A Union of Interests
The national teachers chief and the D.C. chancellor should find a way to work together.

Monday, December 15, 2008

EVERYTHING -- short of vouchers but including teacher tenure provisions -- should be on the table for education reform. That was the bold promise from the new president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and it is sure to be tested as the national union intervenes more intensively in the effort to come up with a contract for teachers in the nation's capital. If Randi Weingarten is to make good on her word, she must partner with D.C. Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee in changing how teachers are compensated.

Newly elected as the head of the AFT and its 1.4 million members, Ms. Weingarten delivered her encouraging message for change at a speech last month at the National Press Club. Since then, she has met with Ms. Rhee in an apparent bid to break the high-profile standoff that threatens to paralyze the reform of Washington's troubled school system. Ms. Rhee negotiated for more than a year with local labor leaders of the Washington Teachers' Union and came up with what she believed to be a revolutionary agreement: D.C. teachers would become the country's highest paid but, in exchange, they would surrender tenure rights to allow the system to get rid of ineffective teachers. The bedrock of the proposal was the proposition that teachers would be judged by their effectiveness in boosting student achievement. Union officials -- particularly those in the national organization -- viewed the proposal as an unacceptable assault on teacher seniority, and it's never been put to a vote.

It's sad commentary that the goals staked out by Ms. Rhee have been labeled as "scorched earth." What's so radical about expecting excellence in teachers or in demanding the ability to reward the best teachers while getting rid of the worst? Ms. Rhee has been accused of trying to break the union when, in truth, she rejected a plan to bring in a firm adept at union-busting in favor of working one-on-one with local labor officials whom she believed shared her philosophy that children come first.

It will be interesting to see what role Ms. Weingarten is able to play in the coming months. Neither she nor Ms. Rhee will discuss their recent meeting or what they hope to accomplish. It's no secret that the two have clashed in the past, including a dispute over working conditions for New York City teachers. It's not a good sign that Ms. Weingarten has publicly chastised Ms. Rhee for her uncompromising approach to labor relations or that Ms. Rhee so clearly resents Ms. Weingarten's involvement. Both say that the only thing they care about is improving the conditions in which teachers work and students learn. It's time for both of them to show they mean what they say.