Re Educators or Kingmakers

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

This is the second piece in the NYTimes--a bit overshadowed by Gov 
Spitzer's dalliances. Is the Gropenfuhrer next?



> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/opinion/10white.html
>
> David White argues that delegates to the Democratic convention from
> the National Education Association and the American Federation of
> Teachers may be pivotal in choosing the nominee. He says that's bad
> because the NEA and AFT are the reason schools are bad, protecting
> lousy teachers, opposing reforms like merit pay. He adds that the
> awful unions demand real promises from politicians. White knows nothing.
>
>   True, NEA and AFT will send many delegates to the convention. None
> of them will be rich. That this is a billion dollar election seems to
> pass  White by. NEA and AFT, corrupt as they may be at the top, are
> hardly responsible for the social and economic collapse in urban and
> rural areas that precedes bad schools.
>
> NEA and AFT both supported the No Child Left Behind Act which relies
> on test scores that measure little but parental income and race,
> dividing and betraying their teacher members. AFT's New York
> bellweather local sold out their rank and file and supported merit
> pay which will pit teacher vs teacher and be fixed by bad administrators.
>
> Stupid principals who cannot follow simple contractual directions are
> the ones who cannot fire bad teachers.
>
> NEA and AFT will pour millions and thousand of volunteer hours into
> the campaign. We have seen how politicians keep their promises to
> education. They don't. But NEA and AFT leaders won't acknowledge that
> as the election, a shell game, allows them to distract their members
> from on the job actions in schools and in communities that really
> could reform education, serve kids.
>
> Laughton Chiles won the Florida governorship largely through the work
> of teachers, and me. When elected, the teachers sought to hold him to
> promises for better pay, he stood on the capital steps and called
> teachers, 'worse than terrorists." That NEA and AFT leaders choose to
> forget these things demonstrates their cynicism.
>
> Dr Rich Gibson
> Emeritus Professor of Education
> San Diego State University
>
>
>
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