Unions and the Divorcing of Reward from Merit

by Evan Sayet, FrontPage:

Two headlines, running within a couple of days of each other, caught my attention because they are interrelated. The first was from the Milwaukee Journal and it made clear that, for the first time in history, the average compensation garnered by the Milwaukee school teacher exceeded $100,000. The second was found in a variety of places, a statistic coming from no less a source than the Department of Education, which declared that “Two-Thirds of Wisconsin 8th Graders Can’t Read Proficiently.” The reason for both the exceedingly high pay and the exceedingly low scholarship is due, of course, to the unions.

Oh, there are other causes as well – but they, too, are a reflection of the union because the problem with unions is the same problem with our culture in general – the near-complete divorcing of reward from merit.

If students can’t read, then how did they make it to the eighth grade in the first place? The answer is that their grades were inflated and thus they were rewarded with grades they did not merit. They are in the eight grade because they received “social promotions,” rewards given to children obviously not based on their scholastic aptitude but on the Modern Liberal premise that not rewarding them might hurt their self-esteem.

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