Can unions innovate?

As legislators this spring debated ending Maine's status as one of 10 states that don't allow charter schools, proponents of the independently run schools took the state's main teachers' union, the Maine Education Association, to task for its opposition to the bill.

A Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel editorial called the teachers' union and other charter school opponents "supporters of the status quo" fighting a "battle against innovation." Steve Bown of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center has, more than once, criticized Maine's teachers' union for its adherence to the "status quo."

Understandably, then, teachers' unions are up against some strong-spirited critics when they start talking about innovation. But a Boston teachers' union wants to prove those critics wrong.

An American Federation of Teachers affiliate in that city opened the Boston Teachers Union School on Thursday. It's one of 22 semi-autonomous pilot schools that have opened in the city.

The school -- which, unlike most charter schools, has unionized teachers -- is geared toward taking innovative approaches to teaching. As a result, the union contract provisions are looser than they would be at a traditional public schools. The school days are longer and the teachers' schedule provides for weekly, two-hour staff meetings.

The teachers' union undertook a major media blitz before opening the school this week. Now, its job is to prove its critics wrong, and that a union can foster innovation.