Shaky Solidarity

Speaking of DFER, Charles Barone is quoted extensively in this National Journal article, Shaky Solidarity (www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/ShakySolidarity.pdf), which highlights the break between the Obama administration and the unions (and the divisiveness between them).  Great quotes from Checker Finn as well:

 

"There is now more daylight between the unions and the Democratic Party than under any previous administration," says longtime education critic Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington.  "The most obvious is Race to the Top, which is judging teachers on student performance and making the world safe for charter schools.  Obama, to his credit—and I don't agree with him on much else—is willing to push hard."

 

…Politically, "the Democratic Party on education issues has become a big tent," says Charles Barone, federal policy director for the New York City-based Democrats for Education Reform.  Activists founded his group in 2007 because they believed teacher unions' contracts and influence on state policy tend to straightjacket innovators.

 

…"Since the days of Al Shanker, the AFT has shown flickers of education reform-mindedness and a flicker of political realism," says Finn, referring to the New York labor leader who led the AFT from 1974 to 1997.  "Randi Weingarten is practically trying to take credit for charter schools and new teacher evaluations," he says.  "You don't hear this from the NEA, which, the best I can tell, is brain-dead."

 

Barone agrees that, of the two unions, "the AFT is more in touch with the uneven quality of public schools and is more inclined to work with policy makers for change.  The NEA wants to keep their role as dictators," he says…