President Tries to Sway Unions, Civil Rights Groups to Back Merit-Based System
(From The Wall Street Journal, July 30th, 2010)
By LAURA MECKLER
WASHINGTON–President Barack Obama on Thursday delivered a fresh call to hold teachers accountable for student achievement, defending his administration against complaints from unions, civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers.
These groups, usually backers of the president, have objected to the administration’s Race to the Top program, which seeks to drive change at the local level through a competition for $4.3 billion in federal grants.
President Barack Obama, speaking at the National Urban League Thursday, said he was seeking “some measure of accountability” in classrooms.
To qualify for funding, states are encouraged to promote charter schools and tie teacher pay to performance. Unions have questioned both goals.
Mr. Obama, defending his administration’s approach in a speech before the National Urban League, said teachers should be well paid, supported and treated like professionals but those who fail should be replaced.
“I am 110% behind our teachers,” he said. “But all I’m asking in return–as a president, as a parent and as a citizen–is some measure of accountability. We’ve got to make sure we’re seeing results in the classroom.”
Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, a lobbying group that fights for charter schools and increased teacher accountability, said he was pleased that the president stood his ground against critics.
“The president made clear he’s going to continue to go forward and he’s not going to back down,” Mr. Williams said. “That was important for him to relay that message.”
Race to the Top has driven a wedge between Mr. Obama and many teachers, who have also been among the Democratic Party’s strongest political backers. At its annual conference this month, the National Education Association narrowly approved a vote of no confidence in the program.
Some teachers say performance-based pay programs are unfair and that charter schools–public schools run by outsiders who are free to hire nonunion staff–drain money from the schools that serve the bulk of the nation’s children.
Last week, Washington, D.C., schools chief Michelle Rhee drew criticism from unions when she announced she had fired 241 teachers, most for low performance under a new evaluation system.
“Every child in a District of Columbia public school has a right to a highly effective teacher–in every classroom, of every school, of every neighborhood, of every ward, in this city,” she said in announcing the dismissals.
Teachers’ unions were also angry when, earlier this year, Mr. Obama endorsed a move by a Rhode Island district to fire every teacher at one of the state’s worst-performing schools.
Overall, teachers “are offended by the scapegoating that is going on in this administration,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said. She added that she didn’t hear scapegoating from Mr. Obama on Thursday.
Civil rights groups worry that, under Mr. Obama’s program, money won’t flow to districts that need it most. This summer, House Democrats sought to shift money from the competitive grant program into direct aid for all states to prevent teacher layoffs.
The Race to the Top program has already triggered change at the local level, even though only two states have actually won grants so far. At least 23 states have overhauled teacher evaluation policies, lifted the cap on charter schools or altered how they transform the lowest-performing schools. Thirty states adopted a set of common learning standards for math and reading.
The program considers whether unions are on board when judging applications for grant money.