The Union Flunks Out

Back in 2005, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) started its own charter school designed to demonstrate that unions are not an impediment to success. Yesterday, after years of failure and despite subsidization by the union and free rent, the school closed its doors.  more

I'm not sure how much unionization contributed to the school's failure - it certainly didn't help - but this sad outcome also demonstrates just how hard it is to run a successful school. Not only do you have to get the teaching materials and methods right (and of course the UFT school fell at this first hurdle), but also there are a million administrative and organizational details that must be attended to - financial accounting, hiring and firing and motivating good staff, ordering books, liaising with parents, bussing, school maintenance, reporting, school safety, funding, attracting students, and the list goes on.

Running a school is running a business, and running a successful business is really hard. It has been suggested to SQE several times that we create a demo school, a lighthouse that others could follow. Well, that's what the United Federation of Teachers thought they would do and we have just seen how well that worked for them. I'll say it again, creating a successful school is really hard, and we should take our hats off to those hard-working and talented individuals who have managed to pull it off.

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