[Vision2020] Union-Run School is at Center of Debate

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (January 29, 2006) Spokesman Review -

 

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Union-run school is at center of debate 

Charter's success or failure has wide-reaching implications

 

Kindergarten teacher Sonia Ferrera works with her students at the United
Federation of Teachers Elementary Charter School in New York. (Associated
Press )

 

Nahal Toosi

Associated Press

January 29, 2006

 

NEW YORK - In a small, brightly decorated wing of a middle school in
Brooklyn, an unusual experiment in the national debate over charter schools
is taking place.

 

The wing contains a small school of kindergarten and first-grade students
that is believed to be the nation's only charter school operated by a
teachers union.

 

Observers say the success or failure of United Federation of Teachers
Elementary Charter School could affect attempts to unionize charter schools
at a time when teachers unions have been ambivalent at best about such
schools, which are publicly funded but independently run.

 

"It's potentially a big deal whether it succeeds or fails because there's
implications in New York and there's implications nationally of initiatives
like this," said Andrew Rotherham, co-director of Education Sector, a
Washington think tank, and a board member of the New York Charter Schools
Association.

 

The success of the school, or lack of it, could also influence the debate
over limiting the number of charter schools in New York state and could
impact the strained relationship between school-choice backers and teachers
unions.

 

The nation's two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association
and the American Federation of Teachers, have been lukewarm at best toward
charter schools, saying they support them but usually attaching conditions.
More than 3,600 charter schools operate nationwide, according to the Center
for Education Reform.

 

Supporters, who have President Bush in their corner, tout the charter
movement as a way for educators to rid themselves of red tape - including
union-negotiated contracts and rules - while pursuing higher student
achievement. Critics say such schools shift much-needed money away from
regular public schools.

 

The UFT, a powerful city union with more than 140,000 members, wants to
prove charter schools can succeed while being unionized. The staff at the
charter school, which just started its second semester, operates under the
existing contract with the city's Department of Education.

 

"With each passing day, it gets stronger and stronger," union President
Randi Weingarten said of the school.

 

The union charter school has 150 kindergarten and first-grade students who
were selected by lottery. The union plans to expand the school in the fall.

 

Rita Danis, the school leader, said teachers help plan the curriculum and
activities, a collaborative model that is not common among public schools.
And teachers say there is less micromanagement, whereas at other schools
even their bulletin boards may face mandates.

 

The city's education department is supporting the union with its charter
school venture, including letting it share building space with a public
school for free. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's backing of the charter
movement is exceptionally strong for the head of a public school system.

 

Rosa Cribb said her grandson Skyler Rogers adores his teachers and classes.
After they learned he was accepted into the union school, she and her
daughter, Skyler's mom, cried, she said.

 

"The public school he would have gone to in the neighborhood, we would not
want him to go there," Cribb said. "I've seen some of the kids that go
there; it's just not right. It is overcrowded."

 

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A union-run charter school?

 

Thoughts?

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"

 

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