New York City’s teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, seems to blame a certain “New York Post columnist,” at least in part, for the fact that it can’t re-up its horrible, innovation-crushing, principal-smothering contract:

[UFT President] Weingarten said that a New York Times article in mid-October created the false impression that the city and the UFT were on the cusp of an agreement. The article created a hypothetical deal that merged the union’s wage demands and management’s demands.

That article, she said, spurred union opponents, including a New York Post columnist and City Council Education Committee Chair Eva Moskowitz, to exhort Mayor Bloomberg to stand up against the union and not to agree to any deal that did not gut the teachers contract.

Weingarten told the delegates that the union would not surrender its contract under any circumstances.

Well, I’m more than happy to take credit, now that Ms. Weingarten mentions it — along with the lovely and talented Eva Moskowitz and the entire editorial page of The New York Post, which has stood opposed to the current set up for years.

Bloomberg came into office promising education reform, and the single most important thing he has to accomplish in that area is to give principals — and teachers, for that matter — the ability to do their jobs without a book-thick contract telling them what to do every minute of the day and who they can hire and fire.

The union is weaker than it’s ever been, I believe. Bloomberg should stand strong. And a lot of people in this city are going to make noise if he doesn’t.