Take 'em to school, Mike

Kudos to the NY Daily News for speaking some truths!  (It will be a great day if the NY Times ever publishes an editorial so forceful and spot-on; sadly, it will also be the day pigs fly and hell freezes over...)

But you will hear none of that from the amalgamation of activists who are flogging the notion Bloomberg and Klein will drive the schools over a cliff unless they listen to more "voices." The groups include ACORN, a top leader of which is married to one of Weingarten's top deputies, and the Working Families Party, a top leader of which is a top leader of ACORN.

The shame is that everyone should support denying lifetime positions to teachers who are washouts in their first three years on the job. And it is astonishing that social advocacy groups like ACORN and the Working Families Party would not applaud scrapping a system that has long shortchanged schools attended by kids in the most need.

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Take 'em to school, Mike

NY Daily News Editorial

Posted Monday, March 19th 2007, 4:00 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2007/03/19/2007-03-19_take_em_to_school_mike.html

The drumbeat of opposition to school reform grows ever louder under the skillful orchestration of teachers union President Randi Weingarten. It's time for Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein to fight back with facts.

Controller Bill Thompson, who wants to become mayor in 2009, and the Rev. Al Sharpton are urging Bloomberg to retreat from plans to overhaul how school monies are allocated while holding teachers and principals accountable for student performance. They suggest kids will lose unless the mayor listens to more "voices" and, in effect, does what he's told.

Which is as Weingarten wants it. She has two issues. First, that Bloomberg would deny tenure to probationary teachers who fail to raise achievement by measurable standards. Second, that his budget proposal would crimp the ability of senior teachers to congregate in schools with the easiest workloads.