Modern School: Lies of Our Times—LA Mayor Says Firing Teachers Improves Student Learning

Modern School: Lies of Our Times—LA Mayor Says Firing Teachers Improves Student Learning

Lies of Our Times—LA Mayor Says Firing Teachers Improves Student Learning

by Michael Dunn

In an Op Ed in the Los Angeles Times today, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said that “the crisis in Los Angeles public schools — where only about half of the students graduate from high school and fewer than 30% of those who do are college-ready — can't be solved until we make excellent teaching a top priority.” His solution is to do away with seniority, weaken tenure protections, and tie teacher evaluations to student test scores.

The first problem with Villaraigosa’s assessment is that there is no crisis. A crisis is a discreet event, whereas low graduation rates are the historical norm, a constant since the earliest days of the American education system. In the 19^th century, only 2% of U.S. children graduated from high school, according to Education Week. While graduation rates steadily rose in the early to middle 20^th century, they remained low for minority and especially lower income students. In the 1950s and 60s, for example, high school dropout rates for Latin Americans were a