Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Union jumping overboard in New Orleans

As the Crescent City looks to make a full transition into charters, the union is refusing to play ball:

With a little more than two weeks left on its contract with the United Teachers of New Orleans and no negotiations under way, the Orleans Parish School Board refused Wednesday to extend the current contract, suggesting collective bargaining might soon disappear at the only four public schools in the city where it is in effect.

(snip)

…the new landscape of public education in New Orleans has left little room for collective bargaining, with a combination of charters and state-takeover schools that are not subject to the union’s agreement and can employ teachers on year-to-year contracts. Only the four schools still operated by the local district are subject to the agreement.

But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be this way.  

During a break in the meeting, (union president Brenda) Mitchell said (school board member Una) Anderson approached her earlier in the day about the possibility of the union applying for charters to operate the district’s remaining four schools.

But Mitchell said she would not be interested in that option because she thinks the four district schools should remain public schools in the classic sense.

The union isn’t exactly being shut out of the new look of New Orleans schools; it’s choosing to walk away.  And it doesn’t have to.  The union’s sister organization in New York is working with charters.  So what’s stopping UTNO?