Steve Perry debates Randi Weingarten on CNN

A friend sent me this email:

 

Did you catch CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 last night? The topic was the Rhode Island HS showdown where the union has refused any sane work rule modifications to help lift student performance in the worst school in the state. The teachers may all be fired as a result.

Steve Perry debated Randi -- and MOPPED the floor with her.

Have you noticed that in her recent TV appearances she has become far less strident in her defense of her union goals and tactics than she used to be. Maybe it's because she is getting slammed everywhere she appears.

Best line of the interview was when Steve guess-timated that 40% of the teachers in that school would actually be in favor of working 25 minutes longer WITHOUT more pay! What a stinging indictment of the union.

 

I couldn't find a link to the video, but did find the transcript.  Perry was UNBELIEVABLE! "We don't need to change poverty. We need to change who's teaching children in poverty… At some point we have to acknowledge that the children are more important than the adults who have degrees, certification, and 401(k)s. We have to focus on the children…Let's free the children."  I LOVE IT!

 

…The community doesn't have any money. They're paying $72,000 a year for these individuals to be in a school in which they're graduating just 50 percent of the students.

And as you said, 93 percent of the children are not performing at proficient at math. They're asking for more money? They can't stay after for 25 minutes? It takes you ten minutes to get your coat on.

…one of the things that's important, if poverty is this immovable object for that faculty we understand that maybe it's not their group of students that they can educate. Let's free the students.

Why would we keep a school open that has already proven that it simply cannot educate the children in the circumstances within which they're in? We operate a school in a poor community. There are thousands of educators all over the country who have the capacity to educate children where they are. We don't need to change poverty. We need to change who's teaching children in poverty.

…Attorney Weingarten is right. That we do need better teachers and the only thing standing in way of that are the teachers unions and seniority rules that won't allow us to bring people in who are the most qualified and willing to teach in those schools.

If those folks in that one school cannot do it, then let's free the children. Let's let charter schools come in. Let's let individuals who want to participate in the process come in. If the interest is the needs of the children, let's do it.

She's also right, let's give the children what the children would receive in these private schools, the same things that the superintendent was asking for. Stay after school a little while longer. Come to school a little while earlier. Eat with the children once a week.

Are we really giving up our jobs because they're asking us to eat with children once a week? And finally, over $30 -- $30 additional dollars. The community has double-digit poverty. There's no more money.

It's unreasonable and irresponsible to ask a community that's already given to the teeth for more money, especially when the product that they're receiving is below standard. At some point we have to acknowledge that the children are more important than the adults who have degrees, certification, and 401(k)s. We have to focus on the children.

…I mean it takes at least a year to fire a teacher, at least a year. That's 120 students in a class, under a teacher's responsibility. It takes them at least a year. If Ms. Weingarten is saying that she's in favor --

…If what she's saying is she's in favor of children, if you're in favor of children then your members have to move out of the way. I'd be willing to bet that some 40 percent of the teachers in that school don't agree with the union leadership. In fact, I bet if they were given the opportunity they would return without any cause. They wouldn't even require anymore --

Randi, in contrast, was incoherent when she wasn't lying – she kept saying that it was wrong to close the only school in town – knowing full well that that's not the issue.  The school isn't closing – rather, the failing adults in the school are all being fired (which actually doesn't mean they'll all lose their jobs; all can reapply for their jobs and the committed, great teachers will no doubt be rehired).

 

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Anderson Cooper 360, 2/22/10

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1002/22/acd.02.html