Anchorage Daily News

The teachers union in Anchorage is one target of a nationwide campaign launched today by an advocacy group that claims the unions harm the public education system.

The Center for Union Facts said the unions block education reform and prevent bad teachers from being fired. Teachers unions say the group is spreading misinformation.

"There are certainly teachers who don't meet the standards, but we as an association make sure teachers have due process," said Ron Fuhrer, president of the Anchorage Education Association. "We believe that as a consequence we have excellent schools."

The Washington-based nonprofit group is spending $1 million on ads and a billboard in New York's Times Square, and launching a Web site with data it says it collected from public records documenting what it considers to be the extreme lengths unions go to protect bad teachers.

It's also inviting nominations for a contest to determine the nation's worst unionized teachers.

The "winners" will be offered $10,000 each if they permanently resign or retire from any career in education -- if they sign a release agreeing to have their name and the reasons for their selection published by the group.

The center said low rates of firings for teachers with tenure were prime evidence that union protection of teachers is overzealous.

It said that of the 2,649 teachers with tenure in Anchorage, eight were fired between 2002 and 2007 for reasons including poor performance, substance abuse and failure to obtain a teaching certificate.

"Any group of people that size is bound to have at least a few more bad apples than the ones noted above," the center said in a statement.

Fuhrer said Anchorage's screening program eliminates some underqualified applicants before they are ever hired, helping to reduce the firing rate.

"Those that are considered for hire have already been identified as quality teachers," he said. "It's disingenuous for someone to make the allegation that because we're not firing teachers, we're not doing well."

Calls to Carol Comeau, the Anchorage School District superintendent, were not immediately returned.

ADVERTISEMENT