Charter School Run by UFT Draws Scrutiny
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In a small, brightly decorated wing of a middle school in Brooklyn, an unusual experiment in the national debate over charter schools is taking place.
The wing contains a small school of kindergartners and first-graders that is believed to be the nation’s only charter school operated by a teachers’ union.
Charter school observers say the success or failure of the United Federation of Teachers Elementary Charter School could affect attempts to unionize charter school employees. The school could also factor into the debate over limiting the number of charter schools in New York State and impact the strained relationship between hard-core school choice backers and teachers’ unions.
“It’s potentially a big deal whether it succeeds or fails because there’s implications in New York and there’s implications nationally of initiatives like this,” a co-director of Education Sector, a Washington think tank, and a board member of the New York Charter Schools Association, Andrew Rotherham, said.
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are independently run. Such schools are typically granted charters, their operating agreements, through authorized agencies. More than 3,600 charter schools operate nationwide, according to the Center for Education Reform.
Supporters, who have President Bush in their corner, tout the charter movement as a way for educators to rid themselves of red tape – including union-negotiated contracts and rules – while pursuing higher student achievement. Critics say such schools shift much-needed money away from regular public schools.
The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions, have been lukewarm at best toward charter schools, saying they support them but usually attaching conditions.
The UFT, a powerful city union with more than 140,000 members, wants to prove charter schools can succeed while being unionized. The staff at its charter school, which just started its second semester, operates under the existing contract with the city’s Department of Education.
“With each passing day, it gets stronger and stronger,” the union president, Randi Weingarten, said of the school. The union charter school has 150 kindergarten and first-grade students who were selected by lottery.
