By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

NEW YORK – The school year has started in New York City under a different set of standards.

Students will have to deal with more challenging assignments under the National Core Curriculum, and teachers will have to work harder to help them make the grade.

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

But the city still lacks an upgraded teacher evaluation system, which means there won’t be one until at least next year because schools can’t impose new evaluation standards midway through a school year.

That means the city won’t be able to officially determine which teachers respond well to the new challenges posed by the upgraded academic standards and which ones fall short. Without a new evaluation system, teachers will have little incentive to work harder to help students deal with the more challenging coursework.

All of this is the fault of Michael Mulgrew, president of the radical United Federation of Teachers, according to an editorial published by the New York Daily News.

Mulgrew agreed two years ago to negotiate a new evaluation system with city officials, but has shown no sign of living up to that commitment. He clearly hates the idea of holding union members more accountable for their performance in the classroom.

We suspect he’s waiting for next year’s mayoral election, hoping the city’s next leader will be less interested in school reform than Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

If that’s the case, there may be no need for an upgraded evaluation system. Mulgrew’s stonewalling tactics may just pay off, at least from the union point of view.

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

To make matters worse, the city stands to lose millions of dollars in state education funds if Mulgrew doesn’t agree to the terms of a new evaluation system by Jan. 17. The unions always cry for more state funding for schools. This is Mulgrew’s chance to prove that he cares enough about city schools to help them secure a big chunk of revenue from Albany.

Will he come through on time? Only time will tell.

The students, parents and taxpayers of New York City deserve better than this.  While New York is clearly a liberal city, with a great deal of traditional sympathy for organized labor, the people have to stop falling for the smokescreen argument that the city is “attacking teachers” and accept the painful truth:

Union leaders are sabotaging efforts to improve a very bad school system because they don’t want their members who prove to be ineffective teachers to lose their jobs.

The public school system belongs to the people of New York. They can side with the children of the city and demand something better, or they can stick with the union and live with the deplorable schools they have. It’s really that simple.