Peter Brimelow
February 2003
Veteran financial journalist, immigration controversialist and National Education Association (NEA) watcher Peter Brimelow has penned a devastating and marvelously readable account of the malign role of teacher unions in American primary-secondary education. Be warned, though, this volume is about as subtle as a 2 x 4 applied forcefully to the reader's skull. The book contends that America's two big teacher unions, the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have expertly exploited government's near monopoly of K-12 schooling to achieve a hammerlock on the operation of the schools themselves, the allocation of their resources, the terms of employment of their teachers and staff - and all efforts to change or reform them. The unions' capacity to retain this position of privilege owes much to its effectiveness in equating the interests of teachers with the vitality of that revered American institution known as "public education" and thus with the long-term well-being of democracy itself. The teacher unions are apt to retain much power, though perhaps a bit less than before. And education reform in America is apt to continue progressing at a worm-like pace. For a fuller appraisal of this book, you can surf to my long review at http://www.washtimes.com/books/20030202-89799328.htm. The book, to be published this month by Harper Collins (ISBN 0060096616) is available from the usual outlets.
