Obama against School reform and efficiency

Last Wednesday, Mitt Romney took aim at teachers unions in a speech at the Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit wherein he said: The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unions protest the loudest. Their attitude was memorably expressed by a long-time president of the American Federation of Teachers: He said, quote, “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of children.” The teachers unions don’t fight for our children. That’s our job. And our job keeps getting harder because the unions wield outsized influence in elections and campaigns. . . The President can’t have it both ways: He can’t talk up reform, while indulging the groups that block it. He can’t be the voice of disadvantaged public-school kids, and the protector of special interests. President Obama has made his choice, and I have made mine: As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America, and I won’t let any special interest get in the way.