 1,100 public school teachers throughout the United States.

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Most of the findings were predictable. A majority of respondents said they count on their unions to protect them from administrative abuses, want their unions to monitor education reforms to make sure they’re implemented fairly, and want their unions to fight the trend toward including student test scores in teacher evaluations.

But many teachers are also concerned about the union tradition of protecting the worst in their profession, according to the poll. As a story published by TheAtlantic.com put it, “The teachers interviewed for the survey were also in strong support of unions getting more involved in identifying weak teachers and either helping them to improve or guiding them out of the profession.

“Only about 10 percent of teachers said their unions are already doing it. Of those teachers whose unions aren’t involved in such efforts, nearly 70 percent said they would favor it.”

Those teachers obviously realize something their union leaders don’t: Teachers unions are falling out of favor with the public due to their insistence on protecting ineffective or troublesome educators. That means the unions are fighting on behalf of mediocrity in public schools, something citizens have no interest in perpetuating.

Most teachers obviously want to be respected by the public, and they know that’s not possible as long as their unions keep fighting for the misfits in their profession.

This is one area where union leaders would be very wise to heed their advice of their members. Teachers unions will never regain the trust of the public if they keep resisting efforts to improve the quality of classroom instruction.