Reform and the Teachers’ Unions

This blog post from the New York Times comments on two tasks that are captivating state legislators and education officials: assessing teachers and speeding up disciplinary processes.

Teachers are resisting. “If the unions want to have input, they need to quickly come up with a legitimate proposal of their own.”

Perhaps the root of the resistance of unions is a wariness to be subjected to accountability when they have limited control in classrooms. In this blog post in July, we described a visit two advisors from teacher-run schools had with Secretary Duncan about running schools themselves.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things is that they are willing to accept complete accountability—for complete control.