In a hotly anticipated biography about enigmatic Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the brain behind the iPad and iPhone is shown to have a pessimistic view of the state of education in the United States.

The author of the biography, Walter Isaacson, wrote Jobs thought teachers unions are crippling schools. Here is the snippet, courtesy The Huffington Post:

Jobs also criticized America’s education system, saying it was “crippled by union work rules,” noted Isaacson. “Until the teachers’ unions were broken, there was almost no hope for education reform.” Jobs proposed allowing principals to hire and fire teachers based on merit, that schools stay open until 6 p.m. and that they be open 11 months a year.

Jobs’ attitude towards unions is in line with other lukewarm supporters of president Obama who feel labor groups protect teachers regardless of their performance.

Several marquee Democrats, including former head of Washington D.C. public schools Michelle Rhee, have vilified teacher groups like American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

An argument can be made that those criticisms are unfair in light of labor union support for the reforms Jobs is reported to have supported.

AFT head Randi Weingarten has endorsed a teacher evaluation method that is partly dependent on how students perform on standardized tests. Labor groups in general do not oppose merit-based evaluations, and principal reviews are a major part of the review process of teachers already.

Labor groups have also backed extending the number of hours students spend in the classroom. A largely successful initiative in Massachusetts to expand the instruction time students receive was noted for the harmonious relationship between a state head of a major labor group and the Massachusetts government.

This is all happening at Macworld in San Francisco. Apple said it’s not going to show up for the conference after this year, since analysts and investors always leave unimpressed, according to Bloomberg. But who cares about them anyway? Let’s move on to the iTunes news. From Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. the most popular source of music in the U.S., stripped copy protection from all the songs in its iTunes music store and announced plans to charge as little as 69 cents a track.

Under a new variable pricing plan, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29 starting in April, with most albums going for $9.99, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said today at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. He spoke in place of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who said yesterday that he is undergoing treatment for a “hormone imbalance.”

Apple had drawn criticism for using so-called digital- rights management, or DRM, on most tracks, prompting Jobs two years ago to make a public plea to music labels to change their licensing terms. The protections prevented customers from listening to music on unauthorized devices and limited the copies they could burn onto CDs. The company also faced competition from Amazon.com Inc., which charges as little as 79 cents a song — with no copy protection.

Investors again scoffed that Apple had nothing to say and that lowering the price of iTunes was no big deal, according to Bloomberg.

Somehow, I don’t think music lovers will agree.