There's an interesting program going on which is giving some New Yorkers access to well-paying union jobs. While it's not nearly enough for a city of this size, it's a good start.
Note also that the unions are "reserving" slots for the applicants. This represents a huge distinction between these unions and the UFT. While we're regularly blamed for everything that ails the school system, the truth is we have no say whatsoever about who joins. That wouldn't be such a bad thing if anyone actually knew about it.
When NYC's mayor decides that people unable to meet rudimentary requirements are good enough to teach city kids, so be it. When the mayor decides to ship hundreds of people over, totally unfamiliar with our culture, who may or may not speak English, that's the way it's gonna be.
Then, the mayor gets on a local talk show and says the teachers "stink." NYC nods its head in agreement.
The NY Post runs an editorial about merit pay. The Daily News finds a newly-imported teacher who sacrifices live goats in front of his building, Randi Weingarten gets in a shouting match with a troglodyte teacher-basher, tripling his ratings, and Leo Casey writes a nasty column in Edwize about Eduwonk, comparing him to some obscure historical figure no one's ever heard of. Only Eduwonk actually reads the column (though Leo's family claim also to have done so), and the only others to hear about it are those who read Eduwonk's response.
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