Stanford political science professor Terry Moe thinks so. An article in the latest Fortune magazine (not yet posted online) discusses key themes from Moe’s new book Special Interest.
Here’s a key excerpt:
Moe says legislative reforms like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top “are small things by comparison, and they can be blocked.” By contrast, “education technology is a tsunami that is only now beginning to swell.” Unions “can’t stop it, although they will try.”
Moe, 61, is talking about the web, fast connections, improved screens, and a growing consensus that there are truly superstar teachers. He says cheap technology will massively substitute for expensive labor. Geography and economic disparity will become irrelevant for teaching — and that means teachers “no longer need to be concentrated in districts.” These transformative, entrepreneurial changes — a “historical accident, a force from the outside” — will “undermine the very foundations of union power.”
Given what we know about teachers’ unions, that can mean only good news for parents and students.
