Unions

This article is why unions do more harm than good. Unions arose mostly to combat poor working conditions (Upton Sinclair's The Jungle perhaps?). They've succeeded pretty well; plus, workers' rights are protected by other groups as well. (I don't know a lot of hard facts about this, and haven't done the research, but I imagine that workers in the US are pretty well protected in this day and age). So now, unions have very little purpose except to demand wages above market equilibrium, and demand job security for those who don't deserve it. If teachers like these, who are protected by unions even though they deserve to lose their jobs, are let go, the positive effects would be numerous. Schools would have more money in their operating budgets, able to hire better teachers and provide better education for our youth. More qualified and more acceptable teachers would be able to find work. Having just educated from college, I know many friends who are education majors, who have had trouble finding work. Those who have found work were forced to move to another state or another country.

Whereas unions used to protect the rights of its members, they now protect its unqualified, uneducated, incompetent, and even criminal members from being fired.