Parents vs. Teachers’ Unions

For years, teachers’ unions, and the politicians they support, have been equating caring for children with public school funding. Apparently, parents do not agree.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) released a new report which recounted the results of a poll taken by the group Stand for Children which found that the main issues that parents are concerned about are strong teachers and principals, curriculum and standards, charter schools, pre-Kindergarten and early learning, and equity in education. The issues that are of lower concern to parents? School funding, it turns out, is number 10. Moreover, in the survey, “parents were given 15 different issues to choose from and could choose more than one option.

Stand for Children’s mission is, in part, to “Advocate for effective local, state and national education policies and investments.”

The AEI report also reveals that “under 50 percent of parents attended a PTA meeting, and about 16 percent served on a school committee,” and “Less than 10 percent of lower income parents served on a school committee.” Low-income parents who make less than $50,000 a year, also rarely attended more than five school events a year. Parents with incomes above this amount were more likely to do both.

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