Charter Schools are scab schools, Leo...

[Csubstance@aol.com]

June 20, 2006

Colleagues:

As I've noted and repeated here before, charter schools are part of the 
attack on democratic public education. They are also scab (union busting) schools.

Recently, the Chicago Tribune did a major article highlighting the work of 
Chicago's Greg Richmond in New Orleans, which has abolished most of its public 
schools and is fiercely anti-union.

Here is an article to follow up on that. My only question is why any 
self-repecting union would continue to promote charter schools, when all across the 
USA they are part of the attack on public schools and part of the attack on 
teacher unions.

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/neworleans/index.ssf?/base/news-5/115035747018
8590.xml&coll=1 

Teachers union contract in jeopardy

School Board refuses 45-day extension
Thursday, June 15, 2006
By Steve Ritea
Staff writer, New Orleans Times Picayune

With a little more than two weeks left on its contract with the United
Teachers of New Orleans and no negotiations under way, the Orleans
Parish School Board refused Wednesday to extend the current contract,
suggesting collective bargaining might soon disappear at the only four
public schools in the city where it is in effect.


About 100 union members wearing T-shirts that read "refuse to lose"
filed out of the meeting in the City Council chambers immediately after
the vote, singing "Solidarity Forever."

Union President Brenda Mitchell said they have been asking the district
to meet them at the bargaining table since March, but to no avail.

Board members Heidi Daniels, Phyllis Landrieu, Jimmy Fahrenholtz and
Lourdes Moran opposed a motion by Torin Sanders to extend the union's
current contract for 45 days beyond June 30, when it is scheduled to
expire. Collective bargaining expires along with the contract.

However, the new landscape of public education in New Orleans has left
little room for collective bargaining, with a combination of charters
and state-takeover schools that are not subject to the union's agreement
and can employ teachers on year-to-year contracts. Only the four schools
still operated by the local district are subject to the agreement.

In November the Legislature voted to take over 107 of 128 district
schools that were performing below the state average and place them in a
recovery district run by the state.

Although she voted for the 45-day contract extension, School Board
member Una Anderson said she does not support continuing the collective
bargaining. "I think we all realize the world has changed around us,"
she said.

Nonetheless, a committee of three board members will continue to meet
with union members about "student performance and accountability,"
Daniels said.

However, Anderson said the committee should talk with the union about a
"chartering format."

During a break in the meeting, Mitchell said Anderson approached her
earlier in the day about the possibility of the union applying for
charters to operate the district's remaining four schools.

But Mitchell said she would not be interested in that option because she
thinks the four district schools should remain public schools in the
classic sense.

Even if collective bargaining does meet its death at the end of this
month, Mitchell swore the union will "keep working" and actively recruit
members in the state-run recovery district schools.

Several board members denied Wednesday's vote was part of a concerted
effort to let collective bargaining expire.

"At this point the district has not decided where it's going to go in
terms of unions and collective bargaining," School Board attorney Regina
Bartholomew said.

The loss of collective bargaining would afford the district vastly more
freedom in its ability to hire and fire teachers.

In other business, the board voted unanimously to let two recently
approved charter schools, Hynes and Moton elementary schools, operate
out of trailers on the property of two damaged schools, Gregory Middle
and Coghill Elementary.

The decision amounts to little more than a recommendation to the state,
which has the final say over what occurs at Gregory and Coghill, which
are both recovery district campuses. All usable buildings left under the
local system's control are now occupied by district or charter schools,
and the recovery district has authority over all the campuses it took over.

Although the state is planning to open many of the buildings they took
over in September, the Coghill and Gregory buildings are too damaged to
reopen.

Last month the board voted to give a building that now houses the Lusher
School's extension campus to Audubon Charter School, giving the Uptown
school that emphasizes French and Montessori curricula a second campus
that allows it to increase its capacity from 450 to 850.

Meanwhile, the Lusher School is assuming control of the Fortier High
School building, where it will open a selective-admissions high school
in the fall, complementing its existing elementary school.

However, the May board decision irked officials with the Moton
Elementary Charter Association because they also had designs on the
Lusher Extension building at South Carrollton and St. Charles avenues.
Moton's original building in eastern New Orleans is too damaged to
reopen this year.

The board's decision to give the Lusher Extension campus to Audubon also
asked the state to allocate a building for Moton to use in the fall,
because the local board has essentially run out of undamaged, available
campuses.

State Education Department spokeswoman Meg Casper said they're "close to
agreement" with officials from the Moton and Hynes charters to let them
put trailers at Coghill and Gregory.

. . . . . . .

Steve Ritea can be reached at sritea@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3396.