Conservative Mike Petrilli usually is more willing to look a the teachers' sides of issues than the neoliberal National Council on Teacher Quality. But his post at the Fordham Flypaper, "Dealing With Disingenuous Unions: There Are No Shortcuts, " was just as wrong-headed as the NCTQ survey that it was based on. Petrilli echoed the NCTQ in criticizing districts for not cutting wages and benefits during the last two years, and then he blamed unions for using their political power to influence school boards. In fact, districts, influenced by their donors, acted according to their own priorities. They have borrowed the tactics of former "reform" leaders Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee in bestowing big bucks on salaries as
