Union Disagreement on NYC Teacher Evaluations

What a total disgrace that NYC is about to lose out on $250-$450M because the city and the union can’t agree on a teacher evaluation system – but I’m glad that John King and Arne Duncan are holding firm. The union in NYC is apparently betting that they’ll be better off under a new mayor…

The Bloomberg administration’s failure to reach an agreement with the New York City teachers’ union on the details of a state-mandated teacher evaluation system by the Thursday deadline has cost the city hundreds of millions of dollars in state money.

…According to the State Education Department, 99 percent of the state’s nearly 700 school districts managed to negotiate new evaluation systems by the Thursday deadline, thus avoiding sanctions that could lead to a loss of state aid. New York City, by contrast, mounted a disastrous negotiation process that failed at the 11th hour, leading to the loss of $240 million in state aid and endangering more than $250 million in federal grants.

…To avoid that disastrous outcome, Mr. Bloomberg and the union will need to return to the bargaining table and get this deal done as quickly as possible. If the two sides fail to arrive at an agreement very soon, the state should continue turning up the pressure on every front, to make sure that the city complies with the law and that its schoolchildren get the credible teacher evaluation systems they clearly need.

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