A Coupla Rich Guys Sitting Around Talking
by Robert PondiscioDecember 1st, 2010
Newsweek columnist Jonathan “We Must Fire Bad Teachers” Alter, who seems determined to be Bill Gates’ Boswell, believes along with his muse, that seniority “is the two-headed monster of education—it’s expensive and harmful.” (Hey, isn’t that true of columnists too?). Abolishing seniority rights is “a moral issue,” he writes. ”Who can defend a system where top teachers are laid off in a budget crunch for no other reason than that they’re young?”
“In most states, pay and promotion of teachers are connected 100 percent to seniority. This is contrary to everything the world’s second-richest man believes about business: “Is there any other part of the economy where someone says, ‘Hey, how long have you been mowing lawns? … I want to pay you more for that reason alone.’ ”
I’m no economist, but unless I’m very much mistaken there lots of other parts of the
