Teachers Unions Quotes

• When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.

  Albert Shanker

  Children, School, America

  "Stupid In America" by John Stossel, www.foxnews.com. September 16, 2011.

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• So long as public schools are treated as places that exist to provide guaranteed jobs to members of the teachers' unions, do not be surprised to see American students continuing to score lower on international tests than students in countries that spend a lot less per pupil than we do.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Teacher, Jobs

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• I believe that the teachers unions are doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing. They were designed to be professional organizations that protect the rights and privileges and pay of their members. The problem is that we don't have an organized national interest group with the same heft as the teachers union that's advocating on behalf of children.

  Michelle Rhee

  Teacher, Children, Believe

  Source: www.sfgate.com

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• The teachers' unions that block school reform have done serious damage to the union brand. The public no longer views unions as their friend, much less their champion. They view them as corrupt, intransigent and more interested in protecting their political clout within the Democratic Party than protecting their members or even school children.

  Juan Williams

  Teacher, Children, Block

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• We're not spending enough money, but probably we let the teachers unions set curriculas which don't teach them the right things. There's not emphasis on the ...the basic learning that you need if you're going to go on in a college and into post-graduate work.

  Rupert Murdoch

  Teacher, College, Needs

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• Just as members of American teachers unions often send their own children to private schools, so unionized workers at government-run hospitals in Britain have insurance that allows them to go to private hospitals. In both cases, those on the inside realize how bad these institutions are, regardless of what they say to those on the outside.

  Thomas Sowell

  Running, Teacher, Children

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• In the current environment, attributing low student performance to teacher tenure is one of the great unproven causal links out there. The relationship just hasn't been examined very carefully, but we should all recognize that in higher education the strongest institutions generally have the most robust tenure systems, and in elementary and secondary, the states with the strongest teacher unions (and tenure systems) tend to have the highest student performance.

  Nicholas Lemann

  Teacher, Links, Unions

  "Ask the Author Live: Nicholas Lemann on Higher Education". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. September 20, 2010.

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• Most blacks want school vouchers, but most liberals vehemently oppose them. Why? Because what is good for teachers' unions is of more importance to the Left than what is good for blacks. Who, then, is racist? By their own admission, and by the policies they pursue, the answer is the people who call themselves progressive.

  Dennis Prager

  Teacher, School, People

  Dennis Prager (2015). “Dennis Prager: Volume I”, p.82, Creators Publishing

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• Teacher unions are an interest group that acts in defense of their own interests, which means the union bosses' interests, not the members.

  Peter Brimelow

  Teacher, Mean, Boss

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• The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unions protest the loudest. Their attitude was memorably expressed by a longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers: He said, quote, 'When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of children.'

  Mitt Romney

  Teacher, Children, Attitude

  "'Who's Killing Philly Public Schools?': Daniel Denvir on Plan for School Closings, Privatization". www.truth-out.org. May 25, 2012.

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• They believe in teachers unions. We believe in teachers.

  Chris Christie

  Teacher, Believe, Unions

  Chris Christie's speech at the Republican National Convention, www.foxnews.com. August 28, 2012.

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• Low standards are a tactic that takes pressure off teachers unions by accepting mediocrity and failure for kids.

  Jeb Bush

  Teacher, Kids, Mediocrity

  "Jeb Bush Speaks Out". Education Next Interview, educationnext.org. November 12, 2014.

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• Liberals will not let you improve the schools or the educational opportunities for poor people, because they want to maintain their teachers union status quo.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Teacher, Educational, School

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• No segment of the population has lost more by the agendas of the liberal constituencies of the Democratic Party than the black population. The teachers' unions, environmental fanatics and the ACLU are just some of the groups to whose interests blacks have been sacrificed wholesale. Lousy education and high crime rates in the ghettos, and unaffordable housing elsewhere with building restrictions, are devastating prices to pay for liberalism.

  Thomas Sowell

  Teacher, Party, Ghetto

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• Instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the teachers union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future.

  Mitt Romney

  Inspirational, Teacher, School

  "Romney Outlines 'Education Crisis,' Seeks To Paint Obama As Union Apologist" by Joy Resmovits, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 23, 2012.

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• I am not going to make any commitments to the teachers union to do anything until they do something that's other than in their own self-interest. And everything they have done so far is in their self-interests, and that's it.

  Chris Christie

  Teacher, Commitment, Self

  "Gov. Chris Christie on McChrystal's Downfall, Battle With Teachers' Unions". "Your World" with Neil Cavuto, www.foxnews.com. June 23, 2010.

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• What he's saying is that a Trump presidency will address those kind of things head on without caving into the special interests like the teachers union, which Mrs. Clinton has completely sold out to.

  Chris Christie

  Teacher, Special, Unions

  "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, abcnews.go.com. August 28, 2016.

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• Reversed [Hillary Clinton's] position on charter schools, reversed her position on changing the way our urban education is run, because she has sold out to the teachers union.

  Chris Christie

  Running, Teacher, School

  "'This Week' Transcript: Gov. Chris Christie and DNC Chair Donna Brazile". abcnews.go.com. August 28, 2016.

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• The teachers union may not like Betsy DeVos, but she's clearly within the range of Republican policy-makers.

  David Brooks

  Teacher, Unions, May

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• [Betsy DeVos] does care about charter schools, which are public schools. She does care about choice, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to care about. It's because it's the one issue where the Democratic donor base was really energized, which was the teacher unions.

  David Brooks

  Teacher, School, Issues

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• And Donald Trump is not going to give in to the special interests in this country, like the teachers' union, who say that substandard education in our urban areas can only be fixed by giving it more money and that that's all they're going to do about it and not change the underlying problems that we have on violence.

  Chris Christie

  Country, Teacher, Giving

  "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos, August 28, 2016.

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• I want to work with the teachers' union. But as I said out there, we have to put the kids first and we are letting down a generation of California children. It's not acceptable.

  Meg Whitman

  Teacher, Children, Kids

  Interview with Teddy Davis, abcnews.go.com. November 17, 2009.

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• We plan to pick up another five seats in the Senate and hold the House through redistricting through 2012. And rather than negotiate with the teachers’ unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them.

  Grover Norquist

  Teacher, House, Groups

  "Grover Norquist: The Soul of the New Machine" by Michael Scherer, www.motherjones.com. January 2004.

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• We need to take on the teachers' union once and for all.

  Chris Christie

  Teacher, Needs, Unions

  "Chris Christie Lets Loose at Secret Koch Brothers Confab" by Brad Friedman, www.motherjones.com. September 7, 2011.

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