Dive Brief:
- The nation's second largest teacher's union, the American Federation of Teachers, is calling for President Barack Obama to put U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on an improvement plan to hold him accountable for his job — and, if he doesn't get better, make him step down.
- The call for action came a week after the National Education Association, the largest teacher union, approved a ballot measure demanding Duncan's resignation.
- Some of the things the AFT believes should be in Duncan's improvement plan: an end to "test and punish" accountability systems and more work to better ensure school funding equity.
Dive Insight:
The unions are particularly disheartened with Duncan in the wake of Vergara vs. California. The case saw Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu declare the state's teacher tenure laws unconstitutional, and Duncan applauded the decision — a move that didn't sit well with many teachers, hence the demands for resignation or "improvement plans." The Washington Post's Valerie Strauss points out that President Obama has seemingly stood behind all of Duncan's education choices, making the call for the Commander -in-Chief to put the education secretary on notice seem somewhat unlikely to come to fruition.