<p>“But, in the end, the model is not hard to comprehend, and the messages are clear. It starts and it ends with having well-trained and well-educated teachers being allowed to show the professional talent in an environment that respects them, and rewards them correctly. Our current model, based on protecting the less-performing and rewardng the tenured and the older, simply does not allow for this. By low-balling starting salaries of new teachers to overcompensate the teachers that benefited from the extorsionary practices of the unions and CBA only attracts people who do not have better choices. This is why we are spiralling down!”</p>
<p>This statement by Xiggi is right on target. The problem in the US is primarily political. The teacher unions are the biggest obstacle to making the changes we need to reform this failing system. The unions and the Democratic Party march in lockstep, totally unresponsive to the needs of children. The Party receives millions of dollars from these unions and their members effectively pound the pavement for the Party at election time. Because it is so difficult to pry the Democratic Party from the clutches of the unions, a growing number of people are getting behind the school choice movement. Hopefully, by injecting free market principles into our sorry state of an educational system, we might actually force schools to improve their performance. There is nothing like going out of business to focus the mind.</p>
<p>I think the Finish tend to have high IQs. DH is of Finnish ancestry. Lots and lots of very bright people and they always talk about how Finns tend to be very smart. I think historically the country has had a lot of alcoholism but they’ve enacted policies to bring that under control. Actually, the programs in Finnland targeted at lowering alcohol consumption may play a bit of a role in their surge to the forefront educationally.</p>
<p>The teacher’s union essentially owns the Democratic part and they are a huge voting block and a major contributor to campaigns. This is an obvious and very unfortunate obstacle to improving teacher quality. The teacher’s union is about the welfare of the teachers, and not the students. All the vacuous rhetoric in the world is not going to erase the fundamental dysfunction of having a massive union with so much clout over education funding and policies.</p>
<p>It’s fine if teachers are public employees. But they should not be unionized. They should not be a political player. It’s a great thing to pay the handsomely and transform teaching into a high status profession. But their union is not the pathway toward this goal.</p>
<p>It is ludicrous to trot out old arguments about underpaid teachers living off the charity of the townsfolk. That is not the situation today and hasn’t been the situation for awhile.</p>
<p>The presence of teachers unions should not be a de facto problem. It is doubtful that a nordic country such as Finland is lacking in that department. However, our problem is with the TYPE of teacher union we have, and especially with the type of activist and leadership such an union has attracted over the past decades. We do not have to look further at the shameful display in Madison, Wisconsin a few months ago to understand what the US unions stand for.</p>
<p>Teacher unions should have a voice in our education system, and it is their function to defend the rights and welfare of the teachers. However, we should also realize that this is hardly compatible with the success and welfare of the students. We cannot blame the unions to defend what was given to them by a corrupt system; we ought to blame ourselves for our past lack of concern and for our lack of support to the current politicians who have the courage to eradicate the impact of 60 years of giveaways and abject tradeoffs. </p>
<p>Changes WILL come. The days of abusive CBAs and over-protection of the rotten apples are numbered. It will not come quickly or easily as several generations of yesterday’s teachers and their leaders have to be replaced over time. Limiting their political presence will only come with drying up the income derived from their organized thievery. This will also come in time. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is little to cheer about at this time in terms of changing the education and training of our teachers.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, do you know what the Fins have done re their alcoholism problems? I’m wondering whether something like that wouldn’t help us with our rampant drug/alcohol abuse problems.</p>
<p>Finland has used taxation and restriction on advertising as mechanisms. </p>
<p>It does not always work well. In 2004, Finland lowered taxes to combat cheaper imports from Russia and Estonia. The result was that Finland experienced more deaths from alcohol than from other diseases in 2005-2006. Since then, Finland has raised taxed several times.</p>
<p>Some think that adults in Finland will always drink, and this no matter the high prices. Not all is fine in the Nordic countries.</p>