Michael Bloomberg Blames Teachers Unions for Keeping Money Flowing to Traditional Government Schools and Away from Charter Schools
June 7, 2022 | New York
Former Democrat New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says teachers’ unions were responsible for keeping schools locked down during the pandemic, a move that has enabled a mass exodus of students from traditional government schools throughout the country.
Given the generally poor academic achievement of America’s students in public schools, the steep drop in enrollment means states are now paying more to educate fewer children, and “paying more for failure,” he asserts.
Bloomberg, the founder of the parent company of Bloomberg News, noted in an opinion column Thursday that “nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began,” a finding the former mayor described as “deeply disturbing” because it seems to have escaped public “outcry.”
Perhaps, however, the “outcry” is non-existent.
In an effort to use his influence to save the government school system, the former mayor explained it is not difficult to see what has happened as a result of parents “voting with their feet” to remove students from government schools:
Given that state education funding formulas rely on student population numbers, a large reduction in students will lead to a corresponding reduction in school budgets. That’s the law of supply and demand. Otherwise, at this rate, the public will soon be paying teachers to lead half-empty classrooms.
Bloomberg decried the typical response of teachers’ unions and their allies in politics and the media to the plummeting government school enrollments and the resulting loss of funds; that is, throw more money at it:
Since 2020, Congress has sent an additional $190 billion to schools, in part to help them reopen safely and stave off layoffs. But in many districts, union leaders resisted a return to in-classroom instruction long after it was clear that classrooms were safe. And by and large, remote instruction was a disaster. By one analysis, the first year of the pandemic left students an average of five months behind in math and four months behind in reading, with much larger gaps for low-income schools…. (Excerpt from the Virginia Star)
