WTU President George Parker speaks to the press after a small protest by teachers last week. Photo by Meaghan Gay for DCist.

School starts on Monday, and even though Washington Teachers Union president George Parker recently told a group of protesting teachers that a tentative agreement could be expected within a week, it doesn’t look like we’re any closer to a contract vote for the District’s teachers. The negotiations hinge on D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s proposal to offer salaries upwards of $100,000 to teachers in exchange for increased accountability measures. Today, D.C. Wire reported that a recent poll sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the WTU’s parent union, found that teachers want to continue bargaining instead of voting on the proposal, by a margin of 3 to 1 among the 400 teachers polled. The findings should be taken with a grain of salt, however, since this is the same poll that was accused of being a “push poll” or biased against the proposal, while being conducted.

What’s been interesting about watching this controversy unfold over the last few months is the extent to which communication has played a role in messaging and side-taking. The debate has been described in terms of a generational battle between younger and older teachers, with younger teachers largely in favor of the voluntary merit pay proposal and many older teachers rejecting it as insulting to their seniority. Perhaps it makes sense then that the various teacher blogs and Facebook groups about the contract tend to support the proposal, while opposition to it seems to take more traditional, grassroots kind of action – robo-calls, meetings, etc.

Rhee has been criticized in the past for her office’s lack of communication with the community, but the Post reported last week that it’s the union that’s under some heat for failing to respond to its members’ questions about the contract, while Rhee has been personally returning every email and text message. "Pardon my ignorance, but why is the Chancellor able to e-mail me back with a multiple sentence response, but George Parker cannot send a one-word reply?" a first-year special education teacher asked the Post. “You don't respond to emails, your voice mail is full, the website is not updated and you release no statements to let teachers know where we are in this negotiations process," wrote another teacher in an email to Parker.

Despite all of the attention and pressure to vote, it increasingly looks like some of the outstanding “deal-breakers” of the WTU will need to be addressed before that happens — a clear appeals process for termination cases, for example. But some of the positions being taken against the contract are flat out ridiculous, and doing a disservice to the teachers who have legitimate concerns. On Raw Fisher Radio today, one DCPS veteran objected to the merit pay as well as increased authority for principals, saying, “It is degrading and insulting for teachers to have to interview with a principal before accepting a position in that school. Teachers are doing a terrific job.”

Last time we checked, a job interview with your boss is standard practice in any career, and D.C. public schools were among the worst in the nation. It’s time for some compromise here, and something’s got to give.

Schools Notes: Here comes the District’s first all-girls public charter school… City Desk posts the list of all DCPS principals for the 2008-9 school year… It’s hard to enforce school choice under NCLB when most of the options are still failing.