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Dem Mayors Challange the Teachers Union
 Villaraigosa is one of several Democratic mayors in cities across the country -- Chicago, Cleveland, Newark and Boston, among them -- who are challenging teachers unions in ways that seemed inconceivable just a decade ago.Not to mention last week! At at time when most Americans believe that U.S. education is imperiled, and cities are especially struggling to improve schools, the tension between the mayors and the unions is causing a fundamental realignment of two powerful forces in urban politics. It's for The Children! The mayors risk turning labor friends into enemies, a lesson D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty learned in 2010 when he lost his seat in part because teachers were enraged by his school reforms. The unions, meanwhile, risk appearing recalcitrant and self-serving, further alienating a public frustrated by failing schools and growing cool to organized labor. Right. So go after Governors next -- how about Wisconsin? It's for the Children! The mayors want a raft of changes. They want to replace the uniform pay scale with merit pay. They seek to expand public charter schools, which are largely non-union. Some want to lengthen school days, requiring teachers to work more hours. Nearly all of these mayors have set their sights on the one workplace protection that teachers have held central for more than 100 years: tenure. The unions say many of the "fixes" embraced by the mayors are trendy ideas without evidence that they help children learn. Not unlike many of the trendy ideas the teachers embrace. Instead, they allow politicians to appear as if they are making improvements without having to confront the profound problems of urban schools, labor leaders say. "We don't want to have honest conversations about poverty and segregation and race and class, all those other sorts of ills," said Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Wait a minute! Poverty and segregation and race and class and all those other sorts of ills - isn't that the job of Congress? Posted by: Bobby 2012-03-31 |
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