Thanks, Education Wonks, for linking to this article and this Education Wonks post in this comment to this School of Blog post.
Here's the NY Daily News write-up, and there's another editorial in the NY Post shaming Republican politicians Randy Daniels and Ed Cox for not standing up against the union's attempt to harm kids for their own monetary benefit.
3 comments:
I'm very disappointed you choose to cite blatantly anti-union, anti-teacher publications like the News and the Post, and simply repeat their claims the UFT would "harm kids for their own monetary benefit."
Post publisher Murdoch, who loses millions on the paper to push his neocon agenda, would happily reduce teachers to Wal-Mart Associate status if he had his druthers. You can bet he doesn't pay his writers like Bloomberg pays his teachers, or he'd lose even the true believers.
Charter schools have had mixed results, and they are certainly not a panacea. One of the very best things a neighborhood can have is a good public school. How do you achieve that? Easy--small classes and good teachers. Have the highest, rather than the lowest standard in the state. Blocking the CFE case, which was brought precisely achieve this goal, are Bloomberg and Pataki, NOT the UFT.
I live in a suburb of NYC, having been priced out of my district years ago. We have small class sizes, pay our teachers well, get hundreds of applicants for each position, and have no need of charter schools.
If the city did that, they wouldn't need them either.
Hi -- thanks for commenting! I am in complete agreement with you, and my line about "harming kids for their own monetary benefit" was pure sarcasm. I apologize if that wasn't clear. I hate the New York Post but I have to read it every day for my job, so I have had the ill fortune of following their string of editorials against the UFT charter school.
Personally, I think the UFT's charter school initiative is wonderful progress. I have worked with both a teachers union and charter school organizations, and I believe that the two groups share such common goals that the only thing keeping them apart is a belief that the other side is against them.
Thanks again for reading and commenting!
Thanks, Julie, for clearing that up. I apologize for missing your sarcasm, and maybe I should have known better.
I don't have strong feelings one way or the other about charters, but I'd very much like to see public schools improved in NYC. Bloomberg has been a huge disappointment, concentrating far more on propaganda than the dysfunction it's in his immediate power to correct.
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