Teachers Union Honesty

Wall Street Journal:

Never put on the Internet anything you wouldn't want to see in the newspaper, right? Tell that to the American Federation of Teachers, which recently posted online an internal document bragging about how it successfully undermines parental power in education.

This document concerns "parent trigger," an ambitious reform idea we've reported on several times. Invented and passed into law in California in early 2010, parent trigger empowers parents to use petition drives to force reform at failing public schools. Under California law, a 51% majority of parents can shake up a failing school's administration or invite a charter operator to take it over.

California's innovation caught on quickly--and that's where the AFT's PowerPoint presentation comes in. Prepared (off the record) for AFT activists at the union's annual convention in Washington, D.C. last month, it explains how AFT lobbying undermined an effort to bring parent trigger to Connecticut last year. Called "How Connecticut Diffused [sic] The Parent Trigger," it's an illuminating look into union cynicism and power.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 4, 2011 2:48 AM
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