Leigh Smith

Bill Maher and Coleman Hughes finish each other's sentences for 3 minutes straight as they lay out how teachers' unions wrecked public education. The MS NOW host thought she could sit this one out quietly. Then Maher turned and lobbed a grenade right at her. MAHER: "The reason why they don't know that socialism didn't work... is because NOBODY taught them in school." HUGHES: "A lot of kids go to underperforming public schools, which is our euphemism for government-funded daycare centers with occasional school-like activities." MAHER: "I knew they weren't learning anything, but like you said, it's like a daycare center and not a good one." HUGHES: "And I think people on the left want to blame funding because that's the easy issue. But the truth is, this school was well funded. You know, it's 50,000 per pupil at this school. The problem isn't the funding. It's that you can't fire anyone bad." MAHER: "Yes.... The problem is the union, the teachers union, is too powerful. We've seen it in results in states where the union is less powerful, the schools do better." HUGHES: "I call it the chalkboard mafia." MAHER: "The problem, the unions protect bad schools and bad teachers, and the party protects the union. It's almost impossible in a lot of these cities to fire a teacher. I mean literally like you could sell drugs to a kid and it's got to be two offenses before we get—" HUGHES: "It wasn't that long ago that the unions lobbied for a law in New York State to ban even collecting data that you would use to assess which teachers are better than others. You can't even get the data. So obviously the teachers union serves the teachers, they don't serve the students, and if you're a Democrat or any American that's serious about public school reform, you have to challenge the teachers union, period." MAHER: "And I think in this school, where they were learning nothing with no supervision and absentee principals and teachers, I think spending 50,000 dollars per year per student, it's not money. That's what you always hear from the left. 'Oh, it's underfunded.' It's not the funding. The funding isn't the issue." HUGHES: "No, it hasn't been for a very long time." MAHER: "I think this is the kind of thing I will NEVER hear on MS NOW." ALI VITALI: "I think you hear a lot of perspectives on MS NOW." MAHER: "I don't ever hear that one." CONTEXT: Maher and Hughes aren't making this up. On the latest Nation's Report Card, high school seniors posted the lowest reading and math scores ever recorded on the test. And getting rid of bad teachers is nearly impossible. Federal survey data shows the average school district dismissed just 0.2 tenured teachers for poor performance in a year. That's roughly 1 in 500. Meanwhile, students do better long-term in states where unions have less power. A 2019 study in the American Economic Journal found that boys who went to school in states that forced districts to bargain with teachers' unions went on to earn about $2,100 LESS per year as adults compared to boys in states without those laws. If a business failed this badly, someone would get fired. As Hughes put it: "The teachers union serves the teachers; they don't serve the students."