Columnist: School Reformers Should Embrace Unions

In a column in the New York Times (11/8, Subscription Publication, 950K), Joe Nocera writes about the insights related in "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools" by Steven Brill, noting that for much of the book, Brill lambastes American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten as an obstructionist of school reform. However toward the end of the book, Brill "suddenly veers in a different direction" and paints Weingarten and teachers unions as indispensible to efforts to reform education. Brill explained that extensive research gave "him a far richer understanding of the complexities involved in reforming the nation's schools." Brill concludes that despite the success of some charter schools, "you simply cannot fix America's schools by 'scaling' charter schools. ... Real reform has to go beyond charters - and it has to include the unions." Nocera concludes that this means that the reform movement must stop demonizing teachers unions and include them in moving incrementally toward reform.