The president of the New York City teachers’ union, in a speech today, is expected to propose initiatives to attract educators to work in some of the city’s lowest-performing schools, including a reduced course load so teachers can focus on fewer students, and extra pay for teachers who take on special projects like building a parent participation program or developing curriculum units.
But even as the president, Randi Weingarten, will proclaim in the speech that she has reached “a declaration of détente” with the Bloomberg administration over its changes to the school system, she will also use the talk to take several hard shots at the administration, according to a draft of her remarks provided by the union.
In the draft of the speech, to be given at the United Federation of Teachers’ spring conference in Midtown Manhattan, Ms. Weingarten likens Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s continuing overhaul of the school system to the reality television show “Extreme Makeover” and says serious questions must be asked about whether the mayor should remain in charge.
“Well in advance of 2009, when mayoral control automatically sunsets, we must have a real debate about what type of school governance will foster effective teaching and learning in New York City,” Ms. Weingarten says in the draft.
And she specifically questions the mayor’s decision to eliminate the 10 instructional regions he created in 2003 to supplant the city’s 32 local school districts.
“I’m beginning to understand what some of our veterans mean when they say that if you hang around the Board of Ed long enough, you start to feel like you’re watching old reruns,” she says in the draft text. “We had 32 school districts. Then we had 10 regions. Now rewind, and while we are back to districts, in reality next year we’ll have some 1,450 autonomous schools, each an island to itself.”
