As a proud teacher and member of the National Education Association, I am always amazed at and disheartened by the myriad social ills for which we teachers are blamed. Illiteracy, the moral decline of young people, the decline of religiosity in America–at one time or another I have heard teachers accused of being the cause of all of these problems.
When I read Amity Shlaes’ column, however, I was flabbergasted at what she considers us responsible for: global outsourcing. According to Shlaes, companies have to send jobs to India and other countries because there aren’t enough qualified workers to do these jobs in the United States. Shlaes then goes on to advocate school vouchers as a way to improve education and stop the problem of outsourcing.
I find it hard to believe that anyone would buy this argument. Global outsourcing is about one thing and one thing only: corporate greed. When a company sends jobs overseas, it doesn’t do it because the workers are better educated. It does it because the workers will do the same job as American workers for a fraction of the cost and not ask for “luxuries” like a decent health plan, paid sick leave or paid vacation days.
Equally important, foreign workers are unlikely to unionize.
These two factors allow corporations to improve their bottom lines without worrying about problems with their workers.
I feel that outsourcing is wrong, unfair to American workers and exploitative to foreign workers. But no matter what your feelings about outsourcing are, one thing is clear: The blame for this troubling trend does not belong to the hardworking and dedicated teachers of this country.
