March 13, 2004
Ehrlich vs. O'Malley
Dan Rodricks captures the cultural subtext surrounding those elk pawing the ground, namely, the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland, in his column here.
Now let's look at the substance of their debate, which is over Baltimore's insolvent school system, discussed earlier in this blog.
As with any system, teacher salaries are the bulk of the operating costs and the first place to look for savings. Rodricks however places teacher union contracts as sacrosant and scolds Ehrlich for daring to look at the most obvious area of savings.
This places Rodricks as committing the classic liberal error of linking school spending with quality of education. As someone who spent grades 1-8 in a Catholic school, and 9th grade in public school, I can attest first hand how much better the education can be in a school with far lower spending.
Liberal thinking also routinely places the welfare of teachers above the welfare of pupils. Unfortunately, teacher welfare can be antithetical to student welfare. Just look at the "liberal" and teacher union screams against vouchers to private and parochial schools.
From what I can see of the public school students in my neighborhood, every administrator, principal and teacher needs to hand back at least half of his or her salary immediately. Whatever is going on in Baltimore classrooms, it's not working.
- posted by jbelliveau at 11:58 AM in The Neighborhood
