I was quite surprised when California Teachers Association president Dean Vogel agreed to join a panel that consisted of Gloria Romero, Terry Moe and me a couple of weeks ago at an event sponsored by The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley. Gloria had many a battle with CTA when she was in the state senate from 2001-2010, and Terry recently finished his magnum opus, an extraordinarily detailed account of the machinations of the powerful teachers unions. As a former teacher and CTA member, I, as an apostate, have written frequently about these unions which I believe to be the biggest hindrance to reforming our troubled public education system.
Vogel is an amiable sort, unlike some of the other union leaders I have met – a ready smile and an easy manner disarms at first. But after carefully listening to his talk, I realized that – at least for the time he spoke – “there is no there there.” Platitudes piled on top of clichés lavished with gobs of bunkum...
Unfortunately, the event’s format didn’t allow for direct questioning of other panelists. A small sample of what I would have loved the opportunity to ask the union leader in front of the 230 or so people in attendance....
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
What Would You Ask The CTA President?
CTEN President Larry Sand recently participated in a roundtable with the president of the California Teachers Association and wrote about it here:
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2 comments:
Gosh I can't even think what would ask...probably cause I'd have such a plethora that my mnd goes blank. Common Core, tenure, LIFO, propaganda, politics....
As the author's already observed, there's really no point to asking the man questions. As president of the CTA public utterances serve the union agenda and that's proper.
It's the assumption that he'll answer any other way then to advance that agenda that are naive.
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