Passage of the Day: John Stossel on the Need for Competition in Education

Stossel, whose comments on U.S. schools were previously noted here and here, has gone from hero on the verge of receiving a special award from a teachers’ union organization to villain in the space of one broadcast. That’s because he hosted the ABC News TV special “Stupid in America,” which, among other things, noted that:

• American kids’ collectively poor school achievement compared to other countries, which begins at around fourth grade and continues to the end of high school.
• The myth that “more money” is the answer. Stossel says school spending has tripled in real terms in the past 30 years, but that test scores are flat.
• The public school government monopoly rewards mediocrity and stifles innovation.

His passage of the day is this:

I’m sorry that union teachers are mad at me. But when it comes to the union-dominated monopoly, the facts are inescapable. Many kids are miserable in bad schools. If they are not rich enough to move, or to pay for private school, they are trapped.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We know what works: choice. That’s what’s brought Americans better computers, phones, movies, music, supermarkets — most everything we have. Schoolchildren deserve the joyous benefits of market competition too.

Unions say, “education of the children is too important to be left to the vagaries of the market.” The opposite is true. Education is too important to be left to the calcified union/government monopoly.

By the way, the teachers’ unions have announced demonstrations against Mr. Stossel in many cities, including but not limited to New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta. That’s fitting, because these cities’ school systems are among the worst in the nation.

I also have a question: Why won’t these demonstrating teachers be in the classroom?
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UPDATE: NewsBusters’ Greg Sheffield did a post covering the New York Sun’s story about how Stossel went out to meet the demonstrating teachers with a camera crew in tow.