Lack of local union and local district participation doomed first round R2T in Illinois.

State IEA leadership was willing to sacrifice local union bargaining rights in order to win a few dollars from Arne Duncan in Race to the Top money. But too many locals said, “No way,” and refused to sign the Memorandum of Understanding.

The state leadership is pushing again for locals to sigh the MOUs for round two. IEA General Counsel, Mitch Roth, sent out an email admitting to the problem:

One of the reasons Illinois’ Phase I application was not successful was  due to lower participation by districts and unions than other states, ISBE’s covers letters and Q & A, in an effort to encourage greater district and union participation, more clearly articulate the benefits for districts and teachers/unions statewide, if Illinois receives RTTT Phase II funding.

It will be interesting to see if significantly more locals sign off on R2T in round two. I’m betting no.

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