Letter: To improve education, start by tackling poverty
Published: Thursday, August 09, 2012, 10:25 AM
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is pictured in this file photo. He spoke with Star-Ledger editorial page editor Tom Moran about school reform.U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan shamefully promotes the myth that America’s education problem is its teachers and their associations, when the data are clearly contrary. (“Better education starts with best educators,” Aug. 5).
Duncan’s office said National Assessment of Educational Progress data show contractual bargaining states overall outperform weaker or nonunionized states. The most comprehensive charter study performed to date, by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, demonstrated charter schools were twice as likely to produce underperforming students in traditional public schools and underserve special-needs populations.
A 2009 study by the American Institutes for Research shows that in six states where collective bargaining by teachers is allowed — New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New