Mulgrew challenges Bloomberg's get-tough tactics on tenure

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United Federation of Teachers is indicating it will resist Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to judge city teachers based on their students’ test scores beginning this year.

“When we see an actual proposal in writing we will take appropriate action,” Mulgrew said in an emailed statement. “The new state Commissioner of Education says the state tests are a broken measurement. Are these the tests the Mayor wants to use as a tool to evaluate teachers?”

Mulgrew also specifically challenged Bloomberg’s effort to make changes that could also made through the teachers union contract, which the union and the city are currently negotiating.

“These issues could have been — and still could be — resolved with better management and hard work, not legislation,” Mulgrew said. “His other proposals deserve thoughtful review by the Legislature, which has demonstrated appropriate skepticism in the past about mayoral initiatives like the failed West Side stadium plan and congestion pricing.”

But Bloomberg’s speech today was a strong signal that the mayor could try to bypass talks with the union and go directly to the state legislature to achieve his goals. The mayor also offered another get-tough tactic: A threat to sue the state if the legislature does not eliminate the charter school cap provide public funding for charter school buildings.

In his speech today, the mayor also invoked the power of the president. Speaking alongside U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Bloomberg pitched the changes as a way to bring the state closer in line to Obama administration education goals and strengthen the state’s application for a share of a $4.3 billion federal stimulus fund.

In addition to his announcement about the tenure law, Bloomberg asked state lawmakers to change rules on hiring and firing teachers, which he said would help the state attract better teachers and more quickly remove ineffective teachers.

The tenure law, passed last year after heavy lobbying from the city and state teachers unions, bars the use of student test scores as a factor in teacher tenure decisions.

But the mayor pointed out this morning that the rules apply only to teachers who began work after July 2008. Teachers up for tenure this year were hired in 2007 and so are not subject to the provisions, Bloomberg argued. If legislators allow the law to expire on schedule this June, then it will never have applied to any teacher.

Right now, 1,200 teachers are receiving regular paychecks and benefits even though they don’t hold full-time positions in the city schools. Bloomberg is proposing to make it easier to move those teachers off the payroll.

Bloomberg also targeted the “rubber rooms,” which hold teachers accused of offenses ranging from incompetence to abuse.  A backlog of accused teachers means the rubber room is clogged with people waiting for a verdict on whether they can go back into the classroom.

Bloomberg said that his proposals should not come as a surprise to the union.

“I didn’t consult with them, but they certainly know my views that we should use all means that we have to evaluate who the better teachers are, promote them, and pay them more if we can,” Bloomberg said.

Speaking to reporters after the panel, Bloomberg refused to elaborate on whether he was seeking legislative change as an alternative to pushing for these measures in contract negotiations, saying that the city does not negotiate union contracts in public. But Bloomberg acknowledged that some of today’s proposals would likely also come up in negotiations.

“To the extent that the contract will cover reforms we need in the school system overall, we will be discussing that,” he said.