The Education Action Group Foundation will support Central Falls, Rhode Island school Superintendent Frances Gallo with a billboard dedicated to this public school patriot, smack dab in the middle of downtown Central Falls.
Gallo’s recent decision to push past teachers union obstruction and do what’s best for the district’s struggling high school students is a prime example of the bold actions needed to turn around the nation’s failing schools.
Gallo recommended firing all 74 Central Falls High School teachers after the local teachers union refused to sign off on long overdue reforms needed to save the chronically failing school, which has been on the state’s list of underperforming schools for seven years. Less than half of Central Falls High School’s students graduate and only seven percent are proficient in math, state data shows.
Gallo offered to pay teachers $30 an hour for some of the additional duties, and expected them to kick in a bit of their own time to improve instruction.
Central Falls Teachers’ Union balked, then demanded $90 per hour for the extra work.
We believe the situation in Central Falls is a perfect example of the “me first” teachers union mentality plaguing school districts across the country. Affiliates of the nation’s two largest teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, have long opposed virtually any reforms that bring accountability to the classroom, or affect the union’s bottom line.
We are applauding Gallo’s efforts with the billboard above. It should be on display in downtown Central Falls by the end of the week.
We trust her courageous actions will be supported by the state’s education leaders, who charged her with turning the school around. Hopefully, Gallo’s work in Central Falls will serve as a catalyst for other schools to stand up for their students.
It is about time somebody did.
Superintendent Gallo’s actions are tough but necessary. The entitlement mentality and the notion that teachers unions have the right to obstruct critical reforms that will benefit children has got to come to end. Hopefully Gallo’s brave stand will serve as a flash point for other underperforming schools across America.
Virtually every other sector of the economy is being asked to step up, pitch in and help our country through these difficult times. To have a teachers union with its hand out – and penalizing children on top of it – is particularly insulting.
Hopefully Gallo’s actions serve as a shot across the bow of every teachers union that is putting its interests ahead of the children they purport to serve.
EAGF plans to promote bold reform efforts in other parts of the country with similar billboard messages. We are calling on others with a commitment to transforming the country’s troubled public schools to help toward that end by contributing to our campaign with an online donation at EAGFdn.org.
We are taking a stand. To stand with us, make a tax-deductible contribution and we will post similar billboards in the community.