Editorial: Detroit teachers union should embrace changes
http://www.detnews.com/article/20091027/OPINION01/910270313/1008/opinion01/Edito\
rial--Detroit-teachers-union-should-embrace-changes
Last Updated: October 27. 2009 1:00AM
The Detroit Federation of Teachers' contract is set to expire later this week as
talks between the union and school district Emergency Financial Manager Robert
Bobb remain stalled over reforms to improve district finances and student
achievement. Detroit's teachers ironically could help break the impasse by
adopting policies that its national union supports.
After months of negotiations, including a one-month extension, Bobb last week
characterized the negotiations as "brutal." While he acknowledged that the union
has proposed "some very creative cost-cutting ideas that we are embracing," he
indicated the union is resisting academic reforms, including modifying seniority
in Detroit's lowest-performing schools. This would allow Detroit the flexibility
to staff schools with its best teachers instead of those who have clocked the
most time in the district.
Site-based management is also a sticking point, says Barbara Byrd-Bennett,
Bobb's academic czar. The idea is to empower principals and teachers to manage
their schools instead of relying on the district's traditional model of schools
being guided by a highly centralized and distant bureaucracy. Union leaders such
as the Detroit Federation of Teachers' Keith Johnson are used to negotiating big
decisions such as teacher pay and bonuses themselves, rather than allowing their
members to do so at individual schools.
None of Bobb's requests are unreasonable or unprecedented nationally. The
American Federation of Teachers affiliate in New York City supported a radically
different contract in partnership with unionized charter school operator Green
Dot Schools, which is out-performing Detroit high schools in practically every
measure.
Earlier this month, the AFT Innovation Fund announced it will distribute $1.2
million to projects at eight affiliates. They include developing new teacher
evaluations in Rhode Island and New York, and creating a compensation plan that
considers multiple measures of student learning in Broward County, Fla.
The American Federation of Teachers, led by President Randi Weingarten,
considers these reform projects important. The affiliate in Rhode Island noting
that its evaluation project emphasizes that it "has no interest in protecting
incompetent teachers."
If a new contract is not finalized by the end of this week, Bobb says he would
be willing to extend it by just one week. After that, declaring the school
district bankrupt is "still an option," he said.
If the Detroit teacher union remains resistant, Bobb should make good on his
word to declare bankruptcy. It would wipe out the teacher contract and allow him
to set up more flexible and effective rules and practices for the district. This
would benefit students more than rewarding the recalcitrance of the union --
which three years ago conducted an illegal strike, causing misery for school
families and a hemorrhage of students from the district.
The better option for the union would seem to be to adopt the AFT's reforms with
Bobb and continue to have a say in the district's destiny. The union should do
what's best for the future of teachers and students, not just its own parochial
interests.
