After DC voters last year booted Fenty and Rhee, one of the first actions by DC teachers was to replace the scheming, ineffectual, and purchased union president, George Parker, who had sold out and signed on to the contract crafted by Weingarten and the Broad Team.
How fitting that Parker is now officially a whore to the Oligarchs, along with Rhee. Sam Dillon:
Michelle A. Rhee butted heads frequently during her three-year tenure as schools chancellor of Washington with the president of the local teachers’ union, George Parker, and eventually a voter backlash over the city’s school reform wars cost both of them their jobs.
Now, in a strange-bedfellows twist, Ms. Rhee has named Mr. Parker as the first senior fellow of Students First, the national group she formed after stepping down as chancellor last fall. She says she hopes Mr. Parker can be a compelling voice for change, especially in speaking to teachers’ union members around the country. He says Ms. Rhee hates teachers’ unions less than most people think.
“We had our fair share of shouting matches, but over all we get along well,” Ms. Rhee said. “I see tremendous potential in having somebody who was president of a local teachers’ union advocating on behalf of policies that other unions are fighting against bitterly.”
As a senior fellow, Mr. Parker will travel the country speaking to state legislators, teachers and union members about the need to overhaul American public schooling. Neither Ms. Rhee nor Mr. Parker would disclose the stipend he will receive for the part-time position. “I can tell you this, I’m not doing it for the money,” said Mr. Parker, who is a math teacher with 25 years of experience.
Ms. Rhee, one of the most polarizing figures in public education, resigned as chancellor after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty lost Washington’s 2010 Democratic primary, a defeat that political analysts said was, in part, fallout from the draconian school policies that Mr. Fenty and Ms. Rhee carried out from 2007 through 2010.
After Ms. Rhee announced her intention to resign, without setting a specific date, Mr. Parker said, “I think leaving sooner is better than later.”
About a month later, Mr. Parker was out too, defeated in a re-election bid by a union challenger who accused him of giving up too much to Ms. Rhee, especially in the contract the two signed in the spring of 2010. That agreement, which took two and a half years and a mediator’s help to negotiate, gave teachers a 21 percent raise over five years while weakening seniority and other job protections.
Ms. Rhee also inaugurated a new teacher evaluation system during Mr. Parker’s tenure that holds teachers accountable for student test scores and has led to the dismissal of more than 100 teachers who got poor ratings.. . .
Wow. I'm speechless. That hardly ever happens.
ReplyDelete