Answering the attack on teachers
It's open season on the teachers' unions--and President Barack Obama has joined the hunt.
"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in praise of the recent decision to fire all teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
But while Obama's open endorsement of an effort to bust a teachers' union may seem shocking, his administration has been hammering teachers since he took office. Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTP) initiative doles out grants to states that have laws attacking teacher seniority rights and that tie teachers' pay to student test scores.
With the recession drying up normal funding channels for schools, states are rushing to pass union-bashing laws to get a shot at the federal money--even as they impose layoffs and cutbacks to close huge budget deficits.
The two big teachers' unions--the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National