The Washington Teachers’ Union is the target of an aggressive advertising campaign created by an organization founded by an anti-union lobbyist.
Actors depicting teachers, students and parents in a television commercial, full-page newspaper ads, a billboard, and a Farragut North Metro station sign say the union “put politics ahead of my child’s education” and “makes it almost impossible to fire bad teachers.”
The Center for Union Facts, which created the ads, is a self-proclaimed “watchdog” against “abuses of power” by unions. Lobbyist Richard Berman owns several nonprofits funded by undisclosed companies and individuals, such as the Center for Consumer Freedom. Tobacco company Philip Morris has admitted to putting $600,000 into that center, which is a coalition of restaurants and food companies.
On TeachersUnionExposed.com/DC, the Center for Union Facts says the union antagonizes schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who can “shake up this failing education system.”
“Someone’s got to put pressure on obstructionist unions to get out of the way. Our school systems are in dire straits,” spokeswoman Sarah Longwell said.
D.C. Public Schools General Counsel James Sandman condemned the spots and demanded that Berman cease to mention Rhee’s name in donor solicitations.
“Chancellor Rhee has not authorized — and in fact strongly opposes — your activities,” Sandman wrote in a letter to Berman. “She is informing donors and grantors that what you are doing will not help a single student in the District of Columbia Public Schools.”
Sandman also told Berman to inform already acquired donors that Rhee did not support his actions.
Longwell said the ads were conceived in late July, when teachers union President George Parker told The Washington Examiner that the union planned to file a grievance against DCPS.
Parker filed the grievance, which contests the firings of 241 teachers, on Monday. He viewed the ads as “ridiculous.”
“They say we are against reform — what planet are they on? We just negotiated a contract that’s been talked about all over the country for its educational reform,” he said.
Parker said the union is fighting the evaluation system that identified the fired teachers as low-performing, but insisted the union has no desire to overturn the contract negotiated this summer.
“I don’t think [Berman] cares whether the ads are true,” Parker said. “It’s not about helping the children. The ads are really about the corporations and the sponsors and their agenda against unions.”
Longwell declined to identify the ad campaign’s donors. “It doesn’t make sense to pick out one or two from a broad base,” she said.
