Randi and I Argue, Earth Rumbles
by Frederick M. Hess • Aug 24, 2011 at 10:15 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareIf memory serves, the old TV show Hart to Hart used to begin with the narrator intoning, "And when they met, it was murder." Well, yesterday AFT honcho Randi Weingarten and I engaged in a hard-hitting but genial debate at the Fordham Institute. Within a couple hours, we experienced the most severe East Coast earthquake in sixty-plus years. A coincidence? You decide. The Oprah-style affair, titled "When Reform Touches Teachers," was adeptly hosted by Fordham's Mike Petrilli. You can catch the video online here or when it shows on C-SPAN.
In my experience, these kinds of "union leader v. 'reformer'" conversations tend to go in three unfortunate directions. The first is that everyone engages in vague "it's for the kids" banalities, agree that the kids must come first, and pledge vague, meaningless collaboration going forward (e.g. see the Denver labor summit that