Reformers are on a roll nationwide, which is mostly due to their incredible efforts plus the leadership of President Obama and Sec. Duncan, but one shouldn't overlook the unions' disastrous missteps.  I'm thankful every day that they continue to behave like the longshoreman's union because it hands victories to people who they outman, outspend and outgun 1,000-1. 

 

Seriously, if you'd asked me to develop a plan to destroy the teachers' unions' credibility, power and influence over the past few years, what they've actually done would be the exact implementation of this plan: backing Hillary 100% in the primaries rather than hedging their bets, allowing travesties like the rubber rooms to exist (part of a general defense of completely indefensible teachers), etc.  Here are two more examples I've just discovered – ya just can't make this stuff up!  The first is from Gail Collins's Op Ed in today's NYT:

This has been a peculiar political year, even for Alabama. James's biggest opponent, Bradley Byrne, was attacked by a group called True Republican PAC, which ran an ad charging that Byrne supported the teaching of evolution.

Byrne, who has multiple degrees and was chancellor of the state community college system, indignantly denied the charges.

But wait, there's more. It turns out that True Republican PAC was bankrolled by the state teachers' union, which is angry at Byrne for trying to ban teachers from holding second jobs as state legislators. The Alabama Education Association apparently felt a good payback would be to spend $500,000 on a group that encourages people to vote against any candidate who believes there is a scientific explanation for the origin of life.

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May 28, 2010

Alabama Goes Viral

By GAIL COLLINS

www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/opinion/29collins.html