Letters to the Editor
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‘Weingarten May Soon Hold N.Y., National Union Jobs’
While I am honored by the Sun’s interest in my career plans, I want to set the record straight regarding your reference to Green Dot as a charter school operator that “bans traditional tenure” [New York, “Weingarten May Soon Hold N.Y., National Union Jobs,” March 19, 2008].
Green Dot is actually the only charter school operator in the country that understands that a union and a contract help promote student success.
That’s why the United Federation of Teachers and Green Dot are partnering to open a Green Dot charter school in New York City.
The just-cause dismissal provision in the Green Dot contract provides a strong and fair adjudication process for both educators and administrators. That is what tenure was supposed to be all about.
Indeed, whereas teachers in New York State have to complete a probationary period of three years of satisfactory service before receiving tenure — which simply guarantees a due process right to a hearing on disciplinary charges before dismissal — Green Dot educators have it from day one.
RANDI WEINGARTEN
President
United Federation of Teachers
New York, N.Y.
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