Broadway shows of old premiered in New Haven, Ct. And recently, the city premiered another type of show that’s gearing up for a national run: fake school reform supported by the teachers’ unions. If we are not careful, this model could sweep the nation, blocking the real educational progress American children need.

Earlier this month, Yale University and the City of New Haven jointly announced a new program that will offer to send every public-school student to college. Titled “New Haven Promise” and funded with $4 million a year from Yale, the program pays full tuition for public-school students who attend Connecticut universities and $2,500 a year for those who attend private institutions in the Nutmeg State. National news media including the New York Times and the Washington Post have showered New Haven Promise with praise. The program, critics say, will bring positive results for urban youth and should serve as a model for cities across the country.

Will New Haven Promise send some students to college who otherwise could not attend? Yes. A few students will benefit from this scheme, and for that I am grateful. However, Yale’s $4 million a year could pay for more substantial programs, such as a voucher system for low-income families, or funding for cash-strapped New Haven charter schools. What is more, this band-aid fix will stifle progress. It will give the impression of true reform and defeat the political impetus for change.

The movie Waiting for “Superman” recently documented how unions vigorously oppose school reform. They defend tenure, shorter school days, and an apathetic school environment without student or teacher accountability. We cannot fix our schools until we tackle these problems — problems that New Haven Promise ignores.

To combat this poor PR, Ms. Weingarten and her political bedfellows have astutely embraced a strategy of fake reform. A few weeks ago, Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, came to Yale and praised New Haven Promise. She spoke about how she loves reform.

The unions hope to defuse the situation created by Waiting for “Superman” and co-opt the movement to wrest control away from the unions and put it back in the hands of parents. Scholarship programs such as New Haven Promise are ideal moves in this strategy. They are financed by affluent, well-intentioned benefactors (such as Yale) but perpetuate the core problems in public schools.

Similarly, New Haven mayor John DeStefano claims to support reform, and even to confront unions head-on. A new teacher contract supposedly abolishes tenure in failing schools. However, on examination, this contract (supported by the union) continues to shelter poor teachers from being held responsible for the improvement (or lack thereof) of their students.

New Haven Promise is the mayor’s (and the unions’) latest attempt at pseudo reform. It solves none of the problems in New Haven public high schools, at which the drop out rate is 27.4 percent. Mayor DeStefano and Ms. Weingarten can point to this Yale-funded initiative as proof of their good intentions without actually solving the root causes of failing schools — tenure, and an apathetic, union-driven environment which disheartens teachers and students.

— Nathaniel Zelinsky, a sophomore at Yale University and lifelong New Haven resident, has tutored, taught, and worked with New Haven public-school students.