Something In the Water

Maybe there really is something to getting brainwashed by the establishment. In one day Matt Yglesias and Ezra Klein have stepped in doggie-poopie with their comments on education reform. For Yglesias this is just another installment of his "I don't know a thing about education policy but I'll pretend I do" pro-merit pay jihad, but Klein starts harping on union protections against firing teachers? I mean, he actually says that in the private sector bad employees tend to get fired in recessions! Hello, earth to Ezra! That only happens to peons! Look at what's happened in the financial sector!

Why is it D.C. liberals are so anti-teachers unions? Why do each and every one of them drink the kool-aid of the neoliberals? There isn't any evidence that merit pay in particular or weaker unions in general improves educational performance. There actually aren't many cases of successful merit pay systems anywhere in the public sector. In fact the countries with better educational outcomes tend to have stronger unions.

Ugh. Between this and Obama's totally wrongheaded education "reform" policy I'm ready to believe that the conspiracy theorists who argue that the Democratic Party just exists to anesthetize the opposition to the shock doctrine are on to something.