San Diego Public Schools Superintendent Alan Bersin's contract was severed a year early last week, after November elections shifted the political slant of the local school board. He's been asked to leave at the end of June, and for the next five months will be operating with clipped wings, having lost a supportive three-two member majority.

The newly-elected board campaigned on platforms that prioritized ousting Bersin. He was hired in 1998 to reform, stir things up, be an agent of change and move San Diego schools away from the status quo. He sadly yet predictably encountered union resistance that limited him—the new trustees have quickly started un-making his progress of the past six and half years. And progress it was— test scores across the board are way up and the district is only one of two in the state to meet all Adequate Yearly Progress indicators for two years running.

What a waste. Joe Williams makes the point in his situation analysis that "teachers unions are private organizations that enter the public sphere through their publicly-approved collective bargaining agreements—yet the general public generally knows very little about what is contained in these contracts or how they play out on a regular basis in schools." With teacher training consultants and programs for creating and empowering strong principals, Alan Bersin is a visionary who could have truly reformed one of the nation's largest school systems but instead is a victim of 'friction turned to fire' between the overprotective unions and top-down, outsider consultants.

The National Council on Teacher Quality enthusiastically includes Alan Bersin on its board of advisors.