Union-Run Schools

The NEA and AFT may soon learn why so many people are rallying around school reform.

Beaten back in their efforts to stem the advancement of charter schools, and struggling to justify the existence of tenure and seniority-based compensation, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are now looking to get into the school business. From starting up charter schools in New York City and Boston to winning control of 22 schools from the L.A. Unified School District — and beating back such big-named reformers as Green Dot — the two unions are trying to run schools in order to show that traditional union contracts and high academic achievement aren’t mutually contradictory. But will the NEA and AFT end up backing away from their defense of the status quo?

Read all about it this week in my latest report in The American Spectatorat http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/16/union-run-schools. And check out RiShawnBiddle.org for my latest reports.