David Brooks is Full of Crap

Check this out, and understand that he's talking about DC:

Duncan even seems to have made some progress in persuading the unions that they can’t just stonewall, they have to get involved in the reform process. The American Federation of Teachers recently announced innovation grants for performance pay ideas. The New Haven school district has just completed a new teacher contract, with union support, that includes many of the best reform ideas.

There are still many places, like Washington, where the unions are dogmatically trying to keep bad teachers in the classrooms. But if implemented well, the New Haven contract could be a sign of perestroika even within the education establishment.

There is no teacher union that wants to keep bad teachers in the classroom. Hell, I've told my district and my members directly that I'm not here to protect bad teachers. What I am here to do is to make sure that the contract is followed, and far too often the administration makes that molehill into a mountain, because they'd rather not have to put in the work.

Where there's a will, there's a way, and the presence of bad teachers is a function of the failure of administrative will, not union dogma.