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Teachers at a small charter school in Brighton, Massachusetts, have decided to unionize under the American Federation of Teachers union, the Boston Globe reports. The teachers reportedly had complaints about management — which is interesting also because the school leader, Diana Lam, appears to be the same Diana Lam who was ousted as Joel Klein’s first deputy chancellor in a nepotism scandal.

This is a clear victory for the AFT, which has been campaigning to bring charter school teachers under its fold in New York and nationally. But is it a loss for the charter school world and, more importantly, for children?

Charter leaders in Massachusetts are reacting with vocal concern, much more than I saw raised here when a few charter schools unionized. Here, charter leaders have quietly sought to counteract union efforts to organize teachers, offering information on the downsides as well as the up-sides of unionization, but supporters have also welcomed warmly a unionized charter school, Green Dot, to the Bronx.

The Globe quotes the school’s board chairwoman, Stephanie Perrin (more…)

Chancellor Joel Klein smiled when reporters asked him what he thought about being mentioned in yesterday’s Washington Post as a possible Secretary of Education for Barack Obama. (He was mentioned twice: in a news story and in this column by Ruth Marcus.) The president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, who was recently named head of a national teachers union, probably had a different expression on her face.

She called the mention of Klein an “old rumor” that surfaced because Klein is friends with Washington reporters who don’t know the day-to-day realities of the city schools. She suggested that Klein would be a poor choice for Secretary of Education. “This is a period of time where everybody has to step up and share responsibility,” she said. “One of the reasons that the teachers in New York City are deeply troubled about Joel Klein is because he’s had a history of being a lightning rod.” (more…)