The Cartel: How Special Interests Block Real Education Reform

Alex Adrianson / July 30, 2009

The Cartel is a new documentary film that should be seen by everyone who cares whether children in this country get a good education. It should especially be seen by anybody who thinks that merely shoveling more money into the schools will make them better.

The Cartel reveals the story behind the story of educational failure in the United States: Teachers’ unions are special interest groups, and, just like any special interest group, the unions exert a disproportionate influence on the public policies that most affect their members. Candidates for school boards must play nice with the unions, if not play the role of outright stooge; if they don’t, they’ll find themselves opposed by a block of very motivated voters. The teachers can thus select the people with whom they must negotiate their contracts; and teachers’ unions don’t want contracts that reward the best teachers and that allow bad teachers to be fired. (more…)