Bob Braun of the Star-Ledger castigates NJEA’s leadership for “joining forces with archenemy Gov. Chris Christie and the powerful Camden County Democratic machine of George Norcross” when it backed the Urban Hope Act, likely to pass today in this last day of the lame duck session of the NJ State Legislature. Braun derides NJEA’s “weakness or cynicism” for its support of the bill that would allow up to 12 new schools in Camden, Newark, and Trenton “once the bill was amended to guarantee bargaining and tenure rights for teachers in privately managed schools.”

Writes Braun,

The union’s flip-flop shatters the unity of a coalition that has consistently opposed the Christie administration’s efforts to bring privatization to public education. It left spokesmen for some of those groups literally speechless.

“You have to ask the union about that,’’ said David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center. Sciarra continues to oppose the bill, likely to be passed today, the last day of the legislative session. The law center is financially supported by the NJEA.

“It was an NJEA deal,’’ said Joseph Del Grosso, president of the Newark Teachers Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO (AFT). “They blatantly sold Newark out.’’

Braun was told privately by union officials that “it had no choice but to support the bill” because NJEA leaders are gambling that the bill’s passage will derail the Opportunity Scholarship Act (the voucher bill) and efforts towards tenure reform.

This depiction of NJEA’s strategy as some sort of Faustian bargain is so old school. (See here for my coverage of this last week.) The Urban Hope Act has been significantly altered to protect union bargaining rights. Jersey City, originally one of the three cities included in the bill, is off the table, a meaningful concession. Should NJEA now lobby against a bill that places higher value on the “unity of a coalition” rather than improving school conditions for some kids in Camden, Newark, and Trenton? Should NJEA remain mired in the sort of kneejerk anti-reform rhetoric that deprives poor children of improved educational conditions?

The decision on the part of NJEA’s leaders to support the Urban Hope Act signals strength, not to mention an encouraging learning curve. Also hopeful is its willingness to separate itself from ELC, which remains truculent and rigid. The union’s willingness to compromise is no betrayal of the cause (and surely no threat to ELC’s funding); instead, it’s a recognition of the growing consensus among New Jerseyans that the needs of our poorest schoolchildren outweigh political and historical considerations.