Former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige’s new book, The War Against Hope: How Teachers’ Unions Hurt Children, Hinder Teachers, and Endanger Public Education (Nelson Current, 2007), is a scathing critique of America’s teachers unions. The Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act—up for reauthorization this year by a Democrat-controlled Congress—has cheerleaders and critics on both the Right and the Left, but Paige argues that the Act’s unpopularity is primarily a casualty of teachers union politics and unions’ knee-jerk opposition to reform. He also notes how unions generate public support by prompting nonprofit advocacy groups to support the union position. The following excerpt is reprinted with permission.
