The School Reform Commission in Philadelphia got some recommendations from the Boston Consulting Group that would essentially wipe out collective bargaining. BCG wants principals to be able to hire and fire at will; they want teachers to have no job security. Given its druthers, according to this account in The Notebook, the business-dominated School Reform Commission would like to get rid of all job protections and simply impose a contract. The SRC and BCG think that they can attract better teachers to Philadelphia if they break the union. Like other corporate reforms, they have zero evidence for their hope.
Just another sad chapter in the ongoing effort by corporate-style reformers to get rid of collective bargaining for teachers. Very likely the BCG proposed the vast expansion of charters as another way to bypass unionized teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Also Sprach Der Gipper —
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To see how twisted things have become in Philadelphia, see this opinion column from the Philadelphia Daily News:
Criminal parents? They just want a better education for their child
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120905_Criminal_parents__They_just_want_a_better_education_for_their_child.html?c=0.8086267970654016&posted=y&viewAll=y#comments
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For details about the couple arrested for trying to enroll their child in Lower Moreland school see:
Philly couple charged with enrolling child in suburban district
http://articles.philly.com/2012-08-31/news/33500419_1_ferman-garcias-criminal-charges
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What is truly twisted in this opinion column is that the columnist thinks these parent should call on Arlene Ackerman to defend them. She was a member of the Broad Foundation Board while she was Superintendent in Philadelphia and as a result greatly accelerated the deterioration of Philadelphia’s public schools. So this columnist is advising these parents to seek the aid of Ackerman who is responsible for the conditions they are trying to get their child out of. Truly twisted!
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Oh boy, low pay and no protection of any kind, whatsoever. Sign me up. What is the thought process behind “better teachers without a union”? Do they truly believe those Gates funded teacher groups that claim they don’t need a union or a contract?
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INTERESTINGLY, ALMOST NO ONE FEELS OBLIGED to defend their strategies, etc in terms of its impact on a democratic society! IF, just suppose, it raised test scores we seem prepared to dump democratic norms on the behalf of test scores. The grand old USA is–might we mention–an experiment in democracy! (It was not primarily founded on the principles of the market place–that was true, after all, of the decadent European nations we were breaking away from as well.)
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Gosh what is the page number in the ALEC playbook?
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It’s a chapter, at least.
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