Candace again brings up the idea of teachers’ unions standing in the way of public-school reform. That may be, but it is also true that conservatives say very little about discipline in the public schools. The disrespect that teachers must endure from unruly and downright nasty students is horrendous. Unions at least protect job security. I once asked a group of public-school teachers which would they prefer, higher pay on the one hand, or, on the other hand, greater discipline in their schools coupled with greater support for teachers who discipline students. They instantaneously and unanimously said discipline.

Also, in higher education, unionization does not present much of a problem, so what’s the issue there? There, and in the lower grades, the real problem is that the left has bullied its way to victory in the battle of ideas. Even charter schools often start up with progressive pedagogies; race, gender, and class ideologies; and diversity propaganda, union or no. Michelle Malkin here details a list of Hispanic-chauvinist schools created with federal money.

As for Bill Gates, his small-school concept is presenting problems of its own, as education experts Diane Ravitch and Andrew Wolf can attest.