Well it appears that the Socialist Workers are against anything that even comes close to holding teachers accountable. Why? because it weakens the union. Who cares about the teachers, who cares about the education our kids get, as long as the union stays strong. What a crock of manure.

New York teachers’ union concedes on merit pay

This is the last paragraph…

However, thanks to Weingarten’s “bonus” plan, merit pay is now a reality in the New York Public Schools. The delegates’ assembly meeting was a historic turning point in the history of our union–for the worse.

NEW YORK–The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) have agreed to a form of merit pay that will greatly undermine union principles and weaken the teachers’ unions fight against similar proposals in legislation currently before Congress.

Under the new agreement for schoolwide “bonus” plans, teachers at the lowest performing schools in New York City would be offered merit pay in exchange for improved test scores and reaching other achievement benchmarks set by the Department of Education.

At a UFT delegates’ assembly October 17, UFT President Randi Weingarten argued that these bonuses will shut the door to more insidious plans for individual merit pay, and would promote collaboration among teachers.

In fact, the plan will foster divisions within schools and weaken the union. As the New York Post says, “clearly, the camel’s nose is under the tent” for the type of merit pay proposed in the renewal of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, now being debated in Congress.

The UFT’s parent union, the American Federation of Teachers, along with the National Education Association, have resisted merit pay schemes. But now, the UFT has accepted merit pay by another name, and placed an incredibly divisive tool in the hands of New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the principals.

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