Over at NRO, Liam Julian has more on the outrageous homeschooling ruling out of California that I reported on last week. A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles responded to the ruling saying, “What’s best for a child is to be taught by a credentialed teacher.” This doesn’t fly with Julian:
Such statements are risible. Los Angeles Unified School District enrolls some 700,000 students taught by the credentialed teachers that Duffy represents, and a mere 33 percent of those pupils are proficient in reading, only 38 make the grade in math, and only 44 percent ever graduate. What’s best for a child, it seems, has little or nothing to do with the credentials Duffy cherishes.
Furthermore, it is particularly noxious for the head of a big-city teachers’ union, the members of which are failing to educate a stunning number of their pupils, to cheer a court decision that denies the competence of parent educators. Duffy – whose motivations for pushing more students into L.A.’s classrooms may be laudable, but may also stem from a desire to swell the ranks of public-school students to force the district to hire more dues-paying teachers – ought not lecture parents about “what’s best” for their own children.
More info here.