Sharpton, education plan may tear union ties

A very nice article in the USA Today:

Decades-long ties between civil rights groups and teachers unions could be split by a new effort, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, to close the nagging achievement gap between white and minority students.

Sharpton, a Baptist pastor and political gadfly, says that for years, civil rights leaders have been silent on education equity issues. But a new group of activists, school superintendents and academics will push education in the 2008 presidential election, he said.

Unions have blocked what many reformers say are innovative ideas, such as alternative pay grades for teachers, expanded charter schools and moving excellent teachers into needy schools.

"There have been a lot of old alliances being protected, and the children are not being protected," he said. "And if we're going to move forward, we're going to have to be able to have new alliances here — that might mean some old relationships with teachers unions, principals unions and all are going to be a little troubled. But we cannot say that we're going to close this achievement gap but protect ineffective teachers or principals or school chiefs or not challenge parents."

He noted that in cities such as Detroit, only one in three black males earns a high school diploma.

"They end up fast-tracked to jail and we (who) claim to be dealing with the issues of racial disparities on a daily basis never mention this, and never talk about this because in many ways some of our friends don't want to be part of what may have to adjust."

The effort grew out of conversations around the 40th anniversary last April of the assassination of Martin Luther King.

A friend had some forceful, insightful, spot-on comments on this article and the role of the unions, who pretend to put kids first, but always put their own interests first, which often acts to screw kids:

Re: article below, with all due respect, Kahlenberg is wrong ["Education historian Richard Kahlenberg said that while unions' and civil rights groups' interests "are usually aligned," this isn't the first time they've clashed. "It's been an uneasy alliance over the years."].  First, I would argue that, through their policies and practices (including dead-of-night bills like the NY State tenure deal), the unions have declared war on kids and their advocates in the civil rights community, not the other way around.  Folks like Sharpton, Klein, Williams, et al. are doing what any rational person would do under the circumstances, which is to fight back.

 

The bigger mistake would be for civil rights groups to continue to pretend that we can keep saying we are natural allies with the teachers’ unions, while they continue to screw kids.  The “elephant” in the room is not an elephant at all, it’s a gigantic donkey’s ass, because the problem here is primarily (and in some cases exclusively) on the Democratic side of the aisle.  We have been struggling with our AFT and NEA “allies” all week here in Washington: on equalizing student funding within school districts, on whether we should encourage Margaret Spellings to get tough on grad rates, and yesterday on a bill they are promoting (with the other payee organizations) as a rider to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill to suspend all the accountability provisions of NCLB until next year or beyond.  They are relentless, they do not compromise, and there is no let-up.

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Sharpton, education plan may tear union ties

 

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-06-11-race-equality_N.htm

 

Decades-long ties between civil rights groups and teachers unions could be split by a new effort, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, to close the nagging achievement gap between white and minority students.