The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) has taken action to “help restore the professional autonomy of teachers,” in exchange for agreeing to accountability measures. Earlier this month, MFT became the first teachers union in the country to open a charter school authorizer. “Conventional wisdom suggests that the interests of teachers unions and charter schools are at odds. I believe that’s wrong,” says Lynn Nordgren, President of MFT. The authorizing branch of the MFT is called the Minnesota Guild of Public Charter Schools (“the Guild”).
Authorizing charter schools is viewed by MFT as an important way to play a role in school innovation, as well as to create schools in which teachers are valued and involved in major decision-making. The main functions of charter authorizers are to approve new schools, monitor their progress, and shut them down if they are not meeting academic or financial benchmarks.
One question that has come up is whether or not the Guild will favor schools whose teachers wish to unionize. Under Minnesota law, that factor cannot be taken into consideration when determining authorization; however, it will be interesting to see which schools the Guild chooses to authorize and whether the staff at the school decide to organize.
To learn more, please visit http://www.educationevolving.org/newsletters/teachers-union-launches-charter-school-authorizer-in-minnesota
