If Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein hopes to turn the concept of charter schools upside down by having the city create as many as 50 of them, the head of the teacher's union, Randi Weingarten, wants to turn Mr. Klein's plan inside out — by having her union run one of the new charter schools. þþÿI would love to have the opportunity to run one of these,ÿ Ms. Weingarten said. ÿI think it would say a great deal because we would actually let teachers teach and do something that engages teachers as the professional people they should be.ÿ þþMs. Weingarten said she had not yet developed a detailed plan for the union school, but she said it would respect the current teachers' contract. ÿIt would absolutely be a union shop and there would absolutely be a union contract,ÿ she said. þþMr. Klein and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg are expected to announce a plan today for the city to create a nonprofit corporation to open as many as 50 charter schools using upward of $50 million in private donations. The plan is unusual because charter schools are typically created as a bureaucracy-free alternative to regular public schools and traditionally operate outside of local school district control. The schools are often seen as a threat to unions because they can hire nonunion teachers and negotiate their own labor agreements. þþMr. Klein and his aides declined to discuss details of their plan before today's announcement, other than to insist that the effort was not intended as an attack on the union. þþCity education officials seemed at least somewhat receptive to Ms. Weingarten's proposal. ÿWe look forward to her application,ÿ said Jerry Russo, Mr. Klein's press secretary. þþThe notion of a teachers' union operating charter schools is not new. In Miami, the United Teachers of Dade has formed a partnership with Edison Schools, a for-profit school management company, to open 10 charter schools. And Albert Shanker, the former president of the American Federation of Teachers, was a strong and early advocate of charter schools. þþIn making her proposal, Ms. Weingarten — whose union, the United Federation of Teachers, represents 80,000 city teachers — said she was speaking ÿpersonally and not as president of the U.F.T.,ÿ but that she hoped to win the support of her members at a delegates' meeting in December. She also said her interest in running a charter school should not be seen as support for the mayor's charter school initiative. ÿI'd rather those dollars go into public district schools,ÿ she said. þþMs. Weingarten said that a union-run charter school would be a showcase for top teaching techniques and a model of respect and professional freedom. ÿWe want to show that we practice what we preach,ÿ she said. ÿHopefully I can get my union to support me on this.ÿþþShe also said that operating a charter school would give the union a chance to prove that city education officials were wrong to vilify the teachers' contract. ÿTo prove that the contract is not the obstacle, I would use the current contract,ÿ she said. þþBut she also raised the possibility of a second union-run charter school that would use the streamlined contract that she has proposed as part of a pilot project in regular schools. The streamlined contract would eliminate many of the work rules that city officials consider onerous. þþArthur Greenberg, a former district superintendent who is now a professor of education administration at New York University, said that running a charter school would give the union a glimpse of what managing schools was all about.þþÿEvery time a state education department has ever tried to take over a school or a school district, it has been eye-opening for them,ÿ he said. ÿThere's a lot to be learned from the experience.ÿ þþMr. Greenberg said he expected the union to run a good school. ÿThey would create a wonderful place for kids and for teachers,ÿ he said, ÿbecause they would be respectful of what faculty would like to do.ÿ þþþ
Source: NY Times
