Schoolyard brawl

03-09-2010

By Evan Thomas and Pat Wingert/Newsweek

Last summer we asked Randi Weingarten, the head of the 1.4 million–member American Federation of Teachers, the second--largest teachers' union in America, to put a number on the percentage of incompetent teachers in New York, where approximately 0.01 percent are fired for cause every year. Weingarten wouldn't say. Pressed, she responded "up to 2 percent." When we repeated Weingarten's estimate to Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the District of Columbia school system, she laughed derisively. Rhee, an outspoken woman who has been trying to watch her words lately, wouldn't offer her own estimate, but it is safe to say that she believes 2 percent is a ridiculously low estimate of the percentage of incompetent teachers in any inner-city school system. (more...)

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