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This is going to sound dismissively cynical, but it all comes down to politics. The public school system is accountable to way more entities than the Catholic s

This is going to sound dismissively cynical, but it all comes down to politics. The public school system is accountable to way more entities than the Catholic school is. Teachers Unions wield a tremendous amount of power and influence in local and state government. Actually taking on such a political machine would require an incredible amount of activism - bordering on replacing the majority of elected positions in your district. This is especially difficult because most of the lower positions are seats that the average person never thinks about or votes in. But, the unions make sure their members know about these positions and endeavor to get out the vote.

nradov 5y ago
The Wisconsin state government managed to pass Act 10 in 2011 which greatly reduced the power of teachers' unions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_Act_10#Effect_on_unions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_Act_10#Effect_o...
- yaacov 5y ago
  it’s been 10 years, do we know how that’s affected the quality of education there?
  - light_hue_1 5y ago
    Very very badly. "the law reduced average test scores on the state’s standardized exam by approximately 20% of a standard deviation": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571830551X?casa_token=xfERKj0bgfkAAAAA:BPPfplenyEeNOpX5Aa3ysn34hKpY9bX3VDI0V6z_-NXo5NLXuTxp5dTv88TWJ7qT2q7-pghp https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571... "8 percent reduction in total compensation" https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/rb71.pdf https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/rb71.pdf Not only does this hold up in general, it holds up district by district. Districts that still had collective bargaining had better scores than one that didn't (even after controlling for confounds, it was the union status that made the difference). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X19883373 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X1988337... Not only that, teacher shortages are worse, and they're much worse in rural areas. https://search.proquest.com/openview/5ae518d77f9e445512062085a9938153/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y&casa_token=CVFTOWCUyRsAAAAA:VdwYZDBOQUsz_WOJ20Dv4_8bZI6Reof0KmQiYeHr1DdehAHR29i4yyKpoGk1Yx3pxHwHhRqN https://search.proquest.com/openview/5ae518d77f9e44551206208... So the outcome is: Teachers make less money, there are fewer teachers to be had, and students are scoring much worse. A win-win-win for conservatives!

nradov 5y ago

The Wisconsin state government managed to pass Act 10 in 2011 which greatly reduced the power of teachers' unions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_Act_10#Effect_on_unions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_Act_10#Effect_o...

yaacov 5y ago
it’s been 10 years, do we know how that’s affected the quality of education there?
- light_hue_1 5y ago
  Very very badly. "the law reduced average test scores on the state’s standardized exam by approximately 20% of a standard deviation": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571830551X?casa_token=xfERKj0bgfkAAAAA:BPPfplenyEeNOpX5Aa3ysn34hKpY9bX3VDI0V6z_-NXo5NLXuTxp5dTv88TWJ7qT2q7-pghp https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027277571... "8 percent reduction in total compensation" https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/rb71.pdf https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/rb71.pdf Not only does this hold up in general, it holds up district by district. Districts that still had collective bargaining had better scores than one that didn't (even after controlling for confounds, it was the union status that made the difference). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X19883373 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0160449X1988337... Not only that, teacher shortages are worse, and they're much worse in rural areas. https://search.proquest.com/openview/5ae518d77f9e445512062085a9938153/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y&casa_token=CVFTOWCUyRsAAAAA:VdwYZDBOQUsz_WOJ20Dv4_8bZI6Reof0KmQiYeHr1DdehAHR29i4yyKpoGk1Yx3pxHwHhRqN https://search.proquest.com/openview/5ae518d77f9e44551206208... So the outcome is: Teachers make less money, there are fewer teachers to be had, and students are scoring much worse. A win-win-win for conservatives!