teacher

In today’s edition of The Heartland Daily Podcast, Budget & Tax News managing editor Jesse Hathaway speaks with Rebecca Friedrichs, a California teacher who’s going all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States to fight for her (and other teachers’) protection against compelled speech and involuntary association by labor unions.

As high-stakes testing grows in K-12 education, it is no surprise the testing for teacher certifications is also becoming more high-stakes. The problem is, teacher testing is not a good indicator of teacher quality. An MIT study found “state mandated teacher testing is associated with increases in teacher wages, though we find no evidence of a corresponding increase in quality.”

They can use the funds for expenses such as tutoring, private tuition, special education services, books, computers, and online and in-person classes. They can even save remaining funds for college.

Criticizing teachers is like criticizing policemen or mothers, but romanticizing the U.S. education system blinds us to the harm it can do to children.