Duncan to NEA: Reform Now

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education, recently spoke to the National Education Association, NEA. Duncan expressed federal stimulus money will be handed out to states more open to reform; charter schools and merit pay are the main focuses. According to Education Week:

Speaking before 6,500 officials and local delegates of the NEA, who are meeting here for the union’s annual Representative Assembly, Mr. Duncan underscored compensation, evaluation, and tenure reform as crucial to improving the quality of the education workforce.

“I believe that teacher unions are at a crossroads. These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers, but they have produced an industrial, factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets,” Mr. Duncan said. “When inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children, then we are not only putting kids at risk, we’re putting the entire education system at risk. We’re inviting the attack of parents and the public, and that is not good for any of us.”

Basically saying the status quo is only hurting our children and the entire education system. It is past time for change but it is never too late. Slowly but surely, states are open to reform. Lets get the ball rolling!