Wanted: A few bad teachers
In an anti-union campaign, a lobbyist dubbed 'Dr. Evil' promises $10,000 apiece to bad apples
By Kathryn Masterson | Special to the Tribune
7:37 PM CDT, March 31, 2008
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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Reprints Post comment Text size: Rick Berman is looking for 10 really bad teachers, and he's prepared to give away $100,000 when he finds them.
Berman, a Washington lobbyist and attorney, runs a group called The Center for Union Facts that accuses teachers' unions of hindering the quality of public education by protecting bad educators and opposing school reform.
The center is soliciting nominations for the nation's 10 worst unionized teachers, and says it will give $10,000 to each of the 10—if they agree to stop teaching forever.
The campaign has annoyed teachers and widened Berman's reputation as "Dr. Evil"—a nickname he received for his previous efforts opposing Mothers Against Drunk Driving proposals and obesity-targeting policies.
300 nominations and counting
Buying off bad teachers is part of his effort to improve education, Berman said.
"What I really want to do is jump-start a conversation," Berman said. "There are lots of kids who can't read or do math and are well behind in science. ... I've interviewed teachers who say their colleagues are not competent to teach kids."
Teachers' unions say Berman is a paid attack dog who won't disclose the sources of funding for his work.
"This is his M.O.," said Chuck Porcari, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, D.C. "He tries to make a splash, then disappears into the ether until someone writes him a check. ... Teachers and the public deserve to know who's bankrolling this effort. Who's paying to attack teachers?"
Berman says The Center for Union Facts is funded by businesses, foundations and members of the public, but he won't identify them.
Berman and Co., his public affairs firm, has a $13 million budget, but Berman declined to say what the budget is for The Center for Union Facts.
Billboards to blackboards
Berman says he's genuinely interested in the state of America's public schools.
"This stuff is real," Berman said. "I think people who deny what's happening with our education system are a little bit like Holocaust deniers. We really are slipping."
The Center for Union Facts is spending about $1 million on a billboard in New York's Times Square, a mobile one in Washington, D.C., and television and print ads pointing people to the group's Web site,
http://www.teachersunionsexposed.com, which includes data about teacher tenure and dismissal rates of teachers deemed incompetent.
Berman favors the removal of tenure for teachers and the introduction of merit pay.
Reg Weaver, president of the National Education Association, defends the tenure system, saying it ensures teachers have due process and cannot be arbitrarily fired. He said the burden for weeding out bad teachers—or not hiring them in the first place—falls on administrators.
"Many administrators mess up the evaluation process," Weaver said, "and people who should be dismissed aren't."
Weaver said the emphasis needs to be on providing more resources for schools and teachers.
The "Bermans of the world" focus only on the outputs of the system—test scores, for instance—and don't see the bigger picture of the challenges teachers face, Weaver said.
"What I'm trying to do is get the public to see that the public school systems are doing a pretty amazing job of educating young people," Weaver said.
Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum, a conservative think tank that supports vouchers and charter schools, disagrees.
Her group has partnered with The Center for Union Facts on this campaign, and she argues that teachers' unions have a "stranglehold" on the K-12 system and block attempts at reform.
"The only ones who are suffering are the kids who graduate—if they graduate: They will not be able to compete in the 21st Century," Bernard said.
Teachers' pet peeve
Union leaders say the portrayal by Berman and his allies is unfair.
"Every profession you're going to have the worst, like you're going to have the best," said John Ostenburg, chief of staff for the Chicago Teachers Union. "In many cases, it's not the school that's failing; it's the neighborhood that's failing."
Jon Pazol, a biology teacher at West Leyden High School in west suburban Northlake, has been an educator for 19 years. The president of his local AFT council, he sent letters of complaint to the networks and newspapers that ran The Center for Union Facts ads.
"I'd love to be able to pick out the bad lobbyists or doctors," Pazol said. He says teachers don't get credit for the improvements they make in their students' skills.
"I've made a difference in more people's lives than Rick Berman ever will," Pazol said.
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