The headline says it all...

New WTU Chief: Top Job 'is to protect members'. Yup. And the sub-head?

D.C. teachers union looks to guard perks... That's a surprise.

Best quote:

The new president of the Washington Teachers' Union [Nathan Saunders] promised a "progressive" administration rather than a "reactionary" one, and said his No. 1 priority is to protect members' job security.

Here's the 'reactionary administration' Mr. Saunders refers to:

Former Chancellor Michelle Rhee and former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty ~

the reactionary administration Mr. Saunders is replacing.

Mr. Saunders is correct. Former Mayor Fenty and former DC Chancellor Rhee were proactively reactionary during the short time they had to bring change to the worst performing school district in the United States. In a school district where 12% of 8th graders are proficient in reading and 8% in math, and the money spent per student is the third highest in the country, someone had to frigging do something.   

And Fenty and Rhee were those people. They reacted with action. placing children and their education as the first priority in schools where the teachers' union (WTU) has ruled forever, always placing professional greed way before fixing a broken system. Rhee closed the 23 worst schools, reorganized another 27, fired a third of the principals and cut back on cushy, non-teaching positions. 

Most importantly, Rhee reformed the salary structure for teachers, offering the choice of earning well over $100,000 a year if a teacher was willing to be judged on merit. As Michelle Rhees puts it,

"Tenure is the holy grail of teacher unions, but it has no educational value for kids; it only benefits adults."

It's very important to point out that merit-based pay is supported by many teachers. Good teachers have nothing to lose by agreeing to be paid on the quality of their work. Teachers' unions, on the other hand, understand that switching to merit-based salaries greatly reduces the power they hold over union members. After all, the power of collective bargaining was the motivation for forming unions in the first place.

But now both Fenty and Rhee are gone. The old guard is back in power, calling itself the progressive administration. And the students?

I have a feeling they'll be kicked back to last place. As the WTU made clear, the 'new' first priority is to guard the perks of its members...and, I'm sure, actively ignoring reports like this one released by the Council of the Great City Schools showing a huge achievement gap between white and black students.

I'll take reactionary over progressive any day, especially when it involves the futures of kids.

Michelle Rhee hasn't decided where she's going to land next, but wherever she ends up, she'll be sure to bring her boldness of action and remarkable courage.

I know, a little over the top. But the dragons Rhee has fought against are powerful and vicious...and the students who depend on failing schools for their education need a knight...well, enough said.

Michelle Rhee's website.

You know how, um, the Left is really, uh, compassionate and the right, ah, doesn't care about anyone?

To, I'm sure, the discomfort of anyone who lacks the courage to face the truth about our public school system, Waiting For Superman, the new documentary about the failure of our schools, is attracting a lot of attention. A lot. Oprah had the filmmaker and cast on for an hour, followed by another hour with Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark), Chris Christie (Governor of NJ), both intent on educational reform, and the founder of facebook, Mark Zukerberg, who has donated $100 million to the Newark public schools. Her website provides seemingly endless information about failing schools, cutting-edge reformers and videos of the two shows. Oprah's embrace of what many believe is THE civil rights issue of our time will reach people who, in the past, either ignored the problems or pretended they didn't exist at all.

Thank you, Oprah.

But she did vote for Barrack Obama who, after watching Waiting For Superman recently said,

"Oh, it's hearbreaking...And when you see these parents in the film you are reminded that … their stake in their kids, their wanting desperately to make sure their kids are able to succeed, is so powerful…. It’s obviously difficult to watch to see these kids who know that this school’s going to give them a better chance-and that should depend on the bounce of a ball." 

Then why, Mr. President, did you, your administration and your party decide to end the D.C. Opportunity Schlarship Program (OSP) in 2009, a program that has saved 3,300 children from one of the worst school systems in the country. Did you not watch this?



Or, more importantly, this?



For a more complete overview of the program, read this.

On March 16, 2010, the US Senate rejected the bill that would have kept the funding for OSP in place, a year after Education Secretary Arne Duncan revoked scholarships from 216 children who were already enrolled for the 2010-2011 school year.

Please read that again, out loud.

Why? Money, power, unions, money, power, unions...what else? It's more important to keep the unions happy - who, in turn, vote for the politicians, putting their own interests before the children's - and it all pays off because there is always a union contract to be renegotiated, and another election to be won. Nearly all of the votes against reauthorization were from the Democratic side while the majority of the votes supporting the program came from the *Republicans.

Almost forgot, what about Waiting For Superman?



Waiting For Superman website

* The Republicans, especially career politicians, share plenty of the blame for failed schools ~ unwilling, as they are, to rock the boat. That said, they overwhemingly voted for reauthorization of funding OSP.

Wondering what was below-the-fold on the front page of the Peru, Indiana newspaper this morning?

I wasn't but I remembered the cool service the Newseum in Washington, DC provides every day and decided to check it out ~ the front page from about a zillion newspapers from around the US. Of course, it's especially fun to go through the papers the day after big news. If you're a news junkie.

In Peru, the Finley Cemetery was cleaned up by volunteers, including the high school basketball team ~ good job, everyone!