February 18th, 2007
Jobs has harsh words for teacher unions
Steve Jobs, speaking in Austin at a forum on technology in the classroom on Friday, said:
I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way… This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy.
According to an AP story by April Castro Jobs compared schools to businesses with principals serving as CEOs.
"What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good?" he asked to loud applause during an education reform conference.
Steve Jobs is a businessman and the epitome of a control freak. Education is very political which is diametrically opposed to the way he runs Apple. Apple is a meritocracy and Jobs doesn't tolerate incompetence so the concept of lifetime employment, tenure, entitlement and nepotism understandably undoubtedly drive him nuts.
Dan Farber is covering the story on Between The Lines (another ZDNet blog) and TechMeme is also covering it.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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