President Embroiled in Controversy Over "Failing School"

In an article entitled "A Wholesale School Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President, and Divisions Follow" in yesterday's New York Times, the writers, Steven Greenhouse and Sam Dillon tell of a Draconian move by a Rhode Island school board to fire the entire faculty of a local school. The article referenced below also tells more. It is apparent in reading about this that there is essentially a labor dispute going on between the teachers and the school board and that the school board, apparently out of pique, up and fired the entire faculty rather than accede to demands of the teachers union for more pay for extra work.

Adding salt to the wound was President Obama who said words to the effect that the school board's move was "a painful but potentially necessary move." (The quote is The Boston Globe's characterization of the President's words.) To be fair, none of these two news sources has placed the President's words in context and the Times indicated outraged teacher's unions and the White House have attempted to patch things up.

Nevertheless, bitterness remains on the part of the teachers, and the administration's Education Secretary is said to be not backing down from a so-called "tough love" approach.

There are issues here which go beyond the scope of this post. But in reading about the matter, it is clear there are extenuating circumstances such as the rapid mobility of the families in the area around the school. Surely, there is a better way to handle the situation than ruthlessly firing an entire faculty, one obviously beloved by the student body.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2010/03/04/teacher_firings_ripple_past_central_falls_border/?page=1