Teachers urge Obama to collaborate to fix schools

WASHINGTON — A teachers' union challenged the Obama administration Monday to live up to its promise of working with teachers and not against them.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said her union will post a "collaboration meter" on its Web site to judge whether reforms are happening with teacher involvement.

"When it comes to making the changes that will make our schools better, do it with us – not to us," Weingarten said in a speech to an AFT gathering in Washington.

She was playing off the words of Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Duncan told the National Education Association last week that change would be done "with you and for you, not to you."

The AFT reminded Duncan of his words by wearing "with us, not to us" buttons when he appeared Monday at their meeting, attended by more than 2,500 people. Duncan pinned one of the buttons to his suit jacket.

It was a friendly challenge from a union leader who makes a point of reaching out to the administration. Weingarten was meeting at the White House with labor leaders before her speech and was joining Duncan onstage for a town-hall style forum during his appearance Monday.

President Barack Obama has education goals that put him at odds with many teachers, even though their unions make up an important segment of the Democratic Party base. The AFT has 1.4 million members, and NEA has 3.2 million members.

Obama supports performance pay, which links teacher bonuses to student achievement using measures that include test scores. He is asking Congress for a huge spending increase, from $97 million to $717 million next year, to spur schools to adopt performance pay.

Many teachers don't want test scores to be used because tests can be deeply flawed, and because kids aren't tested in every subject.

Obama also wants to expand charter schools, which are more autonomous schools that teachers have resisted because they usually aren't unionized and because critics think they drain money and talent from traditional public schools.

Several teachers pressed Duncan on charter schools, asking why charters should get resources that traditional public schools need.

"I'm not a fan of charters; I'm a fan of good charters," Duncan said to boos from the audience.

The AFT is pushing for a bigger role in charter schools and has signed contracts with teachers at a few of them, most recently with Green Dot New York Charter School in the Bronx, a high school run by Green Dot, a nonprofit group that operates charter schools.

About 40 unionized charter school teachers from 10 states attended the AFT meeting.

During her speech, Weingarten showed members her new "collaboration meter," saying education reform can only succeed if teachers are a part of it.

For his part, Duncan said he hoped to encourage local administrators to work more with unions. "I think I have to try and lead by example," he said.

Despite the smattering of boos, the teachers in the end gave Duncan a warm reception, applauding when Weingarten asked, "What do you think? Do you think he's sincere? Do you think we can work with him?