[Educationforall] Obama Wins a Battle as a Teachers' Union Shows Flexibility

[Justin Akers Chacón]

Wall Street Journal

EDUCATION OCTOBER 17, 2009
Obama Wins a Battle as a Teachers' Union Shows Flexibility
By NEIL KING JR.

A showdown between the White House and the powerful
teachers' unions looks, for the moment, a little less likely.

This week in New Haven, Conn., the local teachers union
agreed, in a 21-1 vote, to changes widely resisted by unions elsewhere,
including tough performance evaluations and fewer job protections for bad
teachers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, as well as the unions, said
the New Haven contract could be repeated in other school districts.

"I rarely say that something is a model or a template
for something else, but this is both," said Randi Weingarten, president of
the American Federation of Teachers, who helped broker the New Haven deal.

"This shows a willingness to go into areas that used to
be seen as untouchable," Mr. Duncan said.

His cause for optimism is this: If teachers' unions start
showing flexibility in other cities, the administration's high-stakes push 
to
boost graduation rates and improve test scores at public schools could get a
lot easier. That might even spare the administration an unwanted fight with 
a
labor force that gave Mr. Obama a big lift in his election.

Under pressure from the Education Department, the country's
two powerful teachers unions, Ms. Weingarten's AFT and the larger National
Education Association, are already budging in ways that were previously
unthinkable. The two unions have a combined membership of 3.6 million
employees.

The AFT recently issued a batch of innovation grants to
districts that are tying teacher pay to performance -- a practice usually
frowned upon by unions. The NEA is taking similar steps to encourage tougher
evaluations and to loosen seniority systems, moves that Mr. Duncan called
"monumental breakthroughs."

It is also noteworthy that the AFT seems almost as pleased
with New Haven as Mr. Duncan.

Public schools in many bigger cities, including New York,
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., are seeing the usual tension between 
unions
and school administrators.

In Washington, Chancellor Michelle Rhee has collided with
both the national and local unions. The city moved ahead recently with the
firing of 388 school employees, nearly 6% of the work force.

In New Haven, by contrast, all sides agreed on the new
contract after months of closed-door negotiations. The deal allows the city 
to
close its worst schools and bring in new management, though any new teachers
would have to join the union. In exchange, the union got an average 3% raise
each year for four years.

"We now have unusual flexibility for a unionized
system," said New Haven Mayor John DeStefano.

A big question now is whether Mr. Duncan can proceed with
federal efforts to remake U.S. public schools without stirring up storms 
like
the one in Washington.

His one big advantage is financial. The administration plans
early next year to distribute $4.3 billion under its "Race to the
Top" program to help states set new testing standards, boost teacher
quality and help rescue -- or close -- thousands of the worst-performing
schools in the U.S. Beyond that, the department has another $5 billion for
various school-improvement and innovation grants.

The administration is using its pot of money to get states
to revamp rules that bar performance pay and charter schools, which rely on
public money but are run outside the public system. Nearly 10 states have 
taken
such steps to qualify for the funds. Select states will have to use the 
money
to reward and encourage the changes.

So far, the administration has avoided a fight with unions.
Mr. Duncan meets every few weeks with Ms. Weingarten and the NEA's 
president,
Dennis Von Roekel.

But there is still plenty of room for friction.

Mr. Duncan, the former superintendent of Chicago public
schools, got booed by teachers in July when he praised performance-based 
merit
pay at NEA's annual convention. "You can boo," he told the crowd,
"just don't throw shoes, please."

A few weeks later, the Education Department released
tentative guidelines for changes states have to undertake to qualify for the
federal grant money. Unions, school boards, city governments and outside 
groups
responded with more than 1,200 recommended changes.

With the final rules scheduled to be out in mid-November,
the unions are warning about limits on their flexibility. The groups are 
most
troubled by Mr. Duncan's quest to link teacher pay to student performance,
especially if it is measured only through standardized tests.

"To evaluate a teacher or a school on a single test
makes no sense," said Mr. Von Roekel, who used to teach high school math
in Arizona.

The unions also are wary of some of Mr. Duncan's other
prescriptions, including his proposals to shut down and reorganize many of 
the
country's most troubled schools.

For now, potential antagonists are holding fire. "I may
disagree with their tactics," Mr. Von Roekel said, referring to Mr. Duncan
and his team. "But I wouldn't question their intent or motivation."

Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king at wsj.com

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