@john_merrow blames teachers’ unions as potential “creator” of Rhee. Hmm. – @ the chalk face

@john_merrow blames teachers’ unions as potential “creator” of Rhee. Hmm. – @ the chalk face:

@john_merrow blames teachers’ unions as potential “creator” of Rhee. Hmm.

by Chalk Face, PhD

Diane Ravitch reported this. Then, Fred Klonsky got in on it, who should be respected for his positions on teachers’ unions.
Merrow made his comments thusly:

And finally U created her. “U” is my shorthand for teacher unions. This is simple physics: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The “Michelle Rhee” phenomenon is the inevitable product of, and reaction to, intransigent teacher union policies like the ones that produced New York City’s famous “rubber room,” where teachers who couldn’t be fired spent their days reading, napping, and doing crossword puzzles–on full salary and with the full support of the United Federation of Teachers, the local union.

I unfortunately don’t possess the long view here. I’ve only been blogging or whatever you call it for a few years. Before that, I was isolated by graduate school in the Midwest and before that, too bogged down with upwards of 32 fifth graders to even care about Rhee or my union.
When I returned to DC Metro area after graduate school, the area in which I taught, I was smacked in the face, hard, by all of this. If you think teachers don’t have a voice, trying being a pre-tenure faculty member at a public