Rick Berman is someone I have written about before
(skip to the bottom of the linked post). Now
he has a new, headline-grabbing scheme for highlighting what he calls 'teacher union
protection of poor teachers.' He's asking people to forward the names of
the worst 'union-protected' teachers around and he'll give the lowest of the
low a $10,000 inducement to get out of the profession.
Cute, huh?
Here's the thing, in the
USA
today article hyping this PR trainwreck, a member of the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI) is quoted for his opinion. Now, you may not know this, but the
AEI is one of the most prominent far-right think tanks in
Washington. It is dedicated not only to
stopping teachers of organizing themselves into unions, but all workers. They
are not our friends, and they are not the friends of any working person.
That’s what makes this article so hilarious. You see, if you
read to the end of the article, the expert from the AEI (again, not our buddy
here) admits that 2/3rds of the contracts he reviewed gave administrators
plenty of flexibility to evaluate and deal with deficient teachers.
“Hess [the AEI expert] co-wrote a study last month of
collective-bargaining agreements in the
USA's top 50 school districts. It
found that while one-third have contracts that tie the hands of administrators,
most agreements give them a fair measure of flexibility in firing poorly
performing teachers.”
Sort of takes the wind of Berman’s sails, don’t you think? But then, he’s never
been a guy to let ‘facts’ stand in the way of a fun (and profitable—for him)
argument. The
wonderful folks at American Rights at Work have a nice rundown of Berman’s
sleaziest hits (I hope they forgive me for quoting so extensively—I recommend you
go and read the whole thing):
-
·
Berman was linked to the ethics
scandal that nearly toppled former Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich. In 1993,
on the same day Berman testified against tougher
drunk driving regulations, he donated $25,000 to fund a college course taught
by Gingrich at
Kennesaw
State College.
Berman enclosed the check with a handwritten a note: “Newt, thanks again for
the help on today's committee hearing.”41
-
·
Berman laid out his strategy to defeat public
interest groups: “The fact is that [activists] drive consumer behavior on meat,
alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine …
Our offensive strategy is to
shoot the messenger … [We've] got to attack their credibility as spokespersons.”42
- Despite solid research and
the position of the National Cancer Institute,
Berman has claimed,
“[There is a] lack of evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer.”38
- The research director for
Berman’s Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF)
told a reporter
that government statistics confirm that “the drunk driving problem in this
country has been reduced to a small hard core of repeat offenders,”
yet according to a news report, the majority of arrests are first-timers.39
-
The Center for
Union ‘Facts’? The Center for Union Facts’
website features a searchable database of the ‘facts’ it proclaims “union
leaders don’t want you to know.”40
- The Center claims to have
12.5 million of these facts, but much of the
data presented on its
website range from misleading to downright false. Click here to learn more about the Center’s distorted
facts on unions.
If only there wasn’t some mysterious force (you might even say stronger than a teacher union contract) preventing
us
from firing this obvious huckster from our political landscape. Sadly, we’re
stuck with him.