The Education Wars: RTTT is Nothing But a Race to the Bottom

for both students and teachers, and nobody cares.

When you have a so-called "Democrat" out to get teachers and the unions, no matter how ineffective they are, the situation is pretty hopeless:

Progressive educators recognize RTTT for what it is: an attack on teachers' unions. Jessica Hobbs, a Spanish bilingiual teacher in San Francisco and member of United Educators of San Francisco and American Federation of Teachers Local 61, says:

Everyone here is pretending like RTTT is no big deal because we have a progressive school board and a friendly superintendent. But unions across the state have already signed away rights and opened themselves up to bargain concessions. These fake reform laws have already been passed that are going to have an impact on the way our schools look, and our unions are just falling in line behind [AFT president Randi] Weingarten, and not calling this out for what it is--union-busting disguised as education reform.

The U.S. Department of Education has asked unions to be complicit in their own destruction by urging school districts to gather signatures on Memoranda of Understanding with local education unions prior to submitting their applications for RTTT money. These MoUs state that collective bargaining agreements will not be violated and that districts will enter into bargaining with unions over any changes in working conditions, teacher evaluations or changes in pay structure.

Sounds nice. But California Teachers Association President David Sanchez rightly urged local unions not to sign on the Race to the Top applications at this time.