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February 19, 2007

people

Jobs speaks out against teacher unions

Posted Feb. 19, ’07, 7:17 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » People

Jobs on Education Steve may have gotten himself on the bad side of some of his more loyal customers. He had some choice words for teacher unions.

Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc., drew applause from many people in the audience with his sharp criticism of teacher unions.

Comparing schools to small companies and principals to CEOs, he asked rhetorically what kind of CEO can’t hire the people he wants, get rid of workers who aren’t performing or pay better workers more.

American schools “have become unionized in the worst possible way,” Jobs said.

Until that is remedied, he said, schools won’t be able to attract the best teachers and administrators.

“No amount of technology is going to fix it until we address the underlying problem,” he said.

Ouch. While I agree with him in spirit, I’m honestly not familiar enough with the internal politics of most schools to know how true it is. I will admit my own experience with a union has soured me on the whole idea. Still, it’s not going to be the best way to reclaim the marketshare lost in that market, or perhaps he’s given up.

[Picture courtesy statesman.com]


4 Comments

Doug Adams said:

Jobs is right. Teachers Unions protect bad teachers; bad teachers who have attained a particular level of seniority cannot be fired. I know of several cases of just such a thing happening in my City's school system. Even parents' lobbying of the school department cannot overcome this travesty.

February 19, 2007 8:17 AM
tony said:

Jobs makes a great point. My wife is a teacher her in Georgia and she is not a fan of teacher's unions at all. They do exactly what Jobs and Mr. Adams above mentioned.

I did see a report on Datelne (or something similar) about how the teacher's unions in New York are particularly difficult to deal with and how they want certain protections for teachers that no other occupation would receive. I wish I could remember the details but it was incredible what they try to get away with (and most of the time do get away with).

February 19, 2007 9:23 AM
Benton said:

... and how did Steve Jobs represent Apple as a solution to the issues confronting education?
On Apple's time Steve Jobs should propose methods and procedures Apple is capable of bringing to the challenges faced by members of EDUCAUSE.
What ever his personal philosophies may be that influence how he prefers to spend his own money I wish he'd check them at the door.
Steve was invited to showcase Apple's vision for the education market. He was not invited to quarrel with or slander attendees.
On this day he was part of the problem, not part of Apple's solution. He needs to keep these Bad days to a minimum.

February 19, 2007 11:23 AM
Mandaris said:

@Benton
Well, it seems to me that part of his presentation is talking about how technology can't fix this particular problem. The rest of the article discusses how competition in that particular market is good for education. There is a little more information at the end where he mentions that student created media maybe one way to get students interested/motivated.

February 20, 2007 8:06 AM

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