Teacher union leaders can be reformers, too

Lest you think I never include anything favorable about the unions, here are Checker Finn and Stafford Palmieri of the Fordham Foundation and Education Gadfly giving some well-deserved props to state and local union leaders who are leading genuine reform:

It's no secret among education reformers, and among keen-eyed observers of the reform scene (in which select population we brazenly include the Education Gadfly and his Fordham pals), that the two national teacher unions are the largest, richest, shrewdest and most dogged foes of nearly all the most urgently-needed changes in American K-12 education. Not the sole foes, to be sure, but the most potent.

At the same time, however, since the latter days of Al Shanker the unions have contained within their ranks a handful of visionaries and pragmatists who didn't always let the short-term self-interest of adults blind them to the long-term interests of children. A few of these laudable deviants have been visible in Washington, people like Shanker himself, Bob Chase (for a time), Sandy Feldman (some of the time), even Randi Weingarten (on alternate Thursdays and full-moon Mondays).

Most of this small population, however, is less visible because they operate locally or at the state level. And these folks deserve at least one-handed applause, too, for it takes greater courage to break ranks with their peers outside the Beltway—and to do so without the attention and encouragement of the national reform crowd and media.

The possibility of federal Race to the Top dollars (and status) has brought some of these gutsy individuals into public view. Foundation dollars have lured others. Some sort of external incentive is nearly always involved, mostly in the form of money that their schools and members wouldn't otherwise get. But that's no reason not to welcome their movement away from outright status-quo-ism.

This week we've chosen to mention—and thank—a sampling of such men and women. (We're taking the risk that Gadfly's attention and accolades will encourage them, not ruin their careers!)

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Teacher union leaders can be reformers, too
http://edexcellence.net/gadfly/index.cfm?issue=577&edition=N#a6184