NEARI and the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals continue to oppose the state's application for Race to the Top grant money. Under the current proposal, a teachers evaluation will be based 51% on student achievement, step system would be done away with, certification tied directly to effectiveness and many of the intervention programs would be run by charter schools and the mayoral academy. It would completely undermine collective bargaining and will eventually result in a court case over which takes precedent; regulations of the regents or legislation. Local presidents and members who read the 119 page document were appalled at the tone and contents of the document.
Despite all this, we continue to meet with the commissioner and staff at RIDE, 5 hours today, to work on acceptable language. At this point we are very doubtful that will occur and continue to be adament in opposition. Many states have signed on where the union worked collaboratively with the state, but in many cases, for example New Jersey, Florida, Michigan and California, where language was not collaboratively agreed to, they did not.
The process was also flawed. While we were invited to take part in some discussion, we were never part of the drafting and never saw the document until this past Monday. Even then, despite trying to work out language, we were not allowed to leave the Department with a copy. Yet, we had copies from several other states and there was no problem. Even the attorneys working on language, could not have a copy of the application.
President Purtill said, "The process and the document are extremely flawed but while we will continue to try to work with the Department of Education we are not going to forgo our beliefs and values about what is right for public education and our members."