Campbell Brown in today’s NY Post:
I believe the reason he can’t articulate a vision for NYC’s public schools and their students is because education policies whose bedrock principle is not offending teachers unions won’t give the city’s poor kids the equality of opportunity they deserve…
Look at where the administration has failed to act. On teacher quality — including those third-grade reading teachers — the evidence has been clear for years. We know that nothing is more important than having a good teacher. But unions pretend teachers are all the same, get paid the same — the only contingency is how long they’ve been at it.
Early on, the mayor signaled his actual intentions — and wasted a huge opportunity — in giving teachers an 18 percent salary increase but failing to negotiate meaningful work-rule changes.
Don’t get me wrong, I favor much higher salaries for teachers. But not just for showing up. Good teachers should make more. Teachers who excel in poor neighborhoods should make more. Salary increases should be a performance incentive, not a guarantee for hanging around.
But that’s not in the de Blasio contract.
