Over the last two years Bill O’Brien has never ceased to amaze when it comes to the garbage that he spews. Do you remember when he blamed the ‘Union Thugs’ at the USPS for delaying his mail? O’Brien used his facebook account to attack the hard working men and women at the USPS for what turned out to be his own mistake.

Once again the TEA Party leader used his Facebook account to go after another respected profession, Teaching.

From O’Brien’s Facebook page:

“Government schools are failing in NH and throughout the country for one fundamental reason: teacher unions.

Teacher unions maintain incompetence and inefficiency on the local level through collective bargaining and school district-based political activism. They don’t bargain for the children. Like any union they bargain for more pay for less work.

Teacher unions constantly fight to structure our state laws to obtain funding for their jobs and monopolistic control of our children.”

It is obvious that O’Brien is already pushing back against the possible repeal of the School Voucher program that he forced through.

O’Brien continues….

“Who would not, if they could afford it, get their child out of a government school so he can obtain a useful education?

The mantra of the teacher union bosses and lobbyists is that it is all for the children; but that claim as a lie is personified in Maggie Hassan, who opposes a tax credit funded charitable scholarship program for the poor….”

He is using this statement as a way to get himself media attention and bring he opposition of voucher repeal to the front page.

The truth is that vouchers are wrong for NH schools and the different teachers unions throughout the state have been opposed to it from the beginning. Schools need to be properly funded, yet the legislature continues to cut funding forcing towns to cut programs like art and music and staff increasing class sizes. This is not a result of teacher bargaining, in many cases the collective bargaining has helped teachers and schools. Teacher bargain for such outrageous things as like solid professional evaluations, professional development programs to help create effective teachers, class sizes, aside from pay, healthcare and other items.

It has also been proven that state with collective bargaining for teachers have a higher graduation rate than those who are “Right To Work States” and not support collective bargaining.

Vouchers take money away from the state through a tax credit. Those credits result in a loss to local schools only making it harder for schools to pay their bills. What O’Brien also omitted is that vouchers (or tax credits as he calls them) take public money to pay for private religious schools.

O’Brien and others like to say that Charter Schools provide a better or “useful education.” This is another fundamental flaw in O’Brien’s rant, there is no real evidence that charter schools are better than public schools. Actually Diane Ravitch, a well known education advocate, reports that in Milwaukee public schools fare better than private schools.

Teachers unions are not to blame for O’Brien’s idea that education in New Hampshire is failing. I wonder what changes would have been made in NH education if instead of making massive cuts he would have pushed more money to public education?

Matt Murray is the creator and an author on the NH Labor News. He is a union member and advocate for labor and progressive politics. He also works with other unions and members to help spread our message. Follow him on Twitter @NHLabor_News

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