The story behind the rise and fall of America's master math teacher

Well, he was flouting union work rules routinely. Whether that counts as "causing problems for everyone else" depends on your point of view. Union officers generally consider it to be pretty darn important. They work their entire lives to make sure that nobody can pull a stunt like a) creating a separate advancement path outside of their control and b) negotiate higher pay as a result of it. Note how that is a recurring element in the story -- "Hey, we're demonstrably the best math teachers in the country. How about more money?" "Nope, pay scale says you're less useful than a clock puncher who stayed in one place for the same amount of time. Sucks to be you."

My highschool calculus teacher told us his own experience with Escalante. We were in Northern California, not too far from Hiram Johnson, and the calculus program there was considered a failure. Escalante made all his students sign contracts that they wouldn't participate in any extracurricular activities (like sports, clubs, etc..) to be admitted into his calculus program. When he tried to do the same at Hiram Johnson, nobody wanted to join his classes. Apparently, he was also a hard man to work with and needed absolute control over his work (as stated in the article). Though his system obviously worked, imagine having to work with a cocky person who wants absolute fine grained control over everything that goes on in your office. Even if it is successful, most people would probably be more than angry.