9486 in the collection  

Bloomberg Unveils Performance Pay for Teachers

by Rich Gibson

It is easy to make a case that the worst union in the US is the
American Federation of Teachers, now operating on a model developed
by Al Shanker and adopted by UFT (New York City's local) president
Randi Weingarten. She is likely to be president of the national body.

The merit pay plan negotiated by the UFT, in exchange for early
retirement, will turn up on every bargaining table in the US. NEA,
the largest union in the US, is already working with legislators to
find ways to sell similar packages to their members.

The AFT was the first union in the US to openly declare its purpose
in the corporate state: to promote unity of government officials,
union executives, and business bosses "in the national interest,"
thus abandoning the reason most people join unions: workers and
employers have contradictory interests.

Utterly undemocratic, racist to the core, deeply intertwined with the
overseas adventures of US intelligence agencies through the National
Endowment for Democracy, and key in taking the lead in demanding what
became the curricula regimentation and high-stakes testing of the
NCLB, the AFT is a fine example of a union which became what it
claimed to set out to oppose.

Exchanging false promises of money for merit pay based on test
scores, will further the already astonishing levels of fear in
schools, pit educators against educators, students against students,
parents against teachers, deepen the structural racism inherent in
relying on test scores, in a war of all on all for a miserly few
education dollars.

The AFT has matched the incredible recent sellout of the United Auto
Workers union in the auto industry, giving away the health care plan,
demolishing retirement packages, adopting two tier wage systems.

There are many reasons why the labor movement is no longer a
movement, but relinquishing control of the work place in trade for
pay, as in giving up work rules on the factory floor, or caps on
class size and academic freedom, for money, is one of them. The money
always vanishes, and control over the daily life of work is already
conceded, even forgotten.

The AFT is an enemy of school workers, and all working people. It is
not possible to reform the AFT. Even if it could be reformed, its
structure, dividing parents, kids, educators, and the community,
makes it unfit for the struggles ahead. While it may be important for
those who are forced to pay dues to the AFT to work within it, it is
far more important to develop organizations that are not constantly
at odds with their own members, preparing for broader battles ahead.

The Rouge Forum was organized ten years ago to unite school workers,
parents, youth and community people in the battle against high-stakes
exams, and the wars that make them inevitable. Our conference is
March 14 to 16 in Louisville. You are welcome to join us.
The call for proposals is here.

Ohanian Comment: If we teachers don't protest this sell-out by our unions, who will?

by Elissa Gootman

The Bloomberg administration and the New York City teachers union after months of negotiations announced an agreement today on a performance-pay plan that would give teachers bonuses based largely on the test scores of students at schools with high-poverty populations. The plan, which will be phased in, is a major breakthrough for Mayor Michael R. . Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, who for years have called for a merit pay system in which high-performing teachers can earn extra money.

At the same time, the administration gave the union the city’s support for state legislation to allow city teachers to retire five years earlier with full pension benefits. And the city agreed to pay $160 million to settle a longstanding pension dispute concerning benefits for 40,000 retirees and active teachers. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein announced the plan jointly with Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, at City Hall, with the mayor calling it a “historic and unique agreement.”

Merit pay programs, which break from salary schedules based on seniority and degrees, have traditionally been opposed by teachers unions. But they have been gaining ground across the country in recent years, and the idea is likely to get a major lift with its adoption in the nation’s largest school system.

New York’s plan is a twist on the traditional concept of merit pay. Pots of money will not be distributed teacher by teacher, but be given to schools that do a good job raising students’ test scores.

This year, about 200 of the city’s more than 1,400 schools that the administration characterizes as “high needs,” based largely on how poor their students are, will be eligible for about $20 million in bonuses. If they meet certain performance goals, they will receive an amount that totals $3,000 per teacher. Next year, officials said, at least 400 schools will be eligible.

It will be up to “compensation committees” at each school made up of teachers and principals supervisors to divvy up the money as they see fit. They could choose to distribute it evenly among union members or single out high performers.

The plan not only gives Mr. Bloomberg a policy change he has long sought, it allows Ms. Weingarten, a potential candidate to lead the national American Federation of Teachers, to cast herself as a reform-minded union leader.

Both the Bush administration and Representative George Miller, the California Democrat, who is chairman of the House education committee, have tried to promote the concept of merit pay. Leaders of the two national teachers’ unions — Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, and Toni Cortese, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers — recently objected to draft House legislation to renew the No Child Left Behind law because of a proposal to provide grants to school systems that choose to pay bonuses to teachers who excel in schools with high-poverty student concentrations.

Ms. Weingarten said the New York plan has “checks and balances” that brought the union on board. In each eligible school, the U.F.T. chapter will have a vote on whether to participate. And U.F.T. members join principals in determining how the bonuses will be distributed.

— Elissa Gootman with commentary by Rich Gibson
New York Times
2007-10-17
http://tinyurl.com/29fbgs

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>