Here’s an educational odd couple if there ever was one.
Green Dot Public Schools, a wildly successful Los Angeles-based charter-school operator, has rolled out its first institution in the New York City market.
And at the head of the welcoming committee was United Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten.
Good for her.
Indeed, the new charter high school – a collaborative Green Dot-UFT effort in the South Bronx – is, if nothing else, a sign that Weingarten & Co. recognize which way the wind is blowing.
City parents wait on lists a mile long to get their kids into one of Gotham’s too-few charters schools – which, thanks to the absence of teachers-contract obstruction, can actually do what’s necessary to make sure kids are learning.
And Green Dot, for one, has been remarkably successful in Los Angeles: Its schools boast graduation rates of more than 80 percent – nearly double that of surrounding public schools.
Of course, the new institution wouldn’t be a UFT school without some kind of catch. Thus, while it technically won’t offer tenure, bad teachers there still can’t be fired without “cause” – a system that UFT officials say might be even stronger than traditional tenure protections.
That would be a shame, if true.
All the same, more choice for parents in their children’s education is never a bad thing.
If the school fails, it’ll be just one more data-point discrediting the UFT’s self-serving agenda.
If it succeeds . . . hopefully there will be more where it comes from.
We certainly wish Green Dot the best.