The refusal of New York City’s teachers union to sign off on the federal “Race to the Top” competition demonstrates the American Federation of Teachers’ continued opposition to using test data to evaluate teachers, despite union president Randi Weingarten’s statements to the contrary.

     The New York Post reports that United Federation of Teachers officials refused to endorse the city’s RTTT application because federal provisions require that teachers’ evaluations include student test-score data. It is a move that likely will cost city schools $700 million in RTTT dollars.

     Instead, the UFT offered its own suggestions and omitted the test-linked evaluations, a critical element of RTTT.

     “What the union was proposing … not only was not in accordance with the mandates of Race to the Top but would have damaged the state and the city’s ability to win the $700 million award,” Deputy Schools Chancellor John White told the Post.

     The union’s opposition isn’t unique to New York City. Many teachers unions, both AFT and National Education Association affiliates, attempted to block RTTT applications because the program’s reforms run counter to union interests.

     But AFT President Randi Weingarten made quite a spectacle a couple weeks ago when she announced that the union officially supports using student tests to evaluate teachers.

     “We propose rigorous reviews by trained experts and peer evaluators and principals, based on professional teaching standards, best practices and student achievement,” she said earlier this month at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

     Apparently, her statements don’t apply to the UFT, where she previously served as union president.

     Frankly, we’re not surprised about the flip-flop. The AFT and NEA are notorious for saying one thing, then doing another.

     In New York City, for example, UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Post that the union is “willing to sit and work with the state on coming up with some sort of (teacher-evaluation) system.”

     A copy of the UFT-signed memo, however, specifically, repeatedly states that “test-score data cannot be used for teacher evaluation or individual compensation,” the Post reports.

     It’s double talk, and it’s what the AFT does best. The sad part is that this time it cost New York City $700 million and long-overdue reforms that would have improved education for millions of students.

    Some Detroit teachers have filed a lawsuit over a union-negotiated and ratified contract concession designed to save Detroit Public Schools from financial ruin.

     In December, the Detroit Federation of Teachers agreed to a contract concession in which salaried teachers lent the district $10,000 apiece through pay deductions over two years. The Termination Incentive Plan, as it’s known, ensures teachers receive the money back when they leave the district.

     The plan was put together by the district’s Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb and Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson. Detroit teachers ratified the agreement by a roughly two-to-one margin.

     But it appears that some Detroit teachers believe their collective bargaining process shouldn’t apply to them, and filed a lawsuit alleging that the agreement violates Michigan’s Payment of Wages and Fringe Benefits Act.

     DFT’s Johnson called the lawsuit “absolutely ridiculous” in a recent Detroit News article.

     We agree.

     Not only does the lawsuit undermine the hard work and dedication by the district’s education leaders to keep Detroit schools financially afloat, it stifles other districts’ efforts to compromise during these tough economic times.

     Will other teachers unions or school boards consider similar concessions to save their district knowing a lawsuit may be around the corner? Not likely.

     So far, only a handful of teachers have joined the lawsuit, the News reported, but state officials expect “scores more.” Meanwhile, others are attempting to recall Johnson over the contract agreement.

     Cass Tech Teacher Steve Conn told the News that he’s helped to collect more than 1,300 signatures calling for Johnson’s resignation. The contract agreement betrays the interests of teachers by “dismantling” public education, he said.

     We believe Steve needs to get a grip on reality. The contract concession may be one of the few things keeping him and the rest of Detroit’s teachers employed. Without it, Steve and those involved in the lawsuit likely would be spending their last days at DPS “dismantling” their classrooms for scrap metal.

You have to admit, the American Federation of Teachers is pretty politically saavy. 

     Amidst a national tide of education reform tied to the federal Race to the Top competition, AFT President Randi Weingarten decided to ride the wave by announcing the union’s commitment to long opposed reforms, such as tying teacher evaluations to student performance and streamlining the process for schools to rid themselves of bad teachers.

     We applaud Weingarten’s newfound willingness to jump on the reform bandwagon, at least to some extent. We just want to make sure she’s not jumping on the bandwagon for the purpose of setting it on fire.

     Weingarten spoke to the issues Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. and her words have created quite a stir.

      “We propose rigorous reviews by trained experts and peer evaluators and principals, based on professional teaching standards, best practices and student achievement,” she said. “This will allow for informed evaluations, rather than simply offering a snapshot from a brief classroom visit or one standardized test score.”

     It’s a big step for the AFT, to be sure, and the Education Action Group Foundation commends Weingarten for having the gumption to broach the subjects, which is much more than we can say for America’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association.

     But we did smell a faint whiff of something fishy. 

     Weingarten went on to say that teachers should not be evaluated by comparing their current class to those of previous years, a model many states use as part of No Child Left Behind.

     Weingarten also wasn’t exactly clear on what data should be used. She said teachers should be evaluated “by assessing whether a teacher’s students show real growth while in his classroom.” That would seemingly require students to take two tests per year, a method few schools use or can afford.

    It also means that Weingarten’s approach likely would exclude most of the current state testing data from use in teacher evaluations, according to the Washington Post.

     On the topic of eliminating bad teachers, Weingarten’s speech acknowledged “that too often due process can become glacial process. We intend to change that.”  That’s good, Randi. Real good.

     Her plan is to assign famed mediator Kenneth R. Feinberg to help draft a new way for the union to represent teachers accused of misconduct.

    That is definitely a good start, but we are concerned that Weingarten failed to address the elephant in the room: the union’s seniority system that rewards years of experience rather than an educator’s effectiveness. From our perspective, the issues go hand in hand. She is tip-toeing through a mine field here and, so far, has avoided being maimed.

     For now, though, it appears that Weingarten has accomplished what we believe she was aiming for: to get in front of a national push for popular education reforms. That’s smart on her part, and some level of cooperation between reformers and the AFT may result from her efforts.

     But we at EAGF will be joining other watchdog organizations in keeping a close eye on Weingarten, out of fear that her efforts are really geared toward watering down proposed reforms as much as possible.

    Weingarten is not dumb. She clearly understands that the best way to influence the scope of reforms is to act like an ally of the reform movement.

It’s amusing to watch President Obama try to stick it to his friends in organized labor by proposing a tax on union-negotiated health care benefits.

If it weren’t for the fact that the tax proposal would have a  devastating effect on the American economy, the situation would be downright hilarious.

On Monday, a group of top leaders from the American labor movement gathered at the White House to share their concerns with the president.

The irony of the discussion was delicious. During the campaign, Obama and the Democratic Party (including the unions) attacked John McCain for suggesting that health care benefits should be taxed as income.

Strangely, that’s what Obama is now proposing (above a certain level) and union bosses aren’t happy because it would impact the lush benefits they’ve successfully secured through bare-knuckle negotiations.

Interestingly, Rich Trumka, former coal miner and now president of the AFL-CIO, suggested that the president could be unwittingly arranging a replay of the 1994 mid-term election, when labor voters stayed home in droves and the Democrats lost control of Congress. From the Associated Press:

“A bad bill could have that kind of effect, where people sit at home,” Trumka told reporters. “Politicians who think that working people have it too good – too much health care, too much Social Security and Medicare, too much power on the job – are inviting a repeat of 1994. Our country cannot afford such a repeat.”

Harold A. Shaitberger, president of the firefighters’ union, made “similarly threatening remarks,” in the words of the AP.

“The president’s support for the excise tax is a huge disappointment and cannot be ignored,” Shaitberger said. “If President Obama continues to support it and signs a bill that include the excise tax on workers, we will hold him accountable.”

The Wall Street Journal listed the attendees of the White House meeting:

• AFL-CIO’s Trumka
• Anna Burger of Change to Win [and SEIU vice president]
• Dennis Van Roekel of the National Education Association
• Leo Gerard of United Steelworkers
• Joe Hansen of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
• Ed Hill of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
• Jim Hoffa of the Teamsters
• Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers
• Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union
• Terry O’Sullivan of the Laborers’ International Union of North America
• Gerry McEntee of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Larry Cohen of the Communications Workers of America 

The people on that list wield a great deal of political power, and Obama is clearly angering them at his own peril.

It’s shocking, but not unprecedented, for organized labor to threaten to withhold political support from a sitting Democratic president. But its temper tantrum will likely produce the desired result -  dropping the tax proposal.

If not, the unions may just poke a few more holes in the already sinking Democratic ship. At least Trumka, Stern, Weingarten and Van Roekel can enjoy their martinis and fine cigars during the slow, painful ride to the bottom.

We can say one thing about the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers:  They’re still very powerful and they like to flex their muscles.  (See NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com for more on the agenda and tactics of these unions.)

Unfortulately their latest round of political bullying has victimized thousands of innocent school children in Washington, D.C.

Bowing to the two unions, which were major funders of his campaign, President Barack Obama recently stood by and allowed the promising ”DC Opportunity Scholarship Program” to be killed in Congress. Here was a program that allowed less privileged students to attend some of the finest private schools in the area, and the unions fought hard to destroy it.

Shame on the unions for their cold disinterest in the welfare of the city’s children, and shame on those in Congress and the White House who did their bidding.

It seems that school choice and parental empowerment are too much for the defenders of the status quo, even when the students are doing well in alternate school environments.

So while DC kids will be required to go back to perhaps the worst public school system in our country, NEA president Dennis Van Roekel and AFT president Randi Weingarten can stand before their members and display the scalp of the DC voucher program.  We hope they’re proud.

The Heritage Foundation produced a 30-minute documentary on the struggle to preserve the program.  It is a must-see to better understand the biggest civil rights issue of our time – education.

The short film was hosted by NPR correspondent and Fox News analyst Juan Williams.  At an event to release the film, former Washington, DC city councilman Kevin Chavous was quoted in the Washington Times, identifying the killers of the program:

“Just because the NEA and AFT says we should not have this program and we’re going to end it — then shame on all of us.”

       Something new and revolutionary happened in Michigan Tuesday.

        The Michigan Education Association and American Federation of Teachers didn’t have the final word on a major education policy issue.

        State leaders from both parties rejected the union’s self-serving objections to the their recently-adopted ”Race to the Top” reforms, then pushed the union out of the way when it tried to obstruct the process.

         Here’s the story in a nutsell. MEA leaders whined and pouted when the Democratic state House, the Republican state Senate and the Democratic governor pushed through a series of sorely-needed education reforms to strenghthen Michigan’s application for President Obama’s “Race to the Top” grant program.

       But the unions found a loophole that they chose to exploit. The state, in its desire to have universal support for “Race to the Top,” required individual school boards to indicate their desire to participate in the RTTT program, then turn in paperwork that included the signatures of the board president, superintendent and local union representative.

     But the two unions directed their representatives throughout the state to withhold their signatures from the documents. That directive went out a week before the state deadline for schools to sign up for RTTT.

    That might have meant that hundreds of schools would be left out off the RTTT grand funding list, all because a handful of union reps refused to sign the necessary documents.

    That’s when Michael Flanagan, the state superintendent of public instruction, said enough is enough. He announced that he was dismissing the unions from the RTTT approval process, and told local school districts they could turn in their paperwork without a union signature.

    The unions screamed with righteous indignation, but the rest of the state stood up and applauded. For once, Michigan’s leaders showed they were willing to plow ahead with necessary school reforms, regardless of what the union leaders thought about it.

    Sadly, the union obstruction effort may still have a lingering effect. Without a union signoff on the state’s RTTT plan, federal officials may wonder if there’s enough unified support for education reform in Michigan.

     If Michigan is a loser in the “Race to the Top,” everyone will know who to blame.

    But the bigger picture is far more encouraging. The MEA is one of the most powerful teachers unions in the nation, and in the past it literally dictated education policy to lilly-livered state officials. For the first time in memory, the state stood up to the union and reclaimed public schools for the taxpayers and students.

   Hurray for Michigan’s elected leaders. Hurray for State Superintendent Michael Flanagan. And tough luck to the union leaders, who now must grow accostomed to the fact that they no longer dominate the education landscape in Michigan.