Teacher’s Union War Against Charter School

TEACHERS at two of the most successful charter schools in New York City made a simple request of state officials last week: Free us from the United Federation of Teachers.

The UFT, usually so concerned about teachers' "voices being heard," made their response clear in the two sides' first conference before the Public Employment Relations Board on Thursday.

To paraphrase: "Shut up."

So now PERB has a choice to make: It can allow the teachers at the KIPP Academy in the South Bronx and KIPP Infinity in Harlem to promptly decertify the UFT as their bargaining representative, as teachers at both schools have requested by way of unanimous petitions, or it can leave them chained and paying dues to a union they want nothing to do with.

Employees demanding they not be represented by a union may seem an odd spectacle but it makes perfect sense if you understand the contours of the education-reform terrain.

Basically, charters represent accountability -- for teachers and for schools. Most charters, especially those belonging to the nationwide KIPP network, have succeeded based on a strong collaboration between teachers and administrators. Teachers agree to work hard, be held accountable and to work knowing that if they don't perform they can be let go.

The KIPP model is intense, with an extended school day, Saturday classes and a rigorous focus on advising and guiding kids all the way to college. But the teachers there are tremendously dedicated, and their schools outperform traditional public schools to an often-stunning degree. And, not for nothing, KIPP teachers generally earn at least $10,000 a year more than their counterparts at traditional public schools.

The teachers union, on the other hand, sees any school proving that accountability works as a mortal threat.

That's why teachers-union head Randi Weingarten and her Albany puppets have tried to stomp out the charter movement at every turn. They tried to stop the state from passing a charter-school law; they made sure there was a tight cap on the number of charters allowed in New York, and they constantly try to get the schools' funding yanked.

The UFT's latest gambit is an aggressive push to unionize charter-school teachers. Typically, charter-school teachers choose not to unionize unless their school converted from a traditional public school. (Teachers at conversion schools are unionized by law.)

But the UFT did have a successful unionizing drive at one KIPP school: KIPP AMP, in Brooklyn, where 15 out of 22 teachers, upset over some minor administrative changes, signed cards in January saying they wanted to join the union.

One leader of that drive, social-studies teacher Kashi Nelson, withdrew her support from the unionization drive recently. "I saw early on that the union was not, in my opinion, looking to have amicable conversations with the administration," she told The New York Times last month. Nonetheless, PERB has since certified the UFT at the Brooklyn school.

The KIPP Academy and KIPP Infinity teachers don't want to go down that road. While they've technically been a part of the UFT for years, the union hasn't been involved in the schools' affairs. After seeing what happened at KIPP AMP, and after the union butted in recently and initiated action against KIPP's "at-will" employment policies -- a key to the schools' success -- every single staff member at both schools signed petitions asking to decertify.

The UFT has now made it clear that it intends to fight decertification at these schools -- even if it means insulting the integrity of KIPP teachers and pushing changes that would destroy their schools.

The union's Edwize blog has accused KIPP of "belligerent anti-unionism" and has alleged that the teachers' petitions must have been "organized" by KIPP's management.

Meanwhile, the UFT argues that the KIPP Academy is a conversion charter school, and thus not allowed to decertify -- a position that's not supported by the law and that brings into play the possibility of KIPP teachers being forced to work under the regular UFT contract. Which would destroy everything that makes their school work.

Funny how the UFT is always so concerned with teachers' voices being heard until they're saying: "Let us out!"

But while the UFT may have its ears shut, PERB has a responsibility to listen.

Ryan Sager, New York Post, 5/4/09