The former president of the Washington Teachers’ Union is joining Michelle Rhee’s education advocacy group as a senior fellow.
If you weren’t holding onto your hat when you read that, you’re probably never going to see that sucker again.
George Parker will serve on an advisory board and work with StudentsFirst to “further the movement to transform public education across the country,” according to a news release.
If you’ll recall, the teachers’ union and Rhee got along like a tornado crawling with bedbugs and virtually anything else. Parker was ousted from his presidency by his vice president, Nathan Saunders, who charged Parker with being too soft at the negotiating table with Rhee and her deputy, now Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson.
In the release, Rhee acknowledged that she and Parker are strange bedfellows.
“George and I clearly don’t see eye-to-eye on everything,” she said. “But … he and I came up with a teachers’ contract that dramatically changed how D.C. public schools operate. I hope, working together again, we can come up with effective ideas for improving how schools serve children nationally.”
For his part, Parker doesn’t toss unions out the window. Sort of. “I also look forward to advancing the role of unions in education reform,” he said. “Teachers unions represent a very unique component of the American workforce. If our country’s schools are to improve, the unions must be an integral part of the solution.”
The plot thickens: Rhee and Parker say they were both committed to getting rid of “last-in-first-out layoffs,” aka, seniority. “Most teachers would agree that seniority-based layoffs are not a good way to ensure that high-quality teachers remain in our schools,” Parker said.
We’ve reached out to the Washington Teachers’ Union for comment and will update when we hear back.
