In a movie review for the Los Angeles Times (9/28), Kenneth Turan criticizes "Won't Back Down," saying it "is so shamelessly manipulative and hopelessly bogus it will make you bite your tongue in regret and despair." The movie "avoids the most controversial aspect of the current situation - whether teachers should be held directly accountable if student standardized test scores are weak - but it has no hesitation about creating a villain for all seasons: teachers unions. ... While no one, not even unions themselves these days, denies that there are things that must be changed about how they operate, the notion of them as total evil only makes perfect sense to companies that believe in unionless, private charter schools that increase profits by paying teachers whatever they can get away with."
Rhee Believes Chicago Teachers Strike Underscores Shift Among Democrats.
In the Washington Post (9/28), former DC schools superintendent Michelle Rhee writes that the Chicago teachers strike represents a shift among Democrats, with "those who staunchly side with unions at any cost" increasingly in the minority "while more Democrats are saying we have to look at education differently." She notes that this shift is complicated by the support teachers unions have given to Democratic candidates and by Democrats' belief in "the rights of workers to stay safe on the job and earn a decent living." However, Rhee suspects "more Democrats will say, as Emanuel and President Obama have, that it makes sense to look at how much children are learning when assessing a teacher's work and to empower parents to help turn around schools that are failing their kids, and that it is right to pay teachers more but to also hold them accountable for results."
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