Remember a few weeks ago when the New York teachers union threatened to scrotum-squeeze members of the New York State Legislature if they didn’t pass legislative language banning the use of student performance in decisions about whether or not teachers should be granted lifetime tenure after three years?
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver gives an honest assessment to the New York School Boards Association about how the whole thing played out — it was a good piece of legislation because EVERYONE got screwed. Civics 101!
Silver: It’s not a question of how powerful the teachers’ union is, it’s also a question of what’s right and wrong, and I think we wound up with a good compromise on that particular issue. I think we crafted a solution that didn’t satisfy anybody. But that’s usually a good solution, when all the parties aren’t that happy with it.
You gotta love “lose-lose” and the kind of leadership that cherishes it so. The Speaker went on to admit that many legislators are scared to death of retired teachers who get in their grill and yell and scream and spit and stuff:
Silver: There’s no question about it. The teachers’ unions are politically powerful. They have a large membership. They have a large retiree base and their people are located all across the state. They impact many school districts, many elections areas – Assembly districts and Senate districts – as a result. They tend to be more active politically than most other professions in the state.