To add onto what Matt said about the vastly overstated influence of the teacher's unions, in 2004, John Kerry's primary education plan was designed to...weaken the teacher's unions and institute merit pay! And in 2000, Al Gore proposed to...weaken the teacher's unions and institute merit pay! Now, neither of those candidates were elected, and so their plans weren't implemented, but it's sort of bizarre to assume the Democratic Party is utterly subservient to a constituency its presidential nominees keep promising to cross.
