Why Our Schools Suck

I know this is beating-a-dead-horse territory, but this is from Jerry Pournelle's Thursday View:

I note that Michelle Rhee has resigned as DC Public Schools chancellor. Teachers unions are cheering wildly, thus proving once again that the purpose of the public school system is to pay bad teachers and make sure that teacher performance does not affect teacher pay or job retention. Once that mission is accomplished the public schools are encouraged to do other things, but first the bad teachers must be assured their jobs.

Michelle Rhee was making some headway in cleaning up the worst and most-expensive school system in the nation, but just as Jaime Escalante learned, the goal of the education industry has little or nothing to do with education. The unions cannot tolerate any teacher who teaches, nor any administrator who rewards teachers who teach and fires those who cannot.