Reforming D.C.'s Public Schools

Friday, February 13, 2009

I was impressed with Michelle A. Rhee's Feb. 9 op-ed column, "The Toughest Job," on the value of teachers. I have lived in the District for 15 years, and it is a relief to see the progress she has been making with our chronically underperforming schools.

There is no question that education is the cornerstone of individual and community prosperity, and good teaching for every child is behind it. The health of the city depends on Ms. Rhee's success.

While unions do an excellent job of protecting workers against the whims of bad management, they also tend to resist effective change demanded by good management. Ms. Rhee has demonstrated that she plans to do a better job than the teachers union has done in protecting and advancing good teachers.

Union leaders must take a clear-eyed look at the system of tenure and other failing incentive structures that they are defending and see that Ms. Rhee is charting a course out of this mess.

The union should recognize the chancellor's good management and support her pioneering efforts to give every D.C. classroom a talented, well-compensated and effective teacher.

PETER COLOHAN

Washington

Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is right to focus on improving teacher quality in the District's traditional public schools. But contrary to what has been implied by much of the news coverage of Ms. Rhee's proposed reforms, the D.C. government does not consistently back school reform.

The District's most successful school reform to date was the introduction of public charter schools 12 years ago. Publicly funded, nonselective and independently run, the District's public charter schools educate more than one in three D.C. students.

Their success is clear.

Disadvantaged secondary students in public charter schools are twice as likely to score at grade level or above as their peers in District-run schools.

Sadly, this school reform has been undermined by D.C. government, which has prevented public charter schools from leasing or buying vacated public school buildings at almost every turn. As a result, many D.C. public charter schools occupy warehouse, retail or office space and church annexes and basements.

The District closed 23 under-enrolled city-run schools last year and last week proposed closing three more. When will the city stop selling empty public school buildings to condominium and office developers and let public charter school students into them?

RAMONA H. EDELIN

Executive Director

D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools

Washington

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Do the members of the editorial board ["Where's the School Reform?," editorial, Feb. 10] really believe that one inexperienced teacher serving as schools chancellor, that being Michelle A. Rhee, and a mayor, Adrian M. Fenty, who sends his children to a private school have the collective wisdom of a union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), that has existed for more than 50 years? If the editorial board doesn't know what a professional union does, it should become educated on the subject.

Most important, the board should learn about the high professional standards for which the AFT's former leader, the late Albert Shanker, fought during his entire career. Those standards are reflected in the work of today's union as well.

LAURENT GOSSELIN

Washington