When the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers isn't up to the job

DID THE right 1,500 or so teachers in the Philadelphia School District get the layoff notices on June 6, 2011?

I know of at least two mistaken notifications that were made at my school. Was it because those teachers had a great track record for student achievement? Or because the district confused their attendance and performance records with someone whose records were inferior?

No, the mistakes were made because they had actually worked in the district for more time than had been recorded, so their seniority status was mistaken.

According to the Reporter, a publication of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, "At the heart of the PFT's mission is our conviction that our members know how to educate children."

So why were teachers laid off according to how long they've worked in the district and not how effective they've been at educating children? It's because, their protestations notwithstanding, the union's concern isn't for the children at all, but for their members. As a PFT member myself, I'll be the first to admit this.

What distresses me is that, as far as I'm concerned, unions were really created to make sure members have rights and are treated fairly, not to ensure that the incompetent keep their jobs indefinitely. Very few teachers in the Philadelphia School District have actually been fired for being incompetent. (The actual numbers seem to be a very closely guarded secret.) The PFT, through never-ending paperwork, everlasting litigation and endless red tape has made it next to impossible for administrators to fire underperforming staff.

I have seen teachers who, among other things, have been late to work more than 40 times, consistently leave work early, sleep on the job and don't show up for class - yet haven't been fired due to the energy the PFT spends on protecting my colleagues.

Is this really what's at the heart of the mission, and not that "our members know how to educate children"?

The majority of my colleagues are professionals and take their jobs seriously - but they receive very little attention and assistance from the PFT.

If the union's mission is to make sure that teachers know how to educate children, then why are the union's professional development offerings so limited? And why have I never heard of any mentor program that will help me become a better teacher or been provided a stipend for courses to improve my performance as an educator? Maybe it's because the PFT spends its money on lawyers to defend colleagues who have performed poorly.

While I certainly believe that poor-performing teachers represent a minority, they are a significant minority. These ineffective teachers can really harm a student's long-term education. One year with an ineffective teacher in math or English can set a student back one math or reading grade level, a situation that is hard to make up.

If a secondary-school student has eight teachers over the course of a year, and one of those teachers sleeps on the job, or is late consistently, and the student mentions that to a parent, that parent is going to look at our school - and at the district and our union - and seriously begin to consider them incompetent.

And the consequences of that aren't only educational. They're political, too. That one teacher's obviously bad behavior can make a voting citizen-parent believe that our education system is failing, and that same citizen may vote for politicians who are anti-union and pro-charter school.

Charter schools in Philadelphia aren't automatically unionized. So, undoubtedly, part of the push for charters is to undermine our union. In essence, when our union protects that minority of incompetent teachers, it's also setting up the hardworking and professional teachers to pay for the minority's shortcomings. Intentionally or not, the PFT does this by helping to create public and political pressure that can diminish union rights - since they tie the district's hands in disciplining underperforming teachers.

So as much as it pains me to say this, it is time for the PFT and the rest of the teachers unions around the country to self-reform before it's too late.

WE NEED to stop protecting incompetent teachers and work harder to support those who "know how to educate children." If we don't, we'll keep seeing the backlash against our profession and our unions.

This will eventually lead to our union's demise and the loss of our rights to bargain collectively.

I don't want to lose our union, I just want it to start focusing on what's important instead of protecting those who'd be fired in any other nonunion profession in America.

Gabriel Tuffs is a high school history teacher in the Philadelphia public-school system.