At the risk of being accused of hyper-ventilating again, I temporarily lost my breath while I was reading this post on EdWize on the politics of measuring graduation rates. This was a very thoughtful post (on the kind of issue where I think teachers unions DO play an important role in bringing teacher voices to the policy level) but I tripped up on this phrase, which was meant to be a sort of back-handed compliment for Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein:

There are few occasions when we are in agreement with the educational pronouncements of Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, but this is one.

Few occasions?????

Anyone who has a television or who trips over a morning paper on their way out the door each day knows that there are some significant disagreements in policy between management and the United Federation of Teachers. It is even a natural part of collective bargaining that they won't always see eye to eye on things here and there, even if the two sides share a common commitment to educating kids. But few occasions when they are in agreement?

I really find that hard to believe. If true, this whole public education thing is even worse shape than we thought.

And it really makes you wonder whether the UFT disagrees with Bloomberg and Klein that the status quo just isn't working for huge swaths of city youngsters, that the culture of our city's school system is one which stamps out quality, that the focus should be on schools (and the students therein) and not the bureaucracy, etc.

Say what you want about Bloomberg and Klein, but that is at least the vision they have articulated. If there are "few" occasions on which the UFT agrees with management, it might actually mean the teachers union doesn't agree with that kind of broader thinking.

Good God.