By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

NEW YORK CITY – New York City’s top teacher union official is a double-talking, disingenuous manipulator.

That’s the essence of a recent New York Daily News editorial that chastised United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew for blaming the lack of a new teacher evaluation system on school district leaders.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

The newspaper balked at Mulgrew’s allegation that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city’s Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott are to blame for the hang-up with new teacher reviews.

If New York City schools don’t get a new teacher evaluation plan in place by early next year, the district could lose out on millions of federal education dollars.

Mulgrew understands that would anger parents and taxpayers, which is why he blamed the lack of progress on a new evaluation system on Bloomberg and Walcott’s “insistence” of “playing disciplinary gotcha with teachers” in a recent editorial for the Daily News.

“If only Bloomberg and Walcott would ‘take seriously the mandate that the system’s first priority should be mentoring and teacher improvement,’” the newspaper quoted from Mulgrew’s op-ed.

The irony is that Mulgrew steadfastly opposes what he calls “drive-by” observations – when administrators stop by classes unexpectedly for an informal visit – while at the same time calling for more teacher mentoring.

But Mulgrew’s stance begs the question: How administrators can mentor teachers if the union refuses to allow them to regularly visit their classrooms?

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

“The city’s plan calls for principals to have the authority to visit any teacher’s classroom as often as seems useful. To see how teachers perform when they aren’t delivering that one stellar lesson, carefully polished for the principal’s benefit on one scheduled observation day,” wrote the Daily News.

The newspaper cited studies that show how regular feedback can significantly improve teaching in New York City schools. In a pilot program of 300 teachers, officials used feedback to cut the number of teachers rated as ineffective by more than half. The percentage of teachers who were rated at the highest level more than doubled, due to the feedback.

But the worst part about Mulgrew’s doubletalk, however, is the fact that the union’s aversion to creating a meaningful teacher evaluation system could ultimately mean the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional education funding if the city and UFT cannot come to an agreement by Jan. 17, the state-imposed deadline.

In other words, Mulgrew has prioritized the job security of underperforming teachers above student learning, as well as the district’s critical need for education funding.

In Mulgrew’s mind, union interests trump all.

And as the New York Daily News points out, he will say just about anything to mislead the public about the UFT’s self-centered focus.