For UTLA president: A. J. Duffy

"We have agreements in part to protect us from an uncaring, unfeeling, superbureaucracy that wants to control every aspect of what we do every minute of every day." -- A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers L.A.

Duffy fields questions and makes his case for a second term as president of one of the nation's most powerful teachers unions in this interview with Times staff writer Howard Blume. The union begins counting mailed-in votes Thursday night.

Incumbent: A.J. DUFFY
Age: 64

Q: During your first term, one of the union’s core strategies has been local control at the school site with teachers playing an especially prominent role along with parents and community members. Can you talk about this?
Duffy said he sees local control as going beyond an individual school to a family of schools in a K-12 feeder pattern. “I envision seven to 11 schools max and each school would retain a governance council and we would work toward a common governing board for that entity. That entity would be given most of the money that comes to the district” for students attending those schools.

Q: What are your frustrations? Where do you wish you’d made more progress?
Duffy said he wished he'd made more progress in dismantling the district bureaucracy “although I believe we’ve made good strides." And now, he said, through his efforts, the public better understands "about the real devil, which is the bureaucracy."

Duffy also spoke about the eight “minidistricts."  Each contains dozens of schools under the authority of a regional superintendent: “I want to destroy the minidistricts. I want them to become help and support, not command and control. I want them to have fewer people. I want those bureaucracies to be de-peopled.” He added that he wants “fewer people” at the downtown district headquarters. “I want field troops, not directors who sit in chairs and determine the future of public education.”

Q: On policy matters, how are you different from your opponents, Linda Guthrie and Becki Robinson?
Duffy: “In one of the debates, there was a question, a character question: Tell us one thing you did wrong that you would change. My opponents got up and said they did nothing wrong. I got up and I said I believed in [Assembly Bill] 1381 because it was not mayoral control. It was a partnership based on a House of Representatives motion calling on that. I was wrong once that agreement was made in not going back to our governing bodies” for their ratification.

[Note: AB 1381 was compromise legislation hammered out between L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and teachers union leaders, including Duffy. Although not a complete mayoral takeover, it would have provided substantial authority to Villaraigosa, especially on hiring and firing superintendents. Also under the law, teachers would have become part of a governing committee at several dozen schools. AB 1381 became law, but was later thrown out by the courts. UTLA’s membership voted to oppose the law via referendum.]

[Another note: At the referenced debate, Guthrie more specifically said there’s nothing she would change regarding her decisions as a union officer. Robinson said she couldn’t think of anything she’d done as a union officer that was as badly managed as Duffy’s handling of AB 1381. In her current job, she said, she recently realized that tutoring programs under her supervision needed to be monitored more closely.]

Q: You are a big supporter of local control for schools. In the early 1990s, the LEARN reforms also talked of local control. In fact, some critics said it gave too much control to teachers at a school. Yet you opposed LEARN. Why?
Duffy: “I didn’t view LEARN as a true reform. If you read that document very carefully, over and over again there were statements that the principal was the ultimate decision-maker. ... What I push for in reform now is a partnership that must exist between teachers, administrators, parents and [non-teaching staff].”

Q: What are your concerns about using a peer-review process to deal with ineffective teachers?
“There was no protection for a teacher who may have been written up inappropriately by an administrator as retaliation for union activity.” The teacher could file a grievance, but they’d be in the peer-review process while the grievance played out. “I propose expedited arbitration."

"I’ve never had a problem with giving struggling teachers help. There needs to be a similar process for administrators, and we don’t have it. Peer review was all centered on teachers.

"The system both centrally and at the school site too often fails teachers by overburdening them with nonsense and not giving them quick effective help. I just got a message from somebody in District 7. A principal was told by [his supervisor] they couldn’t suspend students. That’s total b---s---.”

The union leadership has “suggested creating schools where violent and chronically disruptive students can be sent. Give them a more enriching environment and psychological help. Not to be there forever, but to work their way back to campus. I couldn’t get the district to agree to a pilot [project]."

"We have to look at the root cause of why teachers are not as effective as they should be.”

Q: Can the district afford a pay raise for teachers given the state budget crisis?
Duffy declined to speculate about the budget year beginning July 1, but “I’m looking at this year. They can’t afford not to because if they don’t give us a pay raise, you’re going to see a mass exodus. Which means class sizes will grow and this broken system will break even more.

"The money is there. It’s the way it’s spent. It gives us all an opportunity to rethink the way we spend money.

"The silver lining is we’ve never been more ripe for a discussion on progressive taxation.” Duffy cited examples of how tax rates for the wealthy have declined and that corporations have benefited from tax laws meant to halt the rise of residential property taxes. He also mentioned tax loopholes benefiting yacht buyers, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reduction of the car tax. “My God, how stupid we are. For a little bit of savings on the front end with the car tax, we’ve let this guy destroy our state.”

Q: Is there anything wrong with the union contract? It’s more than 400 pages long and longer than most others. Is it too long?
Duffy: "I don’t think so. It’s unfortunate that public memory is so short. It’s not that long ago where workers, whether they were teachers, miners or autoworkers were totally [abused] by management. Would I be willing to change parts of the contract? I’ve shown that willingness in creating new contracts with the approval of those affected.

"This bureaucracy has traditionally been and continues to be adversarial. ... We have agreements in part to protect us from an uncaring, unfeeling, superbureaucracy that wants to control every aspect of what we do every minute of every day.

Q: How do you feel about Open Court, the district’s phonics-based reading program?
"Open Court should be eliminated or radically altered to allow for creativity."