Teachers Union Explains How Things Work At Capitol
Teachers Union
Explains How Things Work At Capitol
By Rick Green on August 7, 2011 11:05 AM Hartford Courant
It's either a brilliant tactical document or
an astounding gaffe just as education reform is about to take center stage.
A PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Connecticut chapter of
the American Federation of Teachers for a recent national strategy meeting
purports to show how the union in 2010 blocked the "parent trigger"
proposal before the General Assembly. The bill would have handed parents the
power to force the shutdown of a failing school -- an extreme measure by any
standard.
The PowerPoint surfaced briefly on an American
Federation of Teachers website this week and was quickly seized upon by bloggers and national media, including The Wall Street
Journal, which said it shows how the union "successfully undermines
parental power in education."
The document is one influential player's view
of how politics really works in Hartford.
In the process the union did plenty of damage, insulting influential
legislators and the rival Connecticut Education Association, as well as parent
and education reform groups whose "toxic" views don't match union
positions.
Actually, we owe the AFT a big thank-you for
reminding the naive that behind the curtain wheeling-and-dealing is what
matters -- not what people do and say publicly.