OT: Lango - doctors, lawyers & teachers
I think we agree that a teacher union (or association, or whatever) can't OPENLY take a stand against firing bad teachers.
On the other hand, there's a significant difference between, say, a medical or law association which has the power and duty to regulate but fails to do so, and a teacher "union" not actively rooting out bad teachers.
By the word union I specifically mean that of my own experience: a true labor union, certified under a labor act to negotiate and defend a collective agreement on behalf of its members -- an agreement under which management has the sole right and responsibility to hire, evaluate, and terminate employees. In this situation a union may provide opportunities for instructional skills development other warm fuzzy stuff, but by legal contract cannot go anywhere near evaluation of its own members.
(Yet management's record at my workplace is rather wimpy: I know of one faculty member fired out of 1000 or so faculty in my 30 years experience. It's tempting speculate that, as in many corporations, a culture of tolerating incompetence may be in overpaid management's best interest.)
I don't know if this is comparable to the circumstances in US colleges.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
