Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A.J. DUFFY IN EXILE: The former teachers union president misses his place at the education policy table.

Jim Newton

 

LA Times Op-Ed By Jim Newton | http://lat.ms/N4pqTJ

 

A.J. DuffyA.J. Duffy, shown in November 2009, led United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents teachers in the nation's second-largest school district, for six years. (Los Angeles Times / November 16, 2009)

June 18, 2012  ::  A.J. Duffy is, at least for the moment, a man without a country.

He led United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents teachers in the nation's second-largest school district, for six bruising years, tussling with the mayor and several superintendents and racking up critics. Then he went on to found a charter school, infuriating his old allies in labor who reflexively, and stupidly, reject charters as a threat to their existence. And then the school that Duffy helped create, Apple Academy, announced that it didn't have room in its budget for a chief executive officer.

So Duffy's back to teaching. He says he loves it, relishes the classroom, is especially gratified to be helping special education students. He was one himself many years ago, before he shook off drug addiction and developmental problems and launched his career in education and labor. But as Duffy talks about how happy he is, it's fairly clear that he's not. He was a high-roller for six years, and he isn't anymore. He misses it. A lot.

"When you're at the top of the mountain and you have to step down, it's a big, big change," he said last week over a glass of wine. "For me, initially I missed the glamour.... After that, I miss the ability to make change. I make no bones about it. I miss it."

Duffy blames lots of others for his current place in the wilderness and for the state of education. He says his old friends in labor misunderstood his work in charter schools — the UTLA under Duffy had looked at them skeptically because they could hire nonunion teachers. He's not too impressed by his successor, Warren Fletcher. He also has his issues with the media, including me. In a column I wrote a year ago about Fletcher, I referred to Duffy's "bombastic thuggery," a phrase he, not surprisingly, didn't appreciate. When Duffy sat down for our drink last week, he began by pretending to pull a knife from his back, a reference to that column.

One group of UTLA leaders, according to Duffy, recently told him they were beginning to look at his administration "as the good-old days."

One thing's for sure: Duffy hasn't lost his taste for hyperbole. Recalling one fight, he says it ended not just with him making enemies but "being crucified." The district administration isn't just bad in Duffy's view; it's "stuck on stupid." He fulminates about billionaires — Eli Broad and Bill and Melinda Gates are, in his view, pointing education down the wrong path through their philanthropy. And he considers the district's failure to create smaller campuses a historic missed opportunity. Duffy's still searching for who's responsible for the lapse. As he put it, "Gimme a gun, tell me who to point it at, and I'll shoot the bastard."

And yet, I must admit there is something admirable about Duffy too. Yes, he sometimes defended teachers at the expense of innovation, but he did so out of the bedrock conviction that teachers have students' interests at heart and that protecting teachers is the best way to help students. School reform leaders like former state Sen. Gloria Romero, who often disagreed with Duffy, nevertheless credit him with allowing certain innovations to take hold — giving communities more control of their schools, for instance — by resisting pressure from his own union to fight. "Duffy," Romero said, "is somebody I'd like to clone."

Gone now from the leadership of UTLA, Duffy says he's intent on finding ways to form alliances between unions and charter schools. "We have to have a charter school that's union friendly," he said. Such a school, he believes, might demand extra from its teachers — longer hours, a willingness to pick up extra work — in exchange for giving teachers greater control over operations: helping to pick the principal, for instance. Those terms would be negotiated between the union and the administration as part of normal collective bargaining.

Moreover, Duffy insists he's not wedded to the way things are. He believes teachers should have to wait longer to get tenure and should have that tenure periodically renewed. He sees a role for incentive pay. He supports the use of standardized testing to evaluate teachers, though he argues, persuasively, that the tests should mean something to students so they don't merely toss them off, injuring their teachers in the process.

Most of all, Duffy craves a place back in the fray. The home page of his website is a virtual advertisement for himself. "I will consider any job opportunity whether full time or part time to continue working with others to transform public education," it notes, "charter or otherwise, that will help create quality education and collaboration between teachers and management."

Duffy makes no apologies for self-promotion and freely acknowledges his restlessness. As he said, "I want to do something big."

2 comments:

CELES KING IV said...

Duffy and I had our moments. However, I appreciate his committment to students, teachers and education.Hopefully we will have the opportunity to work together for the mutual benefit of students and community sooner rather than later

Unknown said...

The wird is Duffy sold us out, but this artvle offers several reasons why we should not believe it thugh its pretty clear his last year was marked by extreme errors like protesting a differentiak exprnse between ppo and hmos , which teachers should have conceded to. When issues later erupted that displaced teachers unfairly and saw the rubber rooms fill with innocent teacher over 40, Duffy and his bluster were conspiculously muted.
Fletcher, of course, is not interested in anything that will helpmteachers as he has referred to Deasy as his boss and agreed to a contract that forbids striking. What union does this?
We know the election has been compromised by a low teacher participation-- despite mail in ballots, onlly17%participated. But there is also some unseemly moves that make the current laedership look less than valid.
We can tell you that teachers are not hppy to fork ove about $60 a month for nothing. Many believe the reps are colluding with the district. I can prove this is abosolutely so with LD8 which comports itself more like a cartel than school district.
Ur area rep has allowed teachers to ne ontimidated, harassed, stained, unfairly punished as well as fabricate evidence against them . He belongs im prison with a few administrators and the local supt. but no matter how many write and call, Flecther is indifferent.
A look at The UTLA site reflects this . Duffy is a blowhard and an unappealling pugilist, but he worked hard and woukd in the very least put it on record that somethong was amiss.Fletcher occassionally will agree to interviews and the substinance of his responses is shallow and hapless,
Duffy usually knew what he was talking about I have heard many others express nostalgia for the good old days when Dugfy and Cortines were battling out like they were on WWWF getting ready to rumble after delivering bitter sound bytes. I referred to them as Punch and Judy.
If Duffy has a learning disabilty itnexplains the impulsive behaviour and an openess to adopt another approach when he saw this one fail. I dont know that tenure is necessary, even if teachers were mad he wentnit against. What is needed is a buffer to protect teachers from administrators who are retallitory, incompetent and unethical---accountability has to be imposed on more than teachers, who re presently scapegoats. I do not know how honest or earnest Duffy is, but I would be glad to trade in the lemon we got for an ol reliable beater like him any day.