Teacher Bashing Is a Loser
Across America, the final votes are being counted and recounted, but we can be sure of one result that will not change: bashing teachers is not a winning proposition in this country. American voters still believe in those teachers that helped shape their lives and that are doing the same for their children, and they are not willing to support ill-conceived policies that demoralize and destroy the careers of their favorite teachers. Even clearer is a second message from this election: those who entrust their children to teachers to nurture and educate them will trust the opinions of those teachers far more than the views of bureaucrats or politicians who promote unsubstantiated programs that are not supported by those who have to implement them. These messages were made very clear on November 6.
To illustrate this, let's look at one of the reddest states in America, Idaho. The voters were not fooled by misleading slogans like "Students Come First" or the rhetoric of Tom Luna, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. They rejected three recently passed state laws that