Getting it right… and wrong

The Saturday San Diego Union Tribune editorial (below) indicating that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was betrayed by the UTLA, the local California Teachers Association affiliate, gets it both right and wrong all at once.

Getting it Right
The Tribune editorial writers are correct in recognizing that the teachers union is just that - a union. Notwithstanding all of the prognostication and consternation about what is “right for the kids” and notwithstanding the grandmotherly radio ads by union boss Barbara Kerr at the beginning of the school year advocating wholesome approaches to preparing children for school – the union is just that a union – a labor union. What is the union all about? Working conditions. How does the union define better working conditions? More pay and less work. There is nothing shocking about this, it’s all about promoting self interest.

A digression
I was reminded of this mentality recently when a colleague who retired several years ago from a long career in public education told me she would no longer encourage young people to enter a career in teaching. She said that she could no longer recommend the career because it is, “no longer fun.” Hmmm, no longer fun? What changed during her tenure? That’s right, the state tired of graduating functional illiterates from high school and the Legislature (in a rare moment of clarity) passed laws to require the adoption of standards, standards aligned testing and even a high school exit exam. Finally, a system of education that relies upon research-based curriculum that is based upon high standards and measures outcomes through aligned testing; a system that produces educated children; a system that returns to taxpayers what they expect when they make their investment. That is precisely the system she declares is “no fun.” Well, I am sorry if educating children is not fun for her… perhaps a different career would have been a better choice in the first place.

Getting it Wrong
Where the Tribune editorialists error is in their assessment of whether the Mayor was duped. Mayor Villaraigosa was a union organizer, the Speaker of the Assembly (the author of the Mayor’s LAUSD bill) worked for UTLA – they knew who and what they were dealing with. It is foolish to think they were duped; they ultimately got exactly what the Mayor wanted: control of over $19 billion in construction contracts and over $9 billion in annual funds / service contracts. The LAUSD legislation affecting district operations grants the Mayor “veto” power over the hiring of the district superintendent; the legislation grants the superintendent the power to negotiate and execute all contracts without any oversight by the elected Board of Education. The Chair of the Assembly Education Committee understood the folly in such an arrangement and during the committee hearing on the bill stated that she hoped the next superintendent was a person of incredible integrity (perhaps that is why she was a candidate for the job).

The Mayor made concessions to the union (concessions he would have voted for as a member of the Assembly). One of those “concessions” the union demanded is that contracts be negotiated with the Board of Education not the Council of Mayors. This allows the Mayor to blame breakdowns in contract negotiations on the Board of Education and appear to be “above it all.” Meanwhile, the ability to influence contracts for construction and services remains in the power of the Mayor’s superintendent. In the end, the union is stronger and the Mayor gets to dole out contracts.

Is it possible that the Mayor was not duped at all, but instead got exactly what he wanted?

Los Angeles lesson
Teachers union betrays ally Villaraigosa

UNION-TRIBUNE
November 18, 2006

California is usually seen as a national trendsetter. But the California Teachers Association's ability to persuade voters each election that it and its favored candidates are devoted to kids couldn't be more retro.

Elsewhere, it long since has been accepted that teachers unions are like other unions: driven by self-interest. This was reflected in a joke for New Yorkers that Woody Allen included in his post-apocalypse 1973 comedy “Sleeper”: The war that destroyed civilization began when “a man by the name of Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear warhead.” Shanker was a famously contentious New York teachers union leader.

But what's going on in the Los Angeles Unified School District might finally wake up Californians. With the seeming support of United Teachers Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa persuaded the Legislature this summer to give him considerable authority in running the district. There was a brief sense of excitement – perhaps a new model for reform had emerged, one in which a teachers union would be a willing partner.

No more. It now appears the UTLA was engaged in a ruse to increase its leverage in contract negotiations and will sandbag Villaraigosa's agenda unless teachers are given a 9 percent, one-year raise. Meanwhile, the union is fielding school board candidates dedicated to thwarting any reform that might cost one bad teacher his or her job.

In other words, Villaraigosa – a former union organizer – was betrayed. And so, indirectly, were the millions of Californians who defend teachers unions as positive forces. As L.A. Unified's saga confirms, they are anything but.