Last Friday in Dallas, Steve Jobs and Michael Dell shared a stage, and Jobs blasted the teachers unions.  (How many politicians wish they could have said the same thing?)

Jobs lambasted teacher unions, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers."I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said. 

"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy." At various pauses, the audience applauded enthusiastically. Dell sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.

It’s refreshing to see a businessperson stand up and say what many people think.   A good friend of mine is a teacher, and has this to say about his own union.  "They’re ridiculous.  You can’t claim, ‘alll teachers are good so none of us should be fired’ and in the next breath say, ‘we are paid too little to attract talented teachers.’  Which one is it?  Are we good or bad? Because we can’t be great and crappy at the same time." 

I love teachers.  I think the work they do is admirable.  But let’s face it, if you can’t evaluate and eliminate underperformers, no amount of money can fix a problem.  Guaranteed employment and a paycheck based on seniority, not merit, is a sure way to encourage mediocrity.  Teachers unions will hopefully take this to heart and in the next levy for increased wages, I hope there is some sort of control for grading the graders, rewarding the strongest ones, and pushing out those who can’t pass the eval.