Union Charter School Faring Badly
A New York charter school, run by United Federation of Teachers union officials, illustrates how even charter schools cannot flourish under a monopoly bargaining contact. Originally developed as an innovative reform, to be run without union involvement and monopoly bargaining and bureaucracy, charter schools have had many successes. Desperate to control who enters, stays and leaves education, what is taught and when, teacher union officials soon got into the act by opening their own version of a charter school, which has not fulfilled expectations set for all New York city school. Leslie Brody has the story in the Wall Street Journal.
Almost a decade after the United Federation of Teachers launched a charter school to prove that a school could thrive under the city’s union contract, new data show the school continues to struggle.
Kindergarten through eighth grade of the UFT Charter School in Brooklyn failed to meet the city’s targets for student achievement, progress, environment and closing the achievement gap, according to the Department of Education’s School Quality Guide, which was released Monday.