The February 2017 issue of NYSUT United, the propaganda arm of the New York State United Teachers, is full of vitriol for Betsy DeVos, the Trump Administration nominee for Secretary of Education. In condemming DeVos, the union enlightens any reader who actually reads the publication.
A section entitled "Buying Influence" lists 5 Republicans in Congress that received a donation from DeVos. It totals about $250,000 (over a 4 year period of time) which is peanuts to the DeVos family. That's right. She happens to be wealthy. But NYSUT never mentions the influence it tries to buy. According to the website followthemoney.org, NYSUT has given $16M over the past 20 years to politicians. Some $10.9M went to Democratic candidates. That money, though, was collected from individual teachers who had no say in how the money was spent or on whom the money was given.
The headline was subtitled "Turn a profit on the backs of our students?" Profit, it seems for teachers, is a dirty word. Mohonasen teacher Brenda Stahl is quoted as saying "It's kind of scary. It's profit-oriented."
So, profit is bad. One definition of profit in The Free Dictionary is "an advantageous gain or return" or to "derive benefit." Most people work at a job that provided an "economic profit," since likely their current job pays higher than any alternative job available to them. The amount of money over the next-best alternative is their economic profit. If a teacher gets employer-based free health care and a generous guaranteed retirement, those items may be considered "profit" over a similarly paid job that does not provide such generous benefits.
Profit is not inherently evil. It simply creates incentive. In the case of NYSUT, it create incentive to lobby politicians to ensure the economic profit of teaching remains. It does not necessarily create good outcomes, which is why "profit-oriented" can sound so scary to the ill-informed.
The free market, on the other hand, creates an incentive to serve the customer. And the customers are children. When education dollars go with the student, the student (and parents) can make choices to get the best education possible. Failing schools are removed from the system. New schools that want to compete can rise from nothing, offer more service and find themselves competing for dollars with established schools.Who wins? Students. Who loses? The least efficient or effective school. And maybe the teachers union. |
