By Elizabeth Ling, DFER NY State Director
Friday marked a critical setback for the public schoolchildren of New York City. They were thrown under the bus by local teachers union officials more interested in keeping ineffective educators in the classroom than in upholding a pledge they made to provide every child with a great teacher.
Negotiations between the NYC Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers broke down around how to implement new teacher evaluation systems that both sides committed to in last year’s Race to the Top application. At risk for NYC is $60 million of federal School Improvement grants for its most troubled schools.
The reaction from the State Education Department has been swift, with Commissioner John King stating that he was “left with no choice but to suspend SIG funding” to New York City.