Stupid in America; Calling Their Bluff

The AWESOME 20/20 piece, Stupid in America, is being shown again on ABC at 10pm this Friday (you can also watch it anytime at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRUMmTs0ZA).  You know this has to be a great piece of work based on the hysterical reaction of the teachers' unions, as described by Stossel in the article below.

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Calling Their Bluff

BY JOHN STOSSEL - JFS Productions Inc.
April 6, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/30552

Last month, 500 angry schoolteachers assembled outside my office. The United Federation of Teachers was furious that "Stupid in America," a "20/20" show I did on education, suggested that some union teachers were lazy. They shouted that I didn't understand how difficult teaching was, and chanted, "Shame on you!"

Randi Weingarten, head of New York City's union, took the microphone and hollered, "Just teach for a week!" She said I could select from many schools. "We got high schools, we got elementary schools, we got junior high schools!"

I accepted. I even said I'd let the union pick the school. I thought I'd learn more about how difficult teaching is. Above all, it was a chance to get our cameras into schools - something the N.Y. bureaucracy had forbidden - so we could show you what was really going on.

But it won't happen.

Like most of our dealings with the union, nothing was easy. It took weeks of phone calls to make any sort of progress. I suspect this will not surprise public-school parents.