NEW YORK – Three weeks ago I thought NEA’s Common Core policy had reached the depths of incoherence when New York State United Teachers withdrew its support for the state’s Common Core standards until major corrections are made and a three-year moratorium enacted on any consequences from standardized testing.

“We’ll have to be the first to say it’s failed,” said NYSUT president Richard Iannuzzi.

But the unions have managed to go one step beyond. As befuddling as it may seem, NEA will award NYSUT a $750,000 grant over three years from its Great Public Schools Fund for the express purpose of implementing the Common Core Standards.

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Sure, they can say that chunk of dues money is intended to implement the unions’ vision of what Common Core is supposed to be, as opposed to the way it is currently being implemented by the unholy coalition of corporations, reform groups and neoliberal politicians. That argument might even look good to some if they squint hard enough, but it entirely ignores the current situation at NYSUT.

Iannuzzi is struggling just to hold on to his job, and even his supporters acknowledge his recent actions constitute a change in direction for him. The three-year NEA grant is designed to fund a plan that may not last past the NYSUT elections in six weeks.

So what happens if Iannuzzi loses? The Revive NYSUT slate describes its Common Core platform this way:

We do not support the Common Core as it is. Unlike the current NYSUT leadership that supports it but declares it abstract and vague, “SED needs to get it right”, we will not support Common Core until it is “right” which includes the restoration of local control, a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate and an end to high stakes testing.

NEA’s officers have the option to pull the second and third year of the grant, but will they actually do that? I expect that next year NEA will be sending a Common Core implementation check to a group of union officers elected on a platform of opposition to Common Core.