The Boston Herald
November 19, 2002, Tuesday, Editorial, p. 30

Editorial
BTU’s pilot roadblock

Recent efforts by the leadership of the Boston Teachers Union to put yet another roadblock in the path of pilot schools are both bewildering and distressing.

The real question parents and school administrators are asking themselves this morning is how scared is the BTU of education reform and why? Pilot schools are schools run free of many district and union rules. They are permitted under the union’s contract and can be created only when two-thirds of a school’s faculty agree to the conversion.

But when the Boston Foundation announced it was offering six planning grants of $15,000 each to schools looking to apply for pilot status and representatives of at least 30 schools attended an informational meeting Nov. 7, the BTU must have panicked. Last week the union adopted a motion insisting no faculty vote to submit even a grant application until the union had issued a report on the implications of pilot school status on contract rights.

“It was not an issue of ‘We’re against pilot schools,’” BTU President Ed Doherty insisted. “We’re against rushing into a decision on pilot schools.”

Hey, why rush into anything resembling reform, when Boston students can be held hostage for some future contract ransom.

The issue of pilot schools was resolved a couple of contracts ago. To change the rules now, to add yet another level of union “approval” at some future unspecified date, is beyond dishonest; it’s shameful.

Copyright 2002 Boston Herald Inc.