A growing number of charter schools nationally are unionizing, according to The New York Times, for reasons ranging from teacher dissatisfaction with work hours to teacher turnover, or in some cases, lower-than-average pay. While this will usher in conditions more favorable to charter teachers and may stabilize what is typically a young, transient teacher corps, reformers say it may inhibit the climate that has made the schools so attractive to parents and hospitable to innovation. "A charter school is a more fragile host than a school district," said Paul T. Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education. "Labor unrest in a charter school can wipe [a school climate] out fast." Particularly at issue is whether unionization in and of itself tamps down the collegiality among teachers that helps students thrive, and if innovation in and of itself requires teacher burnout, which is frequent in the absence of union rules. These questions are all the more immediate in light of the Obama administration's support for charters, and its announcement of Race to the Top, which will give financing to states that ease restrictions on charters and adopt charter-like standards for other schools, such as linking teacher pay to student achievement.
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The Obama administration has unveiled a new discretionary fund of $4.35 billion to be disbursed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, USA TODAY reports. Using detailed guidelines, the president and Duncan have forcefully presented 19 criteria in four areas that states must meet if they are to capture valuable education dollars. These include aligning schools with internationally benchmarked academic standards, long-term data systems that track kids over several years, and letting schools pay teachers and principals more if they work in hard-to-staff schools or if student scores improve on basic skills tests. They also include provisions for increasing the supply of charter schools and alternative pathways for aspiring educators and performance-based pay. "This competition will not be based on politics, ideology, or the preferences of a particular interest group," said President Obama in announcing the fund. "Instead, it will be based on a simple principle -- whether a state is ready to do what works. We will use the best data available to determine whether a state can meet a few key benchmarks for reform, and states that outperform the rest will be rewarded with a grant." We are now being outpaced in math and science education by countries like India and China, he noted.
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