Zombie schools, lacking students, draining taxpayers, that exist mostly for unionized teachers
There is something sad about closing a school. In some of the towns near us there are beautiful old schools that are monuments to other, more prosperous (for these towns anyway) times. Years ago children laughed and played on the swing sets and monkey bars. Dogs ate homework. PTAs had bake sales. But now no more. We can understand why some communities cling to schools that probably should no longer exist.
That these schools are often in the poorer areas of town where industry has left and birth rates have nosedived, complicates things. Shutting a school in any “underserved” part of town does probably hurt at least some of the students who remain in these hollowed out schools, as they will now have to travel farther for their educations. But the truth is much, and maybe most, of the reason these zombie schools continue to limp along has nothing to do with the welfare of the kids. It has more to do with the fact that unionized teachers work in these schools.
I remember covering a teacher’s union convention years ago and watching the head of the union saying something to the effect that if one brought up ending Common Core to him he’d “punch that person in the mouth.”
Hah! I just found the clip. I guess he said he’d punch people in the “face” not the mouth, just to be clear.
Forgive the digression, I just remembered that. But really it is the unions keeping the zombie schools “alive”. That and the billions (190 BILLION!) in Covid funds that the unions were able to secure from the American taxpayer. Funds that are about to finally run out.
We have heard some teachers in unions make the case that public schools are for the teachers first and the students second. That kind of mentality is what feeds the effort to keep the zombie schools open.
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