'No Evidence It Works'
UFT Rips DOE Plan Privatizing Schools

By HOWARD MEGDAL

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Oct. 5 criticized both the content and the secrecy of Department of Education plans for a private takeover, at city expense, of a number of small city schools.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: Opposed to takeover.

"It should not surprise anyone that the UFT is opposed to private management of public schools," Ms. Weingarten told reporters following an Oct. 5 press conference. "We have serious, long-standing concerns with it because of accountability, because of the profit motive issue, and because this has been tried before and there is no evidence that it works."

'No Improvement'

She said that other municipalities that had tried farming out management of public schools to groups like Edison Schools had ultimately seen "No improvement, while it delegates responsibility for a public school to a private corporation." She added that the question was one that needed to be "thoroughly explored" in a public debate.

"This system isn't mine, it isn't Chancellor Klein's," she said. "It's the public's. So there needs to be a huge public debate. Some will make a case that is different from mine. And the public can decide."

Claiming that the New York Times, which first reported the program, "got ahead" of the story, DOE spokesman David Cantor stressed that "nothing has been decided yet."

UFT Won't Take Over

The UFT leader added that even if explicitly asked, the UFT would not take over any small schools, despite the union's opening of two charter schools over the past two school years.

"The UFT is opposed to any private takeover whatsoever. This is not a replacement for the charter school process."

Five years ago, a coalition of parent activists and school unions blocked then-Chancellor Harold O. Levy's bid to have Edison Schools take over five public schools with histories of failure.