I’m Rick Hess Bi*ch and rising academic star Marty West apparently want jobs in a Romney Administration if this valentine Boston Globe op-ed is any indication. They praise the MA Governor and presidential aspirant Romney for having the temerity to challenge the teachers unions with some reform proposals…Right, what a really bold and risky move! The NEA and AFT leadership are just sitting around debating whether they’ll go with Romney or Virginia Senator George Allen or maybe that nice Brownback fellow in ’08…
Romney spoke today at an AEI event releasing this Hess – West paper (pdf) on teacher collective bargaining. For the most part it’s a smart, sensible, and important paper (some of it is drawn from this book) and Hess and West are as sharp as they come in this business and neither is a knee-jerk conservative at all. Reforming teacher collective bargaining contracts is going to be a major issue in the next several years as the increasing attention to it indicates. But at a time when even some teachers’ union leaders are acknowledging that reform is necessary it’s going to be a shame if this turns into a partisan food fight. Can’t blame Romney for taking on an issue with some payoff but unless some high profile Ds step-up this threatens to make the substantive debate harder.