Escaping the Teachers’ Clutch

At a time when most American parents are complaining bitterly, though ineffectually, about the low quality of public schooling, the teachers’ unions devote their energies to inflating the cost of public instruction. A case in point is the current situation in the schools of Los Angeles.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles, thirty thousand strong, demand that their salary increases be tied to the Consumer Price Index, now rising at about 12 per cent annually. That’s their contribution to the struggle against inflation. (The Los Angeles superintendent of schools has offered a raise of 6 per cent for next year; several members of the school board wonder where they’re going to find the money for even that increase.) And of course they also insist on numerous fringe benefits.

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Russell Kirk

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At a time when most American parents are complaining bitterly, though ineffectually, about the low quality of public schooling, the teachers’ unions devote their energies to inflating the cost of public instruction. A case in point is the current situation in the schools of Los Angeles.

The United Teachers of Los Angeles, thirty thousand strong, demand that their salary increases be tied to the Consumer Price Index, now rising at about 12 per cent annually. That’s their contribution to the struggle against inflation. (The Los Angeles superintendent of schools has offered a raise of 6 per cent for next year; several members of the school board wonder where they’re going to find the money for even that increase.) And of course they also insist on numerous fringe benefits.