Today’s Good News: Teachers’ Union, Charter School Work Together For The Kids

A charter school and a teachers’ union arm-in-arm and singing “Kumbaya”?  Can it be true?Joel Rubin has a story in the Los Angeles Times that details just that.  A company called Green Dot Public Schools and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) will jointly run a charter high school in New York’s South Bronx.  Unlike most charter schools, Green Dot does have unions at its schools, though not the established teacher ones.  New York union leader Randi Weingarten visited Green Dot’s schools in LA and was impressed both with the education quality and the respect paid to teachers, so the NY UFT made a deal.  The move will put pressure on the LA teachers’ union, whose members have called for working with Green Dot but whose leadership is dragging their feet.  Weingarten said, “If you really actually believe in kids and believe in their success, those of us in education, we really shouldn’t be in the sandbox fighting with each other. We should be … trying to figure out how to work together.” Amen.

Filed by Karen on July 1st, 2007 under Education, Labor