United Teachers Los Angeles supports merit pay “on a cold day in hell
The Detroit Federation of Teachers shut down city schools to stop 15 charter schools from being built for free
The California Teachers Association has compared school vouchers to child prostitution
The Washington Teachers Union has withheld kids’ college recommendations for parents who didn’t oppose school reform
In Illinois (outside of Chicago), two union-protected teachers out of 95,500 are terminated for incompetence annually
In Illinois (outside of Chicago), it costs $219,504.21 to fire a bad union-protected teacher
In New Jersey, five union-protected teachers out of more than 100,000 are terminated for incompetence annually
In New York State, seventeen union-protected teachers are terminated a year
In New York State, it costs $128,941 to fire a bad union-protected teacher
In New York City, only ten out of 55,000 tenured teachers were terminated in 2006-2007
In Los Angeles, only eleven out of 43,000 union-protected teachers are even considered for termination annually
The National Education Association received $50 million for shaky investment advice in 2004 alone
NEA members are suing over the union’s endorsement of “Valuebuilder,” a plan with over $1 billion of members’ money invested
New York State United Teachers received $3 million for shaky investment advice in 2005
Washington Teachers Union embezzlement tab: $5 million
United Teachers of Dade (Miami) embezzlement tab: $2.5 million
Massachusetts Teachers Association embezzlement tab: $800,000
Michigan teachers unions' embezzlement tab from one thief: $218,000 in bad checks
 
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International Competitiveness

In international assessments, teenage students in the United States fare poorly in comparison to students in other nations. According to the Program for International Student Assessment, sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked in 35th place in math literacy, and 29th place in scientific literacy. These scores were lower than those of many developing nations, including Slovenia, Azerbaijan, and the Slovak Republic.

Math:

  1. Chinese Taipei: 549
  2. Finland: 548
  3. Hong Kong-China: 547
  4. Korea, Republic of: 547
  5. Netherlands: 531
  6. Switzerland: 530
  7. Canada: 527
  8. Macao-China: 525
  9. Liechtenstein: 525
  10. Japan: 523
  11. New Zealand: 522
  12. Belgium: 520
  13. Australia: 520
  14. Estonia: 515
  15. Denmark: 513
  16. Czech Republic: 510
  17. Iceland: 506
  18. Austria: 505
  19. Germany: 504
  20. Slovenia: 504
  21. Sweden: 502
  22. Ireland: 501
  23. France: 496
  24. United Kingdom: 495
  25. Poland: 495
  26. Slovak Republic: 492
  27. Hungary: 491
  28. Luxembourg: 490
  29. Norway: 490
  30. Latvia: 486
  31. Lithuania: 486
  32. Spain: 480
  33. Azerbaijan: 476
  34. Russian Federation: 476
  35. United States: 474
  36. Croatia: 467
  37. Portugal: 466
  38. Italy: 462
  39. Greece: 459
  40. Israel: 442
  41. Republic of Serbia: 435
  42. Uruguay: 427
  43. Turkey: 424
  44. Thailand: 417
  45. Romania: 415
  46. Bulgaria: 413
  47. Chile: 411
  48. Mexico: 406
  49. Republic of Montenegro: 399
  50. Indonesia: 391
  51. Jordan: 384
  52. Argentina: 381
  53. Colombia: 370
  54. Brazil: 370
  55. Tunisia: 365
  56. Qatar: 318
  57. Kyrgyz Republic: 311

Science:

  1. Finland: 563
  2. Hong Kong-China: 542
  3. Canada: 534
  4. Chinese Taipei: 532
  5. Estonia: 531
  6. Japan: 531
  7. New Zealand: 530
  8. Australia: 527
  9. Netherlands: 525
  10. Korea, Republic of: 522
  11. Liechtenstein: 522
  12. Slovenia: 519
  13. Germany: 516
  14. United Kingdom: 515
  15. Czech Republic: 513
  16. Switzerland: 512
  17. Austria: 511
  18. Macao-China: 511
  19. Belgium: 510
  20. Ireland: 508
  21. Hungary: 504
  22. Sweden: 503
  23. Poland: 498
  24. Denmark: 496
  25. France: 495
  26. Croatia: 493
  27. Iceland: 491
  28. Latvia: 490
  29. United States: 489
  30. Lithuania: 488
  31. Slovak Republic: 488
  32. Spain: 488
  33. Norway: 487
  34. Luxembourg: 486
  35. Russian Federation: 479
  36. Italy: 475
  37. Portugal: 474
  38. Greece: 473
  39. Israel: 454
  40. Chile: 438
  41. Republic of Serbia: 436
  42. Bulgaria: 434
  43. Uruguay: 428
  44. Turkey: 424
  45. Jordan: 422
  46. Thailand: 421
  47. Romania: 418
  48. Republic of Montenegro: 412
  49. Mexico: 410
  50. Indonesia: 393
  51. Argentina: 391
  52. Brazil: 390
  53. Colombia: 388
  54. Tunisia: 386
  55. Azerbaijan: 382
  56. Qatar: 349
  57. Kyrgyz Republic: 322

Source: U.S. Department of Education - National Center for Education Statistics: “Highlights from PISA 2006: Performance of U.S. 15-Year-Old Students in Science and Mathematics Literacy in an International Context”