Blacks Picket The NAACP


June 17, 2011 by Chip Wood

GOTHAMSCHOOLS.ORG
Residents of Harlem, a New York City neighborhood, protested the NAACP last month.

For a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Thousands of residents of Harlem, a New York City neighborhood, had taken to the streets to protest the NAACP. And yes, virtually every one of them was black.

What was it all about? Apparently, a huge number of parents in Harlem believe the quality of education their children are getting is more important than the color of the skin of their teachers. They were demanding better schools — even if that meant a bunch of black teachers lost their jobs.

You won’t be surprised to learn that many of our inner-city schools do a terrible job of educating the young people entrusted to them. More than half of the children who start first grade in inner-city schools drop out before they graduate. Many of those who do make it through 12 grades can’t read above a see-spot-run level. Nor can they do such simple math as making change for a purchase of a Big Mac and fries. No wonder the graduates of inner city schools are virtually unemployable.

Officials in New York City decided to do something about this sorry situation. They announced plans to close 22 of the worst-performing schools in the city. That was enough to get the teacher’s union riled up. But what really put the union on the warpath was when those same city officials said they would permit charter schools to operate in some of the buildings that would soon be vacant.

But charter schools don’t hire members of the teacher’s union. They don’t guarantee teachers jobs for life or steady increases in pay and benefits every year, no matter how badly the teachers do their jobs. Charter-school teachers get paid based on results — not on tenure or political clout.

Of course, all of this is completely unacceptable to the United Federation of Teachers. No wonder union members went ballistic when they heard about the plan. They were simply protecting their turf. After all, the teachers’ union had demonstrated for years that for them, jobs were job one. Political clout ran a close second. Children’s education was not worth worrying about.

This situation is nothing new. Many years ago, the most powerful leader the teachers’ union ever had, Albert Shanker, was honest enough to admit: “When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of schoolchildren.â€