If unions are the problem, why do we have so many high performing schools in Monroe County?

• March 26, 2014
In a Democrat and Chronicle letter to the editor, “Address roots of school failure” (3/21),  Edwin Newton, was clear as to what he believes to be the fundamental reasons for the “dismal quality” of Rochester schools. Specifically, the root causes are the “three sins of teacher’s union policies”: tenure, ‘last in, first out,’ and paying teachers based on seniority rather than performance.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/03/21/letter-address-roots-school-failure/6655453/The writers’ very clarity begs a question. If unions are the problem, in our case the New York State Union of Teachers, why does Monroe County have public schools, like Brighton and Pittsford, that consistently place so high in national rankings? I would argue that effective unions like the NYSUT have helped attract quality teachers who, year in and year out, are creating quality schools.

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About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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