Education nightmare

Here is one and here is a second article from the WSJ that speak to the public school education problem in the US and in the EU's poorest country, Portugal.  It is clear from both of these articles that unions are at the root of underperforming schools in both countries.  The interview with Ms Weingarten, head of the NEA union, puts on full display the intransigence and self serving nature of US teachers unions. It also points out the willingness of union leaders to obfuscate, distort facts, stonewall evidence, and do what liberals and union leaders do best, lie to further their own interests. MS Weingarten's answers to legitimate questions are unhelpful and nothing short of disgraceful.  In the case of Portugal one sees the result of generations of official indifference to education and the stultifying effect of unions on the need for reform.  After reading these two articles one is left with a sense of frustration and near despair.  How is it possible in a socialized/unionized environment, where union leaders and state bureaucrats are resistant to any reform, to effect the necessary changes to improve and even save a failing system?  In the case of the US the solution is educating the public about the causes of failing schools and thereby provoking outrage and change.  But how likely is that to occur given the pro union, liberal media?  In the case of Portugal it's a matter of survival.  Portugal will either reform and educate its populace or it will sink to the status of one of its African colonies.