By Ashleigh Costello
EAGnews.org
    
BOSTON – Just one day after the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the pro-reform group, Stand for Children Massachusetts, reached a compromise on legislation that would prioritize teacher evaluations over seniority in school personnel decisions, the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers has announced it does not approve of the deal, according to the Lowell Sun Online.
    
In alliance with the Massachusetts chapter of the AFL-CIO, the AFT announced Friday morning that it will work to defeat the bill, should state legislators continue to pursue it. 
    
“We will stand strong with AFTMA in a shared fight to defeat the legislation and its attack on collective bargaining rights for teachers,” declared a recent statement by the AFL-CIO.
    
Under the proposed compromise, teacher evaluations and other negotiated factors would take precedence over tenure and seniority in school staffing decisions.  That was a major concession on the part of the MTA. The deal also requires that school superintendents “consult in good faith” with a teacher’s former principal when making transfer decisions. 
    
The bill calls for the state legislature to appropriate $13.3 million over the next two years for teacher evaluation system training, reports the news site.   
    
Most observers believe the MTA agreed to give up its hard stance on tenure and seniority because polls showed that state voters would have approved a more far-reaching education reform package if one had appeared on the November ballot.
    
But the state’s other major teachers union wants no part of the compromise.
    
“We do not support this extreme legislation that holds untested plans at a higher regard than the dedication, knowledge and experience of the nation’s leading educators,” said Tom Gosnell, president of AFTMA.
    
Perhaps school reformers in Massachusetts would be smart to return to their initial plan to put the more encompassing reform package on the state ballot. If the unions aren’t on the same page, it would be tough to achieve any sort of compromise, anyway.