First it was the National Education Association (NEA) calling for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s resignation at its recent national convention. Now it’s the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) joining in, with a twist. The AFT isn’t calling on Duncan to resign — yet. Its resolution calls for an improvement plan for Duncan.

RESOLVED, that the AFT today calls on the president to implement a secretary improvement plan that will be based upon standing up for public education, supporting teachers and all school workers, inspiring parents and the public to join us in creating the public schools we want and deserve, and leading with us in reclaiming the promise of public education.

The wording is a sly dig at Duncan for supporting anti-tenure measures which would allow school districts to fire teachers more easily than they can now. The “secretary improvement plan” called for in the AFT resolution is like the teacher improvement plans which need to be implemented under tenure protections before a teacher is fired.

Here are the recommendations in the improvement plan.

• Enact the funding and equity recommendations of the Each and Every Child report issued by the congressionally chartered, bipartisan Equity Commission;
• Work with us to change the NCLB/RTTT “test and punish” accountability system to a “support and improve” model; and
• Promote rather than question the teachers and school support staff of America.

This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2014.

3 replies on “The American Federation of Teachers (Almost) Calls For Arne Duncan’s Resignation”

  1. I think that basically the AFT is saying that Duncan follow their plan or else they will ask him to resign. The timing is interesting, assuming that Duncan doesn’t change his worldwide view of education and his game plan, will AFT present their request for a resignation right before the midterms?

    Teachers deserve more pay and training, not to be attacked!

    Obama doesn’t like to admit fault, or ask for higher ups in his administration to resign, so I doubt Obama will do anything before the midterm elections. Especially as Duncan resigning might look like an admission that his, and Duncan’s, game plan for education is flawed.

    The Obama administration is focused on getting Obamacare to work, downsizing US’s global presence, immigration, and a relatively small number of social issues that the President has taken a stand on, immigration, and addressing the shortcomings like the VA crisis. Doubt he’ll risk dabbling with education, might as well support Duncan as that would appease independents.

  3. Obama gets an F in education public policy.. Especially as Duncan resigning might look like an admission that his, and Duncan’s, game plan for education is flawed.
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