By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

NEW YORK – How low will union teachers go to interfere with school choice?

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New York City’s Panel for Educational Policy will soon decide whether to allow Success Academy Charters, operated by Eva Moskowitz, to open a new elementary school within the Washington Irving High School building in Manhattan.

But even if the school gains approval to open, it’s sure to be met with hostility by so-called educators from traditional public schools that are located in the same building.

“We want everyone to know we are not going to stand for it,” said Gregg Lundahl, a longtime teacher at Washington Irving High School. “(Success Academies) will never be able to occupy this school without problems. So Eva, you might as well give up now because we’re not having you here.”

That sounds like a threat to disrupt the charter school’s operations. City officials should immediately question Lundahl and other staff to determine if this threat was random, or part of an organized plot by teachers and union officials to somehow harm the new school.

Teachers, parents and elected officials recently gathered on the Washington Irving campus to protest the plan to allow the charter school to locate there, according to a news report from DNAinfo.com.

They argued that it’s unfair to locate charter schools in traditional school spaces, because the charters “suck resources from public institutions that are underfunded and overcrowded,” the news report said.

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But city officials don’t seem to think the Washington Irving building is overcrowded.

The city’s Department of Education recommended the building for the charter school because it has “space to spare,” the news report said.

The building currently has more than 900 empty seats, and the city has begun the process of closing Washington Irving High School, which should make even more space available. Several other schools operate within the same building, but the news story did not specify how many.

This is not a story about space. This is about a bunch of bitter union teachers who may lose their jobs because their school is being closed. They hate charter schools because they compete for students, and because most have the good sense to hire non-union teachers.

These people are free to hate all they want. But if Success Academy is allowed to open an elementary on the Washington Irving campus, parents who send their children to the school should have the right to know that it will be allowed to operate in peace.

That means city officials should give the United Federation of Teachers (the city’s teachers union) a very stern warning: Any attempt by adults working in other schools to sabotage the operations of the new charter school will be dealt with harshly.

Union teachers have a right to their opinions, but they have no right to determine the location of charter schools or threaten their ability to operate.

Did you hear that, Mr. Lundahl?