Kevin O’Leary: Unions Keep Mediocre Teachers Across America

SELLERS: “And so, when you make drastic cuts to the federal government, we’re talking about your title programs, we’re talking about your lunch programs, we’re talking about the programs that affect your — your kids who have extraordinary or special needs. We’re talking about all of those things that are going to be affected by draconian cuts such as this. If we want to go in and say that, look — and I think all of us could agree around the table that we’re not preparing our kids for a 21st century global economy. If we wanted to start from that premise and — sorry to you, I’m not picking on you, but to use your words — instead of whack, whack, if we wanted to start from that premise and figure out how we can better educate our children, there are ways to do it other than draconian cuts. And I think in places like Mississippi, places like Arkansas, places like the great Commonwealth of Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, they’re going to fill these cuts a lot.”
O’LEARY: “May I respond?”
SELLERS: “Please. I mean, it’s an open show.”
O’LEARY: “As an individual who worked in the education system for 14 years, there’s a 10,000 high schools in America. Majority of them are New York, Florida, Texas and California. Our reading and math scores are the worst in the G7 and the G20 in terms of how many dollars we spend to advance our children. Why? Unions. Unions that keep mediocre teachers in place in every high school in America when we should be firing them. You want to talk about whack as our theme of tonight’s show? I would like to fire teachers — wait, wait, wait. And I’d like to pay a lot more to the teachers that advance math and reading scores, that push our system forward against every G7-to-20 country. We have broken the system long ago through unions. And this is very UN — “
Allison: “But what do those cuts actually say — impact — “
O’LEARY: “What it means is — the lowest paid person in in America that deserves a lot more money is a great teacher.”
Allison: “I agree, as a former teacher.”
O’LEARY: “And we can’t — in the system of unions in America, we keep mediocrity festering. We’re destroying the education system — “
SELLERS: “Can I just — respectfully, let me just tell you how misguided your statement is.”
O’LEARY: “Not at all.”
SELLERS: “But, I mean, I’m just going to point out the fact that — “
O’LEARY: “Thank goodness I’m here.”
SELLERS: “But you’re wrong. And let me tell you why.”
O’LEARY: “I’m 100% right.
SELLERS: “No, I want to tell you why you’re wrong. Because the bottom 10 states that are underperforming, those states that I’m talking about in the South, let’s take South Carolina, for example, or Mississippi. You want to tell me one thing they don’t have? One thing they don’t have: strong teacher unions. So, there is no direct correlation — “
O’LEARY: “They have weak teacher unions. But they have unions.”
SELLERS: “Or barely any of at all. Yeah, but that’s not the reason these places are failing.”
O’LEARY: “So, finally — “
SELLERS: “When was the last time — “
O’LEARY: “If you look at 10 teachers, four of them are great. I want to double their salary.”
SELLERS: “There’s no question. I agree with you.”
O’LEARY: “So why don’t you just get out the unions?”
SELLERS: “Now what happens, if you have a quarter of shame, where kids go to school and their heating and air don’t work, where their infrastructure’s falling apart, where they have to drink unclean water, or they get into school hungry — “
O’LEARY: “Send money to the states. That’s what — that’s what Trump is doing.”
SELLERS: “How does that fix the problem I just — I just laid out to you?”
O’LEARY: “Well, you got to fix the unions first because we do both agree, bad teachers destroy advancement of children.”
Allison: “So, I just have a question. Are you saying that the cuts to the Department of Education that happens right now are going to impact the unions?”
O’LEARY: “I would rather the dollars that are put into running the government — “
Allison: “I know, but you started talking about something else, but we’re talking about the cuts to the Department of Education. I don’t think those are directly — “
O’LEARY: “No, no. You’re cutting out the federal mandate and giving it to the state.”
JENNINGS: “They’re cutting the bureaucracy.”
O’LEARY: “Yes.”
JENNINGS: “I don’t think they’re cutting the money. They want to send the money directly to the states.”
O’LEARY: “That’s it.”