Did 'Superman' defeat the BTU contract?
I joined a group of Baltimore City teachers and educators from around the region Monday at the Landmark Theatre to view the controversial new documentary, "Waiting for Superman," a film whose exposure of longstanding failures in public education has recently spurred a negative discourse in the district.
Last week, Marietta English, president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, cited the documentary, in part, for the defeat of a radical, reform-centric contract that teachers voted to reject. She said the contract was proposed at a time when "fear, frustration and distrust are at an all-time high," adding that "the situation has not been helped by the movie 'Waiting for Superman' and the teacher bashing that has occurred since its release."
In his first public statements about the movie since its release, city schools CEO Andres Alonso said the movie's "fundamental truth is effectively right" in that poor, black and Hispanic children should not be prisoners of their ZIP codes when it comes to access to education. He said that fundamental truth
