The Jeffco teachers union has made the fatal mistake of confusing headlines with winning. Just because student protests and teacher sick outs have been in the news for several straight days now, doesn’t mean that they’ve won the larger debate. In fact, they’re seriously wounding their cause. Jeffco Public Schools

Yes reporters are lazy, and yes protests are easy to cover. But the union shouldn’t take that mean that the wind is at their backs – quite the contrary.

In looking at the test scores of the two high schools that closed this morning because of the teacher sick out, we found that a shocking number of students are not proficient in math or reading. At Jefferson High School, 98 percent of 10th graders are not proficient or above in math, and 62 percent of the 10th graders are not proficient in reading. At Golden High School, 60 percent of 10th graders are not proficient or above in math, and 27 percent of the 10th graders are not proficient in reading.

Given that, we have to wonder why union stalwarts really think shutting down schools is the best tactic. Nobody wins when our kids miss class and our tax dollars are wasted.