Intelligence Squared U.S., the originator of a live debate series that's aired on NPR and on Bloomberg television, recently had folks like AFT president Randi Weingarten and scholar Terry Moe, a critic of unions, go head to head over this resolution: "Don't Blame Teachers' Unions for Our Failing Schools."
The program consists of a debate by several panelists, some who support the resolution at hand and others who don't. The audience's reaction is polled both before and after the debate, and compared to see which "side" made the most compelling case.
You can see a transcript with the polling results here, but in essence, most of the voters listed as "undecided" before the debate ended up voting against the resolution, meaning they felt unions should be blamed for failing schools.
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Audience Debate Puts Unions in Spotlight
Stephen Sawchuk| No Comments | No TrackBacks
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2010/03/audience_debate_puts_unions_in.html