Paola Totaro in Davos, Switzerland
February 1, 2009
Rupert Murdoch … in Davos Fabrice Coffrini.

THE billionaire media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch, has issued a combative and inflammatory challenge to the new Obama Administration: take on the American teaching unions to rescue America’s failing education system.

Mr Murdoch said that the new President would never enjoy such high approval ratings and challenged him to apply his will to the education system. He savaged America’s education statistics, saying between 35 and 40 per cent of students never completed high school.

He said children who do not finish their education are inducted into a permanent underclass, or worse still, a criminal class, and the education system, despite increased funding, had gleaned no improvements.

“This is the greatest test for President Obama because this will be a great confrontation with the teachers’ union . . . they are a very, very rich union and a number one contributor to the Democratic Party,” he said.

“The President must have the courage and the strength to take on the teachers and win . . . if the United States is going to continue to lead the world over the next 30 or 40 years, education must be the way.”

Article on the Sydney Morning Herald