{"id":402256,"date":"2010-03-08T01:04:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-08T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16711557.post-4579500129439867285"},"modified":"2010-03-08T01:04:15","modified_gmt":"2010-03-08T06:04:15","slug":"rhode-island-school-firings-are-embraced-by-the-obama-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/402256","title":{"rendered":"Rhode Island School Firings Are Embraced by the Obama Administration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rhode Island teachers fired in line with the Obama administration’s attacks on unions. Obama’s "Race to the Top" education policy will create more unemployment among education workers.<\/a>
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

March 6, 2010<\/p>\n

School\u2019s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President<\/p>\n

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and SAM DILLON<\/p>\n

A Rhode Island school board\u2019s decision to fire the entire faculty of a poorly performing school, and President Obama\u2019s endorsement of the action, has stirred a storm of reaction nationwide, with teachers condemning it as an insult and conservatives hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability.<\/p>\n

The decision by school authorities in Central Falls to fire the 93 teachers and staff members has assumed special significance because hundreds of other school districts across the nation could face similarly hard choices in coming weeks, as a $3.5 billion federal school turnaround program kicks into gear.<\/p>\n

While there is fierce disagreement over whether the firings were good or bad, there is widespread agreement that the decision would have lasting ripples on the nation\u2019s education debate \u2014 especially because Mr. Obama seized on the move to show his eagerness to take bold action to improve failing schools filled with poor students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first example of tough love under the Obama regime, and that\u2019s what makes it significant,\u201d said Michael J. Petrilli, a vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, an educational research and advocacy organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to give some cover to other school boards and school superintendents around the country that want to do something similar,\u201d Mr. Petrilli said. \u201cThey can say the president of the United States, Barack Obama, someone the teachers voted for, supports us here to take some radical actions to shake up our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Boston on Thursday, another city moving to carry out the administration\u2019s school-turnaround policy, officials announced that staff members at six underperforming schools would have to reapply for their jobs. Carol R. Johnson, the schools superintendent, said staff members were not being fired, but were being asked to \u201crecommit\u201d themselves. This move angered the teachers\u2019 union, which said it was exploring legal action.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama\u2019s endorsement of the Rhode Island board\u2019s tough action infuriated many of the four million members of the two national teachers\u2019 unions, thousands of whom campaigned vigorously for him in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ripped the Obama sticker off of my truck,\u201d said Zeph Capo, a midlevel official at the Houston Federation of Teachers who trains classroom teachers. \u201cWe worked hard for this man, we talked to our neighbors and our fellow teachers about why we should support him, and we\u2019re having to dig the knife out of our back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials at the two unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, were so angry in the hours after Mr. Obama first endorsed the firings that an irreconcilable break with the administration seemed possible, perhaps bruising Democrats\u2019 electoral chances in November. Recognizing how a permanent breach could hurt everyone, however, both sides sought to lower tensions, partly by encouraging a negotiated settlement in Central Falls, administration and union officials said in interviews.<\/p>\n

But neither the president nor Education Secretary Arne Duncan backed off his support for tough action, including dismissing teachers en masse, to improve learning conditions in chronically failing schools. At the high school in Central Falls, a poor community with a large immigrant population, only 7 percent of 11th graders passed state math tests last fall. And if the administration\u2019s posture was undermining its support among teachers, it was earning unusual praise from conservatives, as well as from supporters of an overhaul of the nation\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is putting down a real marker here,\u201d said Alex Johnston, chief executive of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, a business-backed education advocacy group.<\/p>\n

The decision by the Central Falls school board came under the terms of a new Obama administration policy intended to spur interventions in thousands of failing schools nationwide.<\/p>\n

To get a share of the $3.5 billion in what are known as School Improvement Grants, school officials can choose to transform the learning environments in failing schools by extending instructional hours and making other changes, converting them to charter schools, closing them entirely or replacing the principal and at least half the staff.<\/p>\n

The Central Falls superintendent, Frances Gallo, initially chose the first option this year, but after a dispute arose with the union over extra pay for adding 25 minutes to the school day, she broke off negotiations. Backed by the local school board, she announced the firings on Feb. 23. Last Monday, Mr. Obama supported the board\u2019s action in a speech to a dropout prevention group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn\u2019t show signs of improvement, then there\u2019s got to be a sense of accountability,\u201d Mr. Obama said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what happened in Rhode Island last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

National union officials were shocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers were taken aback \u2014 and profoundly disappointed,\u201d said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. \u201cTeachers will watch carefully whether Washington, the states and local districts will be partners that help us do our job or whether they\u2019ll be scapegoating and demonizing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Central Falls, community protests erupted against the firings. Marcia Reback, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, said members of the state\u2019s Congressional delegation had urged the parties in Central Falls to return to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Dr. Gallo agreed to resume contract talks, raising the possibility that at least some of the firings would be rescinded. Nonetheless, at week\u2019s end, the two sides said animosity remained strong and negotiations were unlikely over the next few days.<\/p>\n

Dr. Gallo said she had invited the union to participate in a meeting of parents, district officials and other parties on Thursday to help plan the school\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Washington, the Obama administration was bracing for similar controversies in other communities as more states identify failing schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a political strategy; this is about reforming the lowest-performing schools,\u201d said Tommy Vietor, a White
House spokesman. \u201cIt\u2019s not always painless, it\u2019s not easy. But what\u2019s critical is taking action in these places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Union officials said the administration\u2019s stance on the Rhode Island firings seemed to put it on the side of management in what unions see as basically a labor dispute.<\/p>\n

Mr. Obama\u2019s position \u201cset us back in how we work together,\u201d said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association. \u201cI think the worst thing that can happen would be for President Obama to be seen as antiteacher. I think that would harm him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teachers nationwide, including many who had once campaigned for Mr. Obama, said the events in Rhode Island had left a bitter taste.<\/p>\n

Anthony J. Mullen, an instructor at the Arch School in Greenwich, Conn., who is the national teacher of the year, said he supported the notion of establishing more accountability in schools. \u201cBut what kind of accountability are we talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis \u2018off with their heads\u2019 mentality,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s a bloodthirsty mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katie Zezima and Liz Robbins contributed reporting.
<\/p>\n

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Rhode Island teachers fired in line with the Obama administration’s attacks on unions. Obama’s "Race to the Top" education policy will create more unemployment among education workers.Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos March 6, 2010 School\u2019s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and SAM DILLON A Rhode Island school board\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4243,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}