PJTV has a video of a large demonstration in Washington DC, against Obama’s proposal to cancel a school programme similar to that recently hard-won in Los Angeles.
A few points I’d like to note about this, apart from obvious that the teaching unions connect this with the objections to the LA scheme.
Each pupil on the scheme costs the government half what a child not on the scheme costs. Even so this costs money, because in a sop to the unions bad schools do not lose funding when they lose pupils – they are in effect paid for pupils no longer there. This is probably why it is the only such scheme in the US that has not triggered general improvements in the local schools (as has the similar Swedish system).
People still proclaim their love for Obama, despite opposing his policy (DC is administered by the Federal Government). That really does bemuse me, when he has done nothing beneficial for them. Obama said he would keep the scheme going if research showed it working, which it does. He is willing to go back on that for a union – so who can now deny he is a socialist?
Obviously the NUT opposes the Conservative’s similar policy for the UK. We shall have to see what arguments and slogans they come up with. The best slogans are succinct but point clearly to sound arguments, and ‘Put Kids First’ seems to fit the bill to counter the unions.
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