Arne Duncan: Collective Bargaining "Will Be a Tool for Improving Student Achievement"
I had breakfast this morning at the Department of Education with Arne Duncan and a group of education writers: Michele McNeil, Rick Hess, Michael Petrilli, Richard Colvin, and Rishawn Biddle. (As you can see, I was the lefty in the room!) I'm going to do a series of posts on the Secretary of Education's comments on hot-button issues; this is the first.
Duncan emphasized that teachers' unions occupy an important seat at the education reform table, and that he considers Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's union busting counterproductive. "I think collective bargaining will be a tool for improving student achievement," Duncan said. He praised the Wisconsin Education Association's plan--released just a few days before the labor stand-off began--to embrace value-added teacher evaluation and reform some tenure protections, adding that the union's president had been willing to step out in
