Teachers unions and their political puppets are said to be preparing for lawsuits like the one in California that slashed tenure protections. They’d better gather their sandbags and dig a bunker because the bombshell suits are coming their way.
New York reformers, inspired by the Los Angeles ruling that protections for bad teachers violated student educational rights under the California constitution, are eager to test New York laws. The sooner, the better.
The idea is the flip side of suits that hit New York and other states a generation ago, demanding vastly more money. Under the banner of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the cases used per-pupil spending data to show that city schools lagged behind suburban counterparts because funding disparities caused everything from shabby facilities to poor student performance.
The suits succeeded in dramatically driving up the cost of education — but did not meaningfully improve student performance.
One change since is that the best charter schools, free from the union stranglehold, are proving that nonwhite students can succeed under different leadership. That evidence is fueling the conviction that union work rules, including tenure and those that put seniority ahead of competency, are a major reason American education has stalled.
Because the unions bought off so many politicians, turning to the courts to put students first is a logical next step.
The LA case offers a road map. In his ruling, state Judge Rolf M. Treu cited “compelling” evidence that union protections “disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students.” He said the impact “shocks the conscience.”
Treu even compared the tenure battle to the 1954 desegregation case of Brown vs. Board of Education. While the Supreme Court used that case to establish blacks’ fundamental right to “equality” of education, Treu said the same principle could be applied today to the “quality” of education.
That is a missile aimed squarely at the union racket, which effectively argues there is no such thing as a teacher who deserves to be fired. Any attempt to bounce the worst of the worst is met with years of litigation that, the California case showed, is always expensive and rarely successful.
New Yorkers have known for years about the “dance of the lemons,” where bad teachers shuffle around the system because administrators know that trying to fire them is hopeless. The unions are proud of defeating attempts to get rid of perverts, criminals and nut jobs.
The development presents Mayor Bill de Blasio with a dilemma. He promised to improve education, but embraces the union. In fact, the new contract he negotiated took away student tutoring time, and his chancellor, Carmen Fariña, adopted a blatant policy of social promotion. The contract also makes it less likely that lousy teachers will be fired.
Fortunately and surprisingly, the Obama administration is taking the other side, with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan giving two thumbs up to the California ruling, which is being appealed.
“Equal opportunities for learning must include the equal opportunity to be taught by a great teacher,” Duncan said in a statement.
“The students who brought this lawsuit are, unfortunately, just nine out of millions of young people in America who are disadvantaged by laws, practices and systems that fail to identify and support our best teachers and match them with our neediest students. Today’s court decision is a mandate to fix these problems.”
Randi Weingarten, head of the national American Federation of Teachers, responded to Duncan with a red-hot letter. “You added to the polarization,” she fumed, claiming that “stripping” teachers of due process won’t help students.
She deliberately misstated the case, but then again, what options does she have? The facts are stacked against her, and now the courts and a Democratic president are breaking free of her control.
Like a lawyer with a guilty client, all she can do is pound the table. Feel free to ignore her.
Hey, let’s play hardball with progre$$ives
It’s surprising the progressives in City Hall didn’t think of this, but the push to raise the minimum wage to $13 an hour is only half the answer to income equality. New York needs a maximum wage, too.
Look at the people who are overpaid, and imagine if they topped out at $25 an hour. Look at the Mets.
They are terrible, yet fans who go to Citi Field must shell out big bucks to boo. Cutting player salaries would mean lower ticket prices, which would put more fannies in the seats. Then, even a losing effort would be fun for the whole socialist family.
If this sounds like voodoo economics, consider the attendance boost if David Wright, instead of getting $19 million a year, got $25 an hour. For 162 games, each lasting three hours, Wright would collect just over $12,000 — before taxes.
And Curtis Granderson wouldn’t be jeered for striking out so much if he made $12,000 instead of $13 million.
Now that City Hall has been alerted to the advantage of having both a maximum wage and a minimum wage, the campaign against income inequality deserves a reset. I even offer a slogan:
A maximum wage — so everybody is poorer.
O’s timid justice
The capture of the man accused of leading the terror attack on our Benghazi compound is great news. But, as is too often the case with President Obama, there is a troubling wrinkle.
The New York Times reports that “for more than a year,” a plan to capture Ahmed Abu Khattala sat “on Mr. Obama’s desk awaiting approval. But the administration held back, in part for fear that an American raid to retrieve him might further destabilize the already tenuous Libyan government.”
If true, that is outrageous. A Libyan government that could be destabilized by the capture of a terrorist wanted for killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans isn’t a government worth protecting.
That Obama still gives too much deference to anti-Americanism helps explain why our nation is held in such low regard. Great powers do not gain respect by being timid about protecting their own citizens and security. It is a weakness our adversaries exploit.
The delay did not stop Obama from spiking the football. “Since the deadly attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, I have made it a priority to find and bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four brave Americans,” he claimed in a statement.
Priority? That’s President Pinocchio for you.
Hmm, is there a Chapter 11?
Publisher Simon & Schuster is reportedly panicked that Hillary Clinton’s memoir isn’t selling. Of the 1 million hardcovers shipped, only about 60,000 were sold in the first week. And her contract pays her nearly $14 million.
The publisher’s fear is shortsighted. At over 600 pages, a book that big book doesn’t have to be read to be useful. Think doorstop, exercise dumbbell and weapon.
On second thought, the publisher should panic.