The Oregonian - Following Obama's Lead, Dudley Calls for Teachers Union to Embrace Pay Reform

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By Jeff Mapes

Hours after President Barack Obama took on the teachers unions, Republican Chris Dudley did the same Monday in the Oregon race for governor.

Dudley urged union leaders - and his rival, Democrat John Kitzhaber - to embrace a $13.2 million federal grant for seven school districts in Oregon aimed at moving the districts toward basing teacher pay raises on student performance. Nancy Noice, the head of the teachers union at the Oregon City School District, said last week that the union, the Oregon City Education Association, would not allow the use of the federal money for teacher incentives.

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Dudley said in a press release that Oregon needed to "change the status quo that has failed our students for too long" and said that he wanted to "create the tools, incentives and rewards to treat them like the professionals they are."

Dudley's statement was milder in tone than the comments made by Obama Monday morning in an interview on NBC's "Today Show."

Obama said that "radical change is something that's in the interest of students" and added that, "ultimately, if some teachers aren't doing a good job, they've got to go."

With this approach to teacher performance, Dudley can appeal to critics of the public school system while sounding bipartisan by echoing the Democratic president. Dudley has walked a careful line on education, making it clear he supports public schools while embracing reform. He's been careful not to criticize teachers, and his campaign recently aired an ad showing individual teachers praising him.

The Dudley press release also seemed aimed at forcing Kitzhaber to choose between the Oregon Education Association, which has endorsed him, and the reform proposals.

But the Kitzhaber campaign ignored Dudley call to "embrace" reform and instead fired back that the GOP candidate would hurt schools by deeply cutting taxes on capital gains.

Kitzhaber spokeswoman Jillian Schoene called it a "tax cut for the wealthy" that would "take money out of our schools, and as John Kitzhaber has said: 'If you want to invest in kids, you don't start by taking their lunch money.'"

Becca Uherbelau, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Education Association, said that while her union opposes merit pay for teachers, local unions are free to decide whether to support those proposals.

She charged that Dudley is "looking to score political points by putting his hand into a process really should be driven by local school leaders, parents and teachers."

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