Four things you are guaranteed not to hear in Wednesday night’s SOTU:

• “While a little nerve-wracking for us around the White House, November elections by the people of New Jersey and Virginia solidified what will be an exciting opportunity for those states to break from the status quo and embrace the education reforms of their new governors and the incredibly bold leaders they have chosen to steer schools in their states. At the very least, McDonnell has kept Gerard so busy he hasn’t been able to bother me about DC scholarships.”

• “Frankly, my Education Secretary and I were disappointed with the results of special legislative sessions and bill proposals regarding charter schools. Our crack public affairs team spun things so R2TT would come out smelling like a rose, but, come on. Caps lifted when states weren’t even near them, Louisiana? Strengthening collective bargaining, Illinois? And two little guys out of New England - I’m talking to you Rhode Island and Connecticut - giving charter schools money you had already promised then taken away? Really? I hope that wasn’t used to support your applications. We went to Harvard, you know.”

• “The one real win in R2TT goes on the scoreboard for teachers. Check this out. In addition to $100 billion dollars to keep them employed through the stimulus, we figured out a way to take it a step further with R2TT and teacher evaluation methodology. You could drive a truck through the holes in state proposals regarding teachers. You should see some of the emails Arne sends me late at night with examples cut straight from the applications. It’s all I can do to keep from falling out of bed. I can’t wait for round two.”

• “I won’t be using a teleprompter this evening.”

Today’s speech by Randi Weingarten of the AFT exemplifies what’s wrong with teachers unions and their control over America’s education system. Randi made news today by announcing that she’d be willing to incorporate student test data in teacher evaluations-but she also listed a litany of other things (including “portfolios”) that should be included.

I’m not impressed.

I simply don’t see why the concept of putting student learning first is so challenging for Ms. Weingarten. Her attempts to pacify those who want to see bad teachers removed from the classroom and off of the public payroll lack specifics. What will she do to remove the stranglehold that her union has over principals across America when it comes to terminating the employment of people who cannot teach - so that we can rightly elevate and compensate those teachers who can? What I see is an ‘our way or no way’ approach by the AFT that neither benefits children to the fullest nor serves the best interests of her members.

Finally, any speech on “reform” by Ms. Weingarten is specious, given that her union claims to want the “best” schools for children. This can’t be true, or else she and her allies would be fighting for school choice programs, not standing in the schoolhouse doors blocking the exits for low-income children.

Randi Weingarten fails to impress once again.

It was Mao Zedong who once said that “all reactionaries are paper tigers.”  He thought that of the US, and told a journalist in 1956 that:

“In appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of
it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain.”

Mao’s definition actually doesn’t fit the US, but it does fit well the reality of the teachers unions here, particularly when you consider what just happened in the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

The New Jersey Education Association is considered almost the most powerful special interest in that whole state.

The Virginia Education Association is likewise a power broker for all policies, not just education but health, taxes, defense and more.

So why didn’t these forces prevail in their dogged campaigning and support for their union friendly candidates?

NJ Governor Corzine worked in tandem with the Jersey union leadership for four years.  Their electioneering is usually a safe bet.

Virginia challenger Deeds was similarly endorsed by the Virginia blob, but even that endorsement failed to merit the votes he needed.

That NYC Mayor Bloomberg also survived the strike of opposition against him in the most powerful union city in the country is testimony to the flimsiness of the message that most unions endorse.

We’re thrilled that ‘Hizzoner pulled it through so that his very strong education reform program can continue to bring student achievement up.

And, we’re grateful for the reminder in these three areas that the teachers unions are only as powerful as we let them be.  The people rained on their policies.  They blew past their influence.  Paper tigers can’t withstand the wind and rain.

Unions are becoming reform minded? My foot.

Nowhere in today’s Washington, DC based news coverage of the Schools Chancellor’s layoffs is there any word - anything from the teachers interviewed or their union leaders - that addresses student achievement. Nothing.

Losing one’s job is an awful thing. I know people who don’t have jobs right now; I’ve lived with people who were unemployed.

The jobs lost from the DC teacher layoffs this week - an estimated 229 out of almost 400 people laid off - may have been the lowest hanging fruit, those who - for some reason - were not performing great with kids. Maybe.

We won’t know - and we can’t know as the union sues to block this action and the Chancellor’s office is bound by privacy rights against talking about how they determined who would get the axe. But regardless of why and how it was done, it would be nice if just one of the teachers out there would consider whether or not he or she is really good for kids before they start demanding a right that doesn’t exist - a right to a job teaching kids in a city where 86% are still in schools called failing.

Tomorrow, on his continuing education tour, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will be joined in Philadelphia by two gentlemen who because of their obvious differences on many levels are called the Odd Couple of education.  I applaud strange bedfellows - when they make things happen for kids. With this one, I’m not so sure.

The first real Odd Couples of education led some of the nation’s most fundamental shifts in education, shifts that had once been considered radical.  Looking back through the past sixteen years, it’s clear that while education reform has changed dramatically, broad, mainstream support for bold changes in education existed then, just as they do now.  It was just much less hip to say so.

Then, policymakers who led the fight for charter schools, merit pay (as it was called in those days), vouchers and the like were accused of being part of the vast right wing conspiracy and generally anti-public education, despite the fact that such nomenclature didn’t fit then, just as it does not now. CER’s first work celebrated legislators like Pennsylvania Democrat Dwight Evans, who joined hands with Republican Tom Ridge to pass that state’s charter bill.  Miami Urban League head T. Willard Fair teamed up with Governor Jeb Bush to bring vouchers to Florida, following in the steps of Representative Polly Williams, a former Black Panther, in league with conservative Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.

These were the first, real Odd Couples of the modern education reform movement.  They were bold, tenacious, and courageous to cross party lines, incur the wrath of unions together and suffer all sorts of education establishment slurs.

More “Gingrich and Sharpton – An Odd Couple for Education, But Not the First”