I have to admit that I had been hoping for a while someone would do this. A new advocacy group founded this past spring, Strong Schools DC , has fomented a grassroots revolution and the D.C. teachers union is up in arms, reports the Washington Post . Strong Schools is relying on the common sense of teachers to get Michelle Rhee's new merit green-red funding scheme passed. Instead of pressuring the union, which as much as we'd like hell to freeze over, is probably never going to support the abolition of tenure, Strong Schools is recruiting teachers to spread their message. It's subversive and I like it.
The premise is simple: if you reward teachers for good work, as Rhee's green track does, they'll support you. It's called self-interest and it has our favorite anti-reformer Randi Weingarten off balance. Apparently she's "never seen anything like this"--that's a shocker. Treating teachers like a herd of sheep, who can't be fired, who have no incentive to improve achievement except for their own conscience, and who are afraid to be evaluated is never going to recruit the talent and hard work needed in the troubled urban classroom. Teaching should not be another civil service job. Teaching is hard. Teaching requires skills, ingenuity, patience, and teamwork. Teachers should be treated with respect--and what better way to show respect than to have pay match performance-like it does in thousands of other professions?
My congratulations to Strong Schools DC. Viva la revoluci??n!
Update: I couldn't help but be struck by the irony of this "joint proposal" from our the AFT and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
"Whether on the job or preparing for work, Americans deserve the education, training and support that equips them with the skills they need to compete in the global marketplace and for the jobs of today and tomorrow," said AFT President Randi Weingarten. "What is at stake is nothing less than the prosperous and safe future of our country."
Wow, sounds like the teaching profession to me. Randi takes the cake, again.
