A Spectre is Haunting Charters: "Burned-Out" NY KIPP Teachers to Unionize

by Clay Burell · 2009-01-17 09:00:00 UTC
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why-me-by-rosiehardyYes, they're paid $10,000 a year more than union teachers at NYC public schools, but the two Saturdays a month of extra work, the longer weekday hours, and the expectation that they take phone calls from students at home is still burning out many NYC KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter school teachers. Besides these extra demands, they say they also want more voice and "a fair evaluation and discipline system."

Hm. Overworked and unprotected from unfair dismissals. Sounds like a job for the unions - so it's no wonder teachers at two top NYC KIPP schools want to join the United Federation of Teachers.

This is one to watch. It may be the thin edge of a wedge to save the teaching profession from the anti-union crusaders so much in the news these days (including, albeit perhaps ambiguously, presumptive Obama education secretary Arne Duncan).

Reaction from the charter camp is interesting. Per the NYTimes,

“A union contract is actually at odds with a charter school,” said Jeanne Allen, executive director of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington group that supports charter schools.

“As long as you have nonessential rules that have more to do with job operations than with student achievement,” she said, “you are going to have a hard time with accomplishing your mission.”

I'm not sure what "nonessential rules that have more to do with job operations than with student achievement" means - nor why Ms. Allen couldn't speak more clearly on the subject - but maybe she was referring to the same issues as

several teachers at the two schools [who] said some KIPP teachers were getting burned out and quitting, hurting the schools and student-teacher relations.

“It’s a matter of sustainability for teachers,” said Luisa Bonifacio, who teaches sixth-grade reading at KIPP Amp. “There’s a heavy workload, and people have to balance their lives with their work.”

Um, Jeanne? Don't you think burned-out teachers and high turnover might have a bearing on that "mission" of "student achievement"? And if things are so rosy in charter-land, how do you explain the KIPP teachers' desire to unite?

(See more reactions at EdWize.)

Image by rosie hardy on Flickr

Clay Burell
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