I’ve been reading Steven Brill’s Class Warfare, his free-swinging account of the latest chapter in America’s ever-continuing education wars. Filling us in on the historical background, Steve tells us how Albert Shanker’s American Federation of Teachers pumped up starting teachers’ salaries in the Big Apple from $5,300 in 1962 to $45,530 in 2007, “more than eight times 1962’s $5,300,” Steve enthuses (p. 36). Except that, Steve, there’s been a little thing called inflation, so that 1962’s $5,300, expressed in 2007 dollars, amounts to $35,964. OK, a $9,400 raise, not too shabby, and I wouldn’t complain, and I bet that with improved benefits the total 2007 package amounted to about $20 K over 1962, but still. Eight times as much it ain’t.
Steve Brill’s major opponent these days is Diane Ravitch,* confusing everyone by changing from neo-con to paleo-liberal right before our very eyes. Felix Salmon referees here, awarding the decision to Diane on points, and arguing, correctly, in my opinion, that the handful of “fantastic” schools that Steve has discovered don’t make the case that Steve wants them to make. Like so many advocates, Steve confuses the outlier with the mean. Just because one dude can run a four-minute mile doesn’t mean that everyone can.
But if Steve’s ideas for transforming/revolutionizing America’s schools are nothing more than the typical upper-middle-class fantasy of making everyone just like us (“You’re going to love Aristotle! I promise it! He’s so contemporary!”)—and they are—the simple fact is that in many cities teachers’ unions are part of the problem. They’ve adapted to a disfunctional system and made it a way of life. The “work little, retire early” contracts the public sector unions have developed over the past half century in states like California, New York, and New Jersey are the main fuel of the Tea Party’s bonfire.† Steve’s big story isn’t the story he thinks, but it is big.
*Back in 2001, Diane came out with Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform, basically arguing that American schools were way too Rousseauan and insufficiently Hegelian, but these days she seems to be channeling Hubert Humphrey. I think it’s a step up.
†The greatest offenders, though not the most populous, are the public safety unions—police and fire fighters. Five or six years ago Michael Bloomberg noticed that fires had declined by about 40 percent in New York City over the past few decades, as a result of smoke detectors, sprinkling systems, and his own draconian measures regarding smoking. Well, 40 percent fewer fires should equal 40 percent fewer fire fighters, right? Do have to tell you who won that one?
