I received the following piece via email from Dick Morris. I totally agree with him. Outrageous pensions to government union employees should have never been promised in the first place they were irresponsible and unsustainable.
Quote of the Day -"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later "you run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
TO SAVE THE STATES: LET 'EM DECLARE BANKRUPTCY
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published in the New York Post on January 12, 2011
Facing huge budget difficulties, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been showing other states how to survive -- namely, by taking on the government-employee unions.
Christie's battles with the teachers unions over the past year have produced countless YouTube hits. And last month, he got a law passed to limit wage hikes from labor arbitrations between the state and public-employee unions to an average 2 percent annual increase.
As New Jersey, New York, California and Illinois -- the four with the highest insurance premiums on their bonds -- face life without a compliant Congress to approve their pleas for more cash, they'll increasingly have to follow Christie's example and rein in their unions.
As Margaret Thatcher famously said, the problem with socialism is that sooner or later "you run out of other people's money."
When the states come calling, the House must say, "No." More, it's time to amend the federal bankruptcy laws to create a procedure for state bankruptcies -- allowing states to abrogate their municipal-union contracts from the school-board level on up.
States, in bankruptcy court, should be able to reorganize their finances so as to put themselves back on a stable footing.
Initially, municipal-bond buyers will protest the lack of federal assistance and may even deny states and localities access to the bond market at any interest rate. But once the states reorganize, they should be able to proceed normally -- just as New York City did after its financial meltdown in the '70s.
Such reorganizations needn't require any ongoing federal involvement. The procedure would let the states help themselves, giving governors and legislatures a third way out of their financial mess. Raise taxes, cut spending or . . . alter union contracts. Each state would face the choice of whether to wallow in overspending or take steps to correct it.
Initially, Democrats will oppose the idea of state bankruptcies. But when House Republicans make clear that no more aid will be forthcoming and that the stimulus spigot is turned off, at least some Democrats will realize this is their best option.
Then, fiscal necessity will have achieved what so many of us want -- a return of true local government.
No more will schools be run for the teachers and by the teachers -- nor will such unions as the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees dominate state legislatures. School choice, charter schools and even voucher programs will have a chance to flourish.
Some fear the US Constitution prevents federal law from extending Chapter 9 to permit state bankruptcies, because it would violate state sovereignty. Yet Chapter 9 is voluntary, so states would remain sovereign -- with merely the option of subjecting themselves to Chapter 9 constraints.
Giving insolvent states the power to break their union contracts would alter dramatically the balance of political power all across the nation. No longer would municipal unions have the financial ability to underwrite the Democratic Party. Gone from our politics would be $200 million that the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, SEIU and AFSCME together spent on political action in the last election cycle.
Government would be returned to the people.
Showing posts with label Teacher Unions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teacher Unions. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Where will the money come from?
Pensions are unfunded. Where will the money come from? Should they just go bankrupt and restructure the pensions? The following piece appeared on American City & County
New Hampshire has the same problems, pensions were promised by legislators and bureaucrats not taxpayers. The pensions should have never been promised in the first place. When they can't be paid you can bet this will not sit pretty with those people and chaos will ensue just like it has in France, Greece, England and Spain. Lord help us, all let us hope these pensioners wise up and restructure their pensions now.
New Hampshire Legislators now is the time to solve the problem before it is too late.
“Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.” ~ Richard M. Nixon
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
States lack $1 trillion for pensions
May 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Jennifer Grzeskowiak
Some states are drastically underfunding their obligations to retirees
ShareThis
States have only actually funded $2.35 trillion of the $3.35 trillion in employee retirement benefits they owe, according to a recently released report from Washington-based Pew Center for the States. The shortfall could lead to larger liabilities in the future and cuts in services, even at the local government level.
The report, "The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded state retirement systems and the roads to reform," ranks state pension and retiree health care/non-pension benefit systems based on three criteria: a funding ratio of at least 80 percent; an unfunded liability below covered payroll; and an average payment of at least 90 percent of the actuarially required contribution over the past five years. It designates 16 states as "solid performers" for meeting all three standards for their pensions. Another 15 states are "in need of improvement" and 19 are designated as "meriting serious concerns," meaning they did not meet any of the criteria.
Many of the strong performing states consistently fund their systems in both financially good and bad years, and many have a legal requirement to fund their pension systems. The poorly performing states often failed to contribute enough to their plans in good times and made other mistakes, says Katherine Barrett, a consultant for Pew Center on the States.
If states fail to address their pension gaps, less money could be distributed to local governments, such as in the form of highway funds, and reimbursements from the state for social services could be cut, says Chris Hoene, director of research and innovation for the Washington-based National League of Cities.
It is difficult to predict when the unfunded liabilities will reach that critical level because of vagaries in the investment markets and other factors. "But, you can see that states with larger unfunded liabilities already have to pay a lot more each year," Barrett says. "That becomes more of an expensive problem the longer you put it off."
Jennifer Grzeskowiak is a Laguna Beach, Calif.-based freelance writer.
New Hampshire has the same problems, pensions were promised by legislators and bureaucrats not taxpayers. The pensions should have never been promised in the first place. When they can't be paid you can bet this will not sit pretty with those people and chaos will ensue just like it has in France, Greece, England and Spain. Lord help us, all let us hope these pensioners wise up and restructure their pensions now.
New Hampshire Legislators now is the time to solve the problem before it is too late.
“Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.” ~ Richard M. Nixon
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
States lack $1 trillion for pensions
May 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Jennifer Grzeskowiak
Some states are drastically underfunding their obligations to retirees
ShareThis
States have only actually funded $2.35 trillion of the $3.35 trillion in employee retirement benefits they owe, according to a recently released report from Washington-based Pew Center for the States. The shortfall could lead to larger liabilities in the future and cuts in services, even at the local government level.
The report, "The Trillion Dollar Gap: Underfunded state retirement systems and the roads to reform," ranks state pension and retiree health care/non-pension benefit systems based on three criteria: a funding ratio of at least 80 percent; an unfunded liability below covered payroll; and an average payment of at least 90 percent of the actuarially required contribution over the past five years. It designates 16 states as "solid performers" for meeting all three standards for their pensions. Another 15 states are "in need of improvement" and 19 are designated as "meriting serious concerns," meaning they did not meet any of the criteria.
Many of the strong performing states consistently fund their systems in both financially good and bad years, and many have a legal requirement to fund their pension systems. The poorly performing states often failed to contribute enough to their plans in good times and made other mistakes, says Katherine Barrett, a consultant for Pew Center on the States.
If states fail to address their pension gaps, less money could be distributed to local governments, such as in the form of highway funds, and reimbursements from the state for social services could be cut, says Chris Hoene, director of research and innovation for the Washington-based National League of Cities.
It is difficult to predict when the unfunded liabilities will reach that critical level because of vagaries in the investment markets and other factors. "But, you can see that states with larger unfunded liabilities already have to pay a lot more each year," Barrett says. "That becomes more of an expensive problem the longer you put it off."
Jennifer Grzeskowiak is a Laguna Beach, Calif.-based freelance writer.
Monday, January 3, 2011
The Moral of the Story
The following funny piece appeared on the Education Intelligence Agency Blog. Be sure to visit the EIA to view the links associated with the post.
"When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." - Albert Shanker, Former President of the American Federation of Teachers
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
The Ancient History of Education Labor
Rick Hess is excerpting items from his new book on his blog, and includes these interesting historical notes on differentiated pay for teachers:
In the Greek city-state of Teos, for example, elementary teachers were paid 600 drachmas for the first grade, 550 for the second, and 500 for the third. Equally noteworthy is that the Greeks also paid instructors differentially depending on the subject taught. Teosian archery and javelin teachers were the lowest-paid teachers, at 250 drachmas per year; literature teachers earned 500 to 600 drachmas; and music teachers were the highest-paid teachers, at 700 drachmas.
…Eventually, the Roman Emperor Gratian established a salary schedule throughout the empire in the fourth century CE, with pay routinely differentiated based on judgments regarding the import of various instructional roles.
These examples provide valuable insights on the history of paying teachers, but the ultimate outcomes were not so encouraging. Teos was destroyed by an earthquake and Gratian was assassinated by a rival pretending to be a supporter.
The lesson here is: If you mess with teacher pay, build your house on a solid foundation and keep your armor on.
"When school children start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." - Albert Shanker, Former President of the American Federation of Teachers
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
The Ancient History of Education Labor
Rick Hess is excerpting items from his new book on his blog, and includes these interesting historical notes on differentiated pay for teachers:
In the Greek city-state of Teos, for example, elementary teachers were paid 600 drachmas for the first grade, 550 for the second, and 500 for the third. Equally noteworthy is that the Greeks also paid instructors differentially depending on the subject taught. Teosian archery and javelin teachers were the lowest-paid teachers, at 250 drachmas per year; literature teachers earned 500 to 600 drachmas; and music teachers were the highest-paid teachers, at 700 drachmas.
…Eventually, the Roman Emperor Gratian established a salary schedule throughout the empire in the fourth century CE, with pay routinely differentiated based on judgments regarding the import of various instructional roles.
These examples provide valuable insights on the history of paying teachers, but the ultimate outcomes were not so encouraging. Teos was destroyed by an earthquake and Gratian was assassinated by a rival pretending to be a supporter.
The lesson here is: If you mess with teacher pay, build your house on a solid foundation and keep your armor on.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Slow Awakening
When Jim and I started fighting for education reform and education spending reform in Harvard many people did not like us or trust us but people eventually came around. We know the tax eaters, those living off the taxpayer teat and socialist will never like us and that is okay. In Illinois eventually more people came around to our side, hopefully someday more people will come around to our side in Croydon as well.
The following piece appeared on the Northwest Herald.
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.
Education reform
To the Editor:
I can’t even begin to tell you how much it warmed my heart to read the comments to Tony Casalino’s letter to the editor entitled “Supports tax increase” (May 1).
My husband, Jim, and I fought for education reform and education spending reform for four years before we decided not enough people were on board and Illinois was on a nonstop train to bankruptcy due to its spending problems and pension problems.
Good luck to you all, but you must do more than just respond to letters to the editors in newspapers. You must educate your friends and family, start tax-fighting groups, run for public office and, most importantly, support and vote for people who will be fiscally responsible and fight for true education reform.
Do not vote for any candidate who is funded with teachers union dollars. These are just your own education dollars working against you and your children’s futures.
Cathy Peschke
Co-founder Citizens for Reasonable And Fair Taxes, Croydon, N.H.
johnqpublic wrote on May 7, 2010 5:32 a.m.
"Think the NWH just published this letter to show their extensive reach? Not much going on in New Hampshire, huh?"
taxpayer wrote on May 7, 2010 7:20 a.m.
"Well said, Cathy. Finally the people are being made painfully aware of the situation."
kenbob wrote on May 7, 2010 7:23 a.m.
"This letter makes a lot of sense. Money doesn't solve education issues, true reform and a solid family values is what will make education work again. The astro-turf idiots in Springfield demanding to "raise my taxes" are nothing but a bunch of union goons. Throw money at the problem (while taxing everyone at higher rates) is their answer. Not in these days and not in any days is that the right answer."
Wake up America wrote on May 7, 2010 7:37 a.m.
"Hi Cathy....Yes, things have changed in the last few years....people have realized they've been massively ripped off by the schools....BOE's, Administrators and Teachers are now .....on the run.... Thanks to you and Jim for getting the facts out there...it was the start of today's movement..."
50 caliber wrote on May 7, 2010 10:56 a.m.
"John Q Public (Employee) caught RED HANDED! Take you anger out on your union. Thank you Cathy & Jim! The corrupted CRAZY TRAIN.... ALLLLLLL ABOARD, HA, HA, HA, HA, has crashed and burned like "so" many predicted. Your seminar's were damaging to the establishment and the liar's sitting on these school board's. Thank you very much. You are ALWAYS welcome back. "
Curmudgeonman wrote on May 7, 2010 11:30 a.m.
"So, Jim & Cathy, just what sort of reform did you fight for? From what I have read of your cybersquats, the only thing you fought for was to abolish public education. Is that the "reform" you speak of - get rid of schools? No wonder you couldn't find a following: you had no real, tangible ideas of reform. Go back to your maple trees in NH and continue grinding your one-room school district into the ground. "
Mr. Schneebly wrote on May 7, 2010 1:11 p.m.
"Cathy... you had me till the last sentence. Basically ou just used the vehicle of "school reform" to tout your anti-union hatred. Any reform to education should directly involve teachers. Oh and by the way they happen to belong to the union. If you are suggesting any sort of reform happes WITHOUT input from teachers you need to really look at your priorities. Instead of trying to use all parties to fix the problem you just want tos hove whatever concept of education reform you have down our throats. Sorry, anyone with half a brain won't support that!"
Mr. Schneebly wrote on May 7, 2010 1:14 p.m.
"You're talking about labor reform, not education reform. Figure out what your issue is and then try to deal with it. Stop concealing your real agenda with "education reform" and stay the heck away from decisions that effect MY children!"
GoodCitizen wrote on May 7, 2010 1:28 p.m.
"Schneebly, I think Cathy's term of Education Reform is fine in the context of the big picture. Teachers appear to support the Union's policies. Those policies have been shown to be not in the best interest of our children. Teachers have gone from being underpaid, to now being grossly overpaid. I'm not letting administrators off the hook with that statement. Administrators are nothing more than highway robbers. These costly teachers contracts get approved because parents can't take off work while a teachers strike. It's all out of control."
juschill wrote on May 7, 2010 1:30 p.m.
"Mr. Schneebly, what do you say we stay away from desisions that affect your kids and you agree to educate your kids and stay away from our wallets? Or are we supposed to give you our money, but not our input? "
pryan1967 wrote on May 7, 2010 3:57 p.m.
"Curmudgeonman-Where did Jim or Cathy EVER say "do away with public education"? On the other hand...where did the teacher's union (and, by extension, the teachers themselves) ever say "Let's do what's best for the KIDS, rather than what will fatten our wallets"?"
warmfuzzy wrote on May 7, 2010 4:12 p.m.
"Shneeb-You’re wrong! Education Reform will enable LABOR reform. Do this first. Start with getting rid of TENURE. Let the good ones stay and the bad ones get FIRED. The Education System is broken because of a decision that put the needs of workers ahead of the needs of children. Other states that surround Illinois don't have TENURE. Get rid of it and you will see great leaps in education reform. Labor won't like it, but it will take a bite out of Labor's strength. Remove Labor from ALL Public Sectors-You will see HUGE changes and REAL Gov’t reform. Do you get it? Unions are the PROBLEM."
imhotep wrote on May 7, 2010 5:26 p.m.
"Poster Poll, Question 1. The purpose of a public education system is: a.to provide quality education for our children, b.to provide well paying jobs and pensions to "education workers" (teachers & bureaucrats)? 2. If Government mismanagement has bankrupted our Public Education system, the brunt of austerity measures should be borne by: 1."education workers/bureaucrats", or 2. children? "
+froggy+ wrote on May 7, 2010 6:49 p.m.
"nobody wants to takes your poster poll nancy"
IL Tax Payer wrote on May 8, 2010 7:59 p.m.
"Cathy-your letter is right on the mark. I believe MOST Illinoisians are finally getting it. Thanks to YOU and JIM for getting the REAL financial story out there and getting the education of the tax payer ball rolling - e.g., out of line salaries, benefits, 100% of TRS being paid by the tax payer, sick days, more vacation days than anyother sector, and on and on. For years we all believed the "woe is me poor educator" story - we all now know the real story."
The following piece appeared on the Northwest Herald.
Cathy
Spelling errors, grammar errors, misuse of homonyms and typos are left an exercise for my readers.
Education reform
To the Editor:
I can’t even begin to tell you how much it warmed my heart to read the comments to Tony Casalino’s letter to the editor entitled “Supports tax increase” (May 1).
My husband, Jim, and I fought for education reform and education spending reform for four years before we decided not enough people were on board and Illinois was on a nonstop train to bankruptcy due to its spending problems and pension problems.
Good luck to you all, but you must do more than just respond to letters to the editors in newspapers. You must educate your friends and family, start tax-fighting groups, run for public office and, most importantly, support and vote for people who will be fiscally responsible and fight for true education reform.
Do not vote for any candidate who is funded with teachers union dollars. These are just your own education dollars working against you and your children’s futures.
Cathy Peschke
Co-founder Citizens for Reasonable And Fair Taxes, Croydon, N.H.
johnqpublic wrote on May 7, 2010 5:32 a.m.
"Think the NWH just published this letter to show their extensive reach? Not much going on in New Hampshire, huh?"
taxpayer wrote on May 7, 2010 7:20 a.m.
"Well said, Cathy. Finally the people are being made painfully aware of the situation."
kenbob wrote on May 7, 2010 7:23 a.m.
"This letter makes a lot of sense. Money doesn't solve education issues, true reform and a solid family values is what will make education work again. The astro-turf idiots in Springfield demanding to "raise my taxes" are nothing but a bunch of union goons. Throw money at the problem (while taxing everyone at higher rates) is their answer. Not in these days and not in any days is that the right answer."
Wake up America wrote on May 7, 2010 7:37 a.m.
"Hi Cathy....Yes, things have changed in the last few years....people have realized they've been massively ripped off by the schools....BOE's, Administrators and Teachers are now .....on the run.... Thanks to you and Jim for getting the facts out there...it was the start of today's movement..."
50 caliber wrote on May 7, 2010 10:56 a.m.
"John Q Public (Employee) caught RED HANDED! Take you anger out on your union. Thank you Cathy & Jim! The corrupted CRAZY TRAIN.... ALLLLLLL ABOARD, HA, HA, HA, HA, has crashed and burned like "so" many predicted. Your seminar's were damaging to the establishment and the liar's sitting on these school board's. Thank you very much. You are ALWAYS welcome back. "
Curmudgeonman wrote on May 7, 2010 11:30 a.m.
"So, Jim & Cathy, just what sort of reform did you fight for? From what I have read of your cybersquats, the only thing you fought for was to abolish public education. Is that the "reform" you speak of - get rid of schools? No wonder you couldn't find a following: you had no real, tangible ideas of reform. Go back to your maple trees in NH and continue grinding your one-room school district into the ground. "
Mr. Schneebly wrote on May 7, 2010 1:11 p.m.
"Cathy... you had me till the last sentence. Basically ou just used the vehicle of "school reform" to tout your anti-union hatred. Any reform to education should directly involve teachers. Oh and by the way they happen to belong to the union. If you are suggesting any sort of reform happes WITHOUT input from teachers you need to really look at your priorities. Instead of trying to use all parties to fix the problem you just want tos hove whatever concept of education reform you have down our throats. Sorry, anyone with half a brain won't support that!"
Mr. Schneebly wrote on May 7, 2010 1:14 p.m.
"You're talking about labor reform, not education reform. Figure out what your issue is and then try to deal with it. Stop concealing your real agenda with "education reform" and stay the heck away from decisions that effect MY children!"
GoodCitizen wrote on May 7, 2010 1:28 p.m.
"Schneebly, I think Cathy's term of Education Reform is fine in the context of the big picture. Teachers appear to support the Union's policies. Those policies have been shown to be not in the best interest of our children. Teachers have gone from being underpaid, to now being grossly overpaid. I'm not letting administrators off the hook with that statement. Administrators are nothing more than highway robbers. These costly teachers contracts get approved because parents can't take off work while a teachers strike. It's all out of control."
juschill wrote on May 7, 2010 1:30 p.m.
"Mr. Schneebly, what do you say we stay away from desisions that affect your kids and you agree to educate your kids and stay away from our wallets? Or are we supposed to give you our money, but not our input? "
pryan1967 wrote on May 7, 2010 3:57 p.m.
"Curmudgeonman-Where did Jim or Cathy EVER say "do away with public education"? On the other hand...where did the teacher's union (and, by extension, the teachers themselves) ever say "Let's do what's best for the KIDS, rather than what will fatten our wallets"?"
warmfuzzy wrote on May 7, 2010 4:12 p.m.
"Shneeb-You’re wrong! Education Reform will enable LABOR reform. Do this first. Start with getting rid of TENURE. Let the good ones stay and the bad ones get FIRED. The Education System is broken because of a decision that put the needs of workers ahead of the needs of children. Other states that surround Illinois don't have TENURE. Get rid of it and you will see great leaps in education reform. Labor won't like it, but it will take a bite out of Labor's strength. Remove Labor from ALL Public Sectors-You will see HUGE changes and REAL Gov’t reform. Do you get it? Unions are the PROBLEM."
imhotep wrote on May 7, 2010 5:26 p.m.
"Poster Poll, Question 1. The purpose of a public education system is: a.to provide quality education for our children, b.to provide well paying jobs and pensions to "education workers" (teachers & bureaucrats)? 2. If Government mismanagement has bankrupted our Public Education system, the brunt of austerity measures should be borne by: 1."education workers/bureaucrats", or 2. children? "
+froggy+ wrote on May 7, 2010 6:49 p.m.
"nobody wants to takes your poster poll nancy"
IL Tax Payer wrote on May 8, 2010 7:59 p.m.
"Cathy-your letter is right on the mark. I believe MOST Illinoisians are finally getting it. Thanks to YOU and JIM for getting the REAL financial story out there and getting the education of the tax payer ball rolling - e.g., out of line salaries, benefits, 100% of TRS being paid by the tax payer, sick days, more vacation days than anyother sector, and on and on. For years we all believed the "woe is me poor educator" story - we all now know the real story."
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wow Hard to Believe this Came from NPR
Jim and I championed for years to get rid of tenure in the K-12 system. It is hard to believe that this post appeared on NPR.
Quote of the Day -" Far too many people in America, both in and out of education, look upon the elementary school as a place to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. " - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Education Association Yearbook, 1947
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Is Teacher Tenure Still Necessary?
by ALAN GREENBLATT
Critics say that providing tenure for teachers is an outdated idea.
April 29, 2010
Tenure is under attack. The century-old system of protecting experienced teachers from arbitrary dismissal — long viewed as sacred — has triggered hot political debates in several states.
"Teacher effectiveness" has emerged as the biggest buzz phrase in education policy circles. Because teachers have such potential for affecting the quality of children's education, some people are starting to argue that it must become easier to get bad teachers out of the classroom.
"There seems to be a lot of drive to do away with tenure," says Sandy Kress, who helped write federal and state education laws as an adviser to George W. Bush and other policymakers. "Tenure has proved to be just a horrible barrier to getting rid of that small percentage of teachers who are just not effective."
Action All Over
This is not merely an academic debate. A bill in Colorado that would change tenure rules and tie them to student performance passed out of a Senate committee last week and has the support of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter. A Florida bill to abolish tenure was vetoed this month by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, but a similar bill is pending in Louisiana.
Debates about tenure rules are happening at the local level as well, notably in Washington, D.C., where a proposal to eliminate tenure and seniority rules in exchange for higher pay led to protracted arguments over the local teachers' contract.
Washington state, meanwhile, along with Maryland and Ohio, has recently lengthened the number of years teachers have to wait before becoming eligible for tenure. Elementary and secondary school teachers can become eligible for tenure after as little as two years on the job, although the time frame varies by state.
"What's become so problematic about tenure is that it's awarded almost automatically, without regard to performance in student learning," says Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, which advocates changes to the teaching profession.
A Matter Of Due Process
Unlike tenure for university professors, tenure for K-12 teachers does not, in theory, shield them from dismissal. Instead, it's simply a guarantee of due process — that if a teacher is fired, it will be for cause.
The advent of tenure, which coincided roughly with World War I and the suffragist movement, was meant to protect teachers, who, in olden days, were often fired for reasons that had nothing to do with their work, including race.
Teachers were often let go when a new political party came to power locally, or if the principal wanted to hand out jobs to his friends, or even if a teacher got pregnant.
"These laws were passed in state after state to protect good teachers from arbitrary actions," says Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, which is the country's largest teachers union.
"Due process is necessary in order to avoid the type of abuses of the past," he says. "It's very upsetting that in 2010, under the guise of improving schools, we suddenly get rid of protections from firing teachers for inadequate or wrong reasons."
Are Protections Still Needed?
Advocates of overhauling tenure say they favor due process. But they point out that tenure predates subsequent labor laws that guard against discrimination or other employer abuses. "So much has changed about our larger legal framework," says Tim Daly, president of The New Teacher Project, which helps place teachers in urban schools. "A law about teacher tenure, by far, is not the only thing that would protect you."
This point now is commonly made, but Susan Moore Johnson, who teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, says, "I'm not really convinced there are more protections now. You continue to hear stories about how favoritism is alive and well in public schools."
For his part, Daly doesn't advocate the abolition of tenure, but he does believe it needs to be changed. Dismissals should be job related, he says. But the problem he sees is that there are so many legal and managerial hurdles involved in dismissing a teacher that tenure has become a de facto shield against firing even the worst teachers.
"Tenure says you can't be dismissed unless you are shown to be incompetent through the evaluation process," Daly says. "But the evaluation process doesn't work at all, so tenure is seen as an ironclad guarantee of a job."
Change May Be Coming
That's where policy advocates have spotted an opening. It's clear that the way teachers are evaluated will undergo change. The federal Race to the Top program, a $4 billion pot of money meant to encourage states to pursue innovative educational strategies, insists on tying teacher evaluation to student performance.
The ins and outs of how student scores on standardized tests are weighted in evaluating teachers can quickly turn into a topic of interest only to insiders. In contrast, the public can understand and respond to the idea that a lifetime job guarantee has become anachronistic in today's economy.
Getting rid of tenure is still going to be a tough sell. Teachers unions are generally considered among the strongest lobbies in most states, and job protection for their members goes to the heart of their mission.
Johnson, the Harvard professor, says that unions make convenient targets for blame in such matters, noting that even teachers without tenure are rarely dismissed. She has studied some of the few districts where teachers are regularly let go — which are those where joint panels set up by unions and administrators sit together in judgment.
"Principals will say, 'The reason I don't dismiss anyone is because the union will stand in the way,' " Johnson says. "But where teachers are dismissed, it's through a peer review that guarantees due process."
Less Than 1 Percent Fired
Firing teachers is hard. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have each fired fewer than 1 out of 1,000 of their tenured teachers in recent years. Those numbers are not unusual.
Administrators complain that the process is too draining. Reviews of dismissal cases can take years to make their way through the system, costing tens of thousands of dollars each.
Teachers say that administrators are themselves at fault for performing perfunctory, "drive-by" evaluations. One study of selected districts in four states found that 99 percent of teachers receive "satisfactory" ratings.
Sometimes, bad publicity can curb the worst abuses on either side. The Los Angeles Times found last December that L.A. schools deny tenure to fewer than 2 percent of probationary hires, with evaluations often amounting to nothing more than a single, pre-announced classroom visit lasting 30 minutes or less.
Following the report, Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines pledged greater scrutiny. In February, the district announced it would fire more than 110 nontenured teachers for performance -— three times the annual rate in recent years.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers announced the city would close the district's "rubber rooms," where teachers are paid to sit and do no work, often for years, while awaiting the outcome of dismissal hearings.
Newspaper and magazine articles about the rubber rooms — which Bloomberg labeled "study hall for teachers" — had embarrassed both the city and the union. Now, teachers will be assigned to administrative or nonclassroom duties while cases are pending, with the city hiring more arbitrators to speed up the process.
— Alan Greenblatt
Quote of the Day -" Far too many people in America, both in and out of education, look upon the elementary school as a place to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. " - Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Education Association Yearbook, 1947
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Is Teacher Tenure Still Necessary?
by ALAN GREENBLATT
Critics say that providing tenure for teachers is an outdated idea.
April 29, 2010
Tenure is under attack. The century-old system of protecting experienced teachers from arbitrary dismissal — long viewed as sacred — has triggered hot political debates in several states.
"Teacher effectiveness" has emerged as the biggest buzz phrase in education policy circles. Because teachers have such potential for affecting the quality of children's education, some people are starting to argue that it must become easier to get bad teachers out of the classroom.
"There seems to be a lot of drive to do away with tenure," says Sandy Kress, who helped write federal and state education laws as an adviser to George W. Bush and other policymakers. "Tenure has proved to be just a horrible barrier to getting rid of that small percentage of teachers who are just not effective."
Action All Over
This is not merely an academic debate. A bill in Colorado that would change tenure rules and tie them to student performance passed out of a Senate committee last week and has the support of Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter. A Florida bill to abolish tenure was vetoed this month by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, but a similar bill is pending in Louisiana.
Debates about tenure rules are happening at the local level as well, notably in Washington, D.C., where a proposal to eliminate tenure and seniority rules in exchange for higher pay led to protracted arguments over the local teachers' contract.
Washington state, meanwhile, along with Maryland and Ohio, has recently lengthened the number of years teachers have to wait before becoming eligible for tenure. Elementary and secondary school teachers can become eligible for tenure after as little as two years on the job, although the time frame varies by state.
"What's become so problematic about tenure is that it's awarded almost automatically, without regard to performance in student learning," says Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, which advocates changes to the teaching profession.
A Matter Of Due Process
Unlike tenure for university professors, tenure for K-12 teachers does not, in theory, shield them from dismissal. Instead, it's simply a guarantee of due process — that if a teacher is fired, it will be for cause.
The advent of tenure, which coincided roughly with World War I and the suffragist movement, was meant to protect teachers, who, in olden days, were often fired for reasons that had nothing to do with their work, including race.
Teachers were often let go when a new political party came to power locally, or if the principal wanted to hand out jobs to his friends, or even if a teacher got pregnant.
"These laws were passed in state after state to protect good teachers from arbitrary actions," says Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, which is the country's largest teachers union.
"Due process is necessary in order to avoid the type of abuses of the past," he says. "It's very upsetting that in 2010, under the guise of improving schools, we suddenly get rid of protections from firing teachers for inadequate or wrong reasons."
Are Protections Still Needed?
Advocates of overhauling tenure say they favor due process. But they point out that tenure predates subsequent labor laws that guard against discrimination or other employer abuses. "So much has changed about our larger legal framework," says Tim Daly, president of The New Teacher Project, which helps place teachers in urban schools. "A law about teacher tenure, by far, is not the only thing that would protect you."
This point now is commonly made, but Susan Moore Johnson, who teaches at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, says, "I'm not really convinced there are more protections now. You continue to hear stories about how favoritism is alive and well in public schools."
For his part, Daly doesn't advocate the abolition of tenure, but he does believe it needs to be changed. Dismissals should be job related, he says. But the problem he sees is that there are so many legal and managerial hurdles involved in dismissing a teacher that tenure has become a de facto shield against firing even the worst teachers.
"Tenure says you can't be dismissed unless you are shown to be incompetent through the evaluation process," Daly says. "But the evaluation process doesn't work at all, so tenure is seen as an ironclad guarantee of a job."
Change May Be Coming
That's where policy advocates have spotted an opening. It's clear that the way teachers are evaluated will undergo change. The federal Race to the Top program, a $4 billion pot of money meant to encourage states to pursue innovative educational strategies, insists on tying teacher evaluation to student performance.
The ins and outs of how student scores on standardized tests are weighted in evaluating teachers can quickly turn into a topic of interest only to insiders. In contrast, the public can understand and respond to the idea that a lifetime job guarantee has become anachronistic in today's economy.
Getting rid of tenure is still going to be a tough sell. Teachers unions are generally considered among the strongest lobbies in most states, and job protection for their members goes to the heart of their mission.
Johnson, the Harvard professor, says that unions make convenient targets for blame in such matters, noting that even teachers without tenure are rarely dismissed. She has studied some of the few districts where teachers are regularly let go — which are those where joint panels set up by unions and administrators sit together in judgment.
"Principals will say, 'The reason I don't dismiss anyone is because the union will stand in the way,' " Johnson says. "But where teachers are dismissed, it's through a peer review that guarantees due process."
Less Than 1 Percent Fired
Firing teachers is hard. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have each fired fewer than 1 out of 1,000 of their tenured teachers in recent years. Those numbers are not unusual.
Administrators complain that the process is too draining. Reviews of dismissal cases can take years to make their way through the system, costing tens of thousands of dollars each.
Teachers say that administrators are themselves at fault for performing perfunctory, "drive-by" evaluations. One study of selected districts in four states found that 99 percent of teachers receive "satisfactory" ratings.
Sometimes, bad publicity can curb the worst abuses on either side. The Los Angeles Times found last December that L.A. schools deny tenure to fewer than 2 percent of probationary hires, with evaluations often amounting to nothing more than a single, pre-announced classroom visit lasting 30 minutes or less.
Following the report, Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines pledged greater scrutiny. In February, the district announced it would fire more than 110 nontenured teachers for performance -— three times the annual rate in recent years.
Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers announced the city would close the district's "rubber rooms," where teachers are paid to sit and do no work, often for years, while awaiting the outcome of dismissal hearings.
Newspaper and magazine articles about the rubber rooms — which Bloomberg labeled "study hall for teachers" — had embarrassed both the city and the union. Now, teachers will be assigned to administrative or nonclassroom duties while cases are pending, with the city hiring more arbitrators to speed up the process.
— Alan Greenblatt
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Wow from a College Newspaper
I was surprise to see this come from a College paper called the Collegian. The writer appears to be from the department of education. I wonder if he took heat for this article. Around of applause for this piece.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Unions protect bad teachers, not students
By: Shane Cronin | April 26, 2010 |
During the early 20th century, when working conditions were appalling, employers were ruthless and labor laws didn’t exist in
the United States, vulnerable workers formed unions to protect themselves.
Many unions, however, have outlived their usefulness. Today, they stifle innovation and bully or bribe legislators into getting their ways at enormous taxpayer cost. Teachers unions are a perfect example of this.
The teachers unions are possibly the biggest hurdle a student must overcome to receive a high school diploma. To meet every educational innovation is a union leader with a billy club. They are analogous to legalized mafia.
Across the country merit pay, school choice, policy reform and scholarships for low-income children were vigorously opposed by the unions. This keeps well-paid union higher-ups rich and low-income underperforming students poor.
Teachers usually don’t have a choice on whether or not to join the unions in their districts. This is why unions hate non-unionized charter schools: especially the successful ones.
Teachers unions in Massachusetts have fought tooth and nail to keep the charter school caps low. They fought to keep Teach for America out of Boston last year despite the program’s accomplishments. The union argued new educators shouldn’t be hired in a recession which threatened teacher layoffs.
Ostensibly that seems fair. But, my guess is even in the best economic climate the union would reject Teach for America.
Termination is virtually non-existent among tenured teachers in the U. S. In New Jersey, about one in 20,000 teachers are fired annually. In Los Angeles, between 1995 and 2005 only 112 tenured teachers were fired. In 2003, the city graduated only half its high school seniors. Less than one percent of tenured teachers are fired each year in Dallas, Texas.
This is largely due to legal expenses firing tenured educators incurs, which can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 depending on the district. Furthermore, unions (particularly in urban districts) have diluted the teacher evaluation system making it almost impossible for a teacher to receive an “unsatisfactory” review.
Union leaders, like mafia bosses, are all about dough. Teachers shell out hundreds of dollars per year to feed the hungry union hierarchy. Union leaders earn six-figure salaries, which is exponentially more than many of the teachers they claim to represent. The fewer unionized teachers there are, the fewer dues these leaders can collect.
Essentially, tenure ensures contract-renewal for mediocre educators year after year. The ability principals have to remove these teachers from classrooms is extremely limited. Principles often cite union power for not firing teachers.
In 2007, the National Education Association contributed more than $80 million (20 percent of its budget) to largely left wing, non-education-related causes. That’s $80 million that could have benefited students. But why waste money on them with a blooming money tree growing in their backyard known as the taxpayers?
The gangster-like teachers union in New Jersey, for example, has suggested Gov. Chris Christie raise the nine percent state income tax rather than agree to a one year teacher pay freeze.
Another favorite target of the unions is The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2002. NCLB essentially mandated standardized testing in every state. It also requires every student to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. The bill has its flaws. However, it is a major step in the right direction: standardization. It fails in the sense that it gives states wide latitude in determining what “basic skills” means.
President Obama, who originally pledged to strengthen education standards, seems to have changed course. The New York Times recently reported President Obama wants to revise NCLB. His proposed revisions, however, are more in line with the union agenda than student achievement.
The President’s changes include factoring “pupil attendance, graduation rates, and learning climate” into a teacher’s/school’s level of success. In other words, the edited version of NCLB will require less measurable accountability.
What happens to mediocre or outright incompetent employees in the private sector? They aren’t awarded raises. They are fired because it would be bad business practice to keep them on the payroll. It is just as bad for students when mediocre teachers are kept on the payroll.
In addition, unions largely oppose merit pay also known as extra pay for teachers who produce high-achieving students. The Florida legislature passed a bill that would have enacted merit pay statewide. Gov. Charlie Crist caved to union pressure, however, and vetoed the legislation earlier this month.
Teachers are America’s human capital. The role they play is critical in educating our youth so they can become analytical, high-functioning, hard-working members of an increasingly high-tech economy. Many teachers are overworked and underpaid. Starting salaries for new teachers deter many qualified applicants – especially in the math and science fields.
The private sector compensates math and science majors much more generously than a career in public education does. Unions, with near unilateral authority over policy, can change this. But they won’t if politicians continue to give in to their self-serving, anti-innovation agenda.
Shane Cronin is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at scronin@student.umass.edu.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Unions protect bad teachers, not students
By: Shane Cronin | April 26, 2010 |
During the early 20th century, when working conditions were appalling, employers were ruthless and labor laws didn’t exist in
the United States, vulnerable workers formed unions to protect themselves.
Many unions, however, have outlived their usefulness. Today, they stifle innovation and bully or bribe legislators into getting their ways at enormous taxpayer cost. Teachers unions are a perfect example of this.
The teachers unions are possibly the biggest hurdle a student must overcome to receive a high school diploma. To meet every educational innovation is a union leader with a billy club. They are analogous to legalized mafia.
Across the country merit pay, school choice, policy reform and scholarships for low-income children were vigorously opposed by the unions. This keeps well-paid union higher-ups rich and low-income underperforming students poor.
Teachers usually don’t have a choice on whether or not to join the unions in their districts. This is why unions hate non-unionized charter schools: especially the successful ones.
Teachers unions in Massachusetts have fought tooth and nail to keep the charter school caps low. They fought to keep Teach for America out of Boston last year despite the program’s accomplishments. The union argued new educators shouldn’t be hired in a recession which threatened teacher layoffs.
Ostensibly that seems fair. But, my guess is even in the best economic climate the union would reject Teach for America.
Termination is virtually non-existent among tenured teachers in the U. S. In New Jersey, about one in 20,000 teachers are fired annually. In Los Angeles, between 1995 and 2005 only 112 tenured teachers were fired. In 2003, the city graduated only half its high school seniors. Less than one percent of tenured teachers are fired each year in Dallas, Texas.
This is largely due to legal expenses firing tenured educators incurs, which can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 depending on the district. Furthermore, unions (particularly in urban districts) have diluted the teacher evaluation system making it almost impossible for a teacher to receive an “unsatisfactory” review.
Union leaders, like mafia bosses, are all about dough. Teachers shell out hundreds of dollars per year to feed the hungry union hierarchy. Union leaders earn six-figure salaries, which is exponentially more than many of the teachers they claim to represent. The fewer unionized teachers there are, the fewer dues these leaders can collect.
Essentially, tenure ensures contract-renewal for mediocre educators year after year. The ability principals have to remove these teachers from classrooms is extremely limited. Principles often cite union power for not firing teachers.
In 2007, the National Education Association contributed more than $80 million (20 percent of its budget) to largely left wing, non-education-related causes. That’s $80 million that could have benefited students. But why waste money on them with a blooming money tree growing in their backyard known as the taxpayers?
The gangster-like teachers union in New Jersey, for example, has suggested Gov. Chris Christie raise the nine percent state income tax rather than agree to a one year teacher pay freeze.
Another favorite target of the unions is The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by President Bush in 2002. NCLB essentially mandated standardized testing in every state. It also requires every student to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. The bill has its flaws. However, it is a major step in the right direction: standardization. It fails in the sense that it gives states wide latitude in determining what “basic skills” means.
President Obama, who originally pledged to strengthen education standards, seems to have changed course. The New York Times recently reported President Obama wants to revise NCLB. His proposed revisions, however, are more in line with the union agenda than student achievement.
The President’s changes include factoring “pupil attendance, graduation rates, and learning climate” into a teacher’s/school’s level of success. In other words, the edited version of NCLB will require less measurable accountability.
What happens to mediocre or outright incompetent employees in the private sector? They aren’t awarded raises. They are fired because it would be bad business practice to keep them on the payroll. It is just as bad for students when mediocre teachers are kept on the payroll.
In addition, unions largely oppose merit pay also known as extra pay for teachers who produce high-achieving students. The Florida legislature passed a bill that would have enacted merit pay statewide. Gov. Charlie Crist caved to union pressure, however, and vetoed the legislation earlier this month.
Teachers are America’s human capital. The role they play is critical in educating our youth so they can become analytical, high-functioning, hard-working members of an increasingly high-tech economy. Many teachers are overworked and underpaid. Starting salaries for new teachers deter many qualified applicants – especially in the math and science fields.
The private sector compensates math and science majors much more generously than a career in public education does. Unions, with near unilateral authority over policy, can change this. But they won’t if politicians continue to give in to their self-serving, anti-innovation agenda.
Shane Cronin is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at scronin@student.umass.edu.
Friday, April 23, 2010
When They Don't Get Their Way They Act Like Spoiled Brats
The following piece appeared on the San Francisco Examiner.com website. Educators in the past were always expecting the taxpayer to give more until recently they were never willing to give taxpayers a break. Unfortunately New Jersey teachers will probably learn this lesson after they receive pink slips.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
NJ teachers unions ratchet up the vitriol on Gov. Chris Christie
By: MARK HEMINGWAY
Commentary Staff Writer
04/21/10 8:28 AM PDT
If a politician is making teachers unions mad, most likely he's doing something right. And Chris Christie has made teachers unions, very, very angry:
They're the kind of obscenity-laced schoolyard taunts that could get a student suspended.
But the target of this tirade is New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie — and the perpetrators are the state's teachers, irate over his calls for salary freezes and funding cuts for schools.
In Facebook messages visible to the world — not to mention their students — the teachers have called Christie fat, compared him to a genocidal dictator and wished he was dead. The postings are often riddled with bad grammar and misspellings.
"Never trust a fat f...," read one profane post on the Facebook page, "New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze," which has some 69,000 fans, many of them teachers.
"How do you spell A-- hole? C-H-R-I-S C-H-R-I-S-T-I-E," read another.
But my favorite bit of criticism is this:
The acrimony intensified last month when Christie proposed cutting state and federal aid to districts by 11 percent, calling it a way to share sacrifice as the state tries to rein in spending.
That's when the Facebook attacks really took off.
One educator, a librarian with a Master's degree, described the cuts as "rediculous."
Yeah, why don't these people deserve higher pay! Good on the Associated Press for reporting this.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
NJ teachers unions ratchet up the vitriol on Gov. Chris Christie
By: MARK HEMINGWAY
Commentary Staff Writer
04/21/10 8:28 AM PDT
If a politician is making teachers unions mad, most likely he's doing something right. And Chris Christie has made teachers unions, very, very angry:
They're the kind of obscenity-laced schoolyard taunts that could get a student suspended.
But the target of this tirade is New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie — and the perpetrators are the state's teachers, irate over his calls for salary freezes and funding cuts for schools.
In Facebook messages visible to the world — not to mention their students — the teachers have called Christie fat, compared him to a genocidal dictator and wished he was dead. The postings are often riddled with bad grammar and misspellings.
"Never trust a fat f...," read one profane post on the Facebook page, "New Jersey Teachers United Against Governor Chris Christie's Pay Freeze," which has some 69,000 fans, many of them teachers.
"How do you spell A-- hole? C-H-R-I-S C-H-R-I-S-T-I-E," read another.
But my favorite bit of criticism is this:
The acrimony intensified last month when Christie proposed cutting state and federal aid to districts by 11 percent, calling it a way to share sacrifice as the state tries to rein in spending.
That's when the Facebook attacks really took off.
One educator, a librarian with a Master's degree, described the cuts as "rediculous."
Yeah, why don't these people deserve higher pay! Good on the Associated Press for reporting this.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
We Have Been Saying This for Almost 8 Years, Finally More People Are Saying it Too
Until you get the unions out of Taxpayer Funded Socialist Indoctrination Centers, indoctrination will continue while actual education continues to decline. We must elect lawmakers who actually want America's students educated not indoctrinated. The following piece appeared on Big Government.com.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Naming Names: America’s Schools’ Problems Lie with Teachers’ Unions
by Kyle Olson
In his 2007 book, Outrage, Dick Morris said it best: “There’s nothing wrong with America’s schools that breaking the power of the teachers unions wouldn’t cure.”
Few have had the courage to put it that directly. Our organization’s similarly blunt language puts a target on our back, but when you deal with organized labor, you know that comes with the territory. Expecting unions to act like professional organizations is like expecting the government to be frugal. It’s not in their DNA.
As Education Action Group Foundation chronicles daily on NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com, the national teachers unions and their state affiliates bully and punish school boards and administrators during contract negotiations and school elections. They work aggressively to elect union sympathizers to local school boards, then up end up negotiating friendly contracts with the candidates they just helped to elect. It’s a corrupt system that works to the detriment of children, parents and taxpayers.
And the teachers unions’ answer for school financial problems is always “more taxes,” rather than offering a few concessions that would save schools a ton of money.
When I was invited to speak to the Americans for Prosperity Tax Day rally at the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan last week, it was a first for me. I had never spoken at such an event. It was probably one of the few speeches around the country that zeroed in on the pirates of public education: the teachers unions.
The understanding that teachers unions are the problem, not the cure for our public schools, is finally starting to sink in with the public. Even President Obama, whose campaign collected millions from the teachers unions, has come out in favor of school reforms that the unions violently object to.
The time for change in our public schools is now, and it will start with curbing the power and influence of the teachers unions. Public schools belong to the people, and we’re in the process of taking them back.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Naming Names: America’s Schools’ Problems Lie with Teachers’ Unions
by Kyle Olson
In his 2007 book, Outrage, Dick Morris said it best: “There’s nothing wrong with America’s schools that breaking the power of the teachers unions wouldn’t cure.”
Few have had the courage to put it that directly. Our organization’s similarly blunt language puts a target on our back, but when you deal with organized labor, you know that comes with the territory. Expecting unions to act like professional organizations is like expecting the government to be frugal. It’s not in their DNA.
As Education Action Group Foundation chronicles daily on NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com, the national teachers unions and their state affiliates bully and punish school boards and administrators during contract negotiations and school elections. They work aggressively to elect union sympathizers to local school boards, then up end up negotiating friendly contracts with the candidates they just helped to elect. It’s a corrupt system that works to the detriment of children, parents and taxpayers.
And the teachers unions’ answer for school financial problems is always “more taxes,” rather than offering a few concessions that would save schools a ton of money.
When I was invited to speak to the Americans for Prosperity Tax Day rally at the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan last week, it was a first for me. I had never spoken at such an event. It was probably one of the few speeches around the country that zeroed in on the pirates of public education: the teachers unions.
The understanding that teachers unions are the problem, not the cure for our public schools, is finally starting to sink in with the public. Even President Obama, whose campaign collected millions from the teachers unions, has come out in favor of school reforms that the unions violently object to.
The time for change in our public schools is now, and it will start with curbing the power and influence of the teachers unions. Public schools belong to the people, and we’re in the process of taking them back.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Don't Work Too Hard
If people ever wonder why I don't send my children to public schools here is one of the reasons why I don't. The following piece appeared on John Stossel's Blog. As long are unions are in schools, public education will be about the teachers and not about educating students. There is not telling how much potential was never reached because of fine teachers like Jamie Escalante are pushed out of public schools. Public schools will not improve until unions are removed from schools and funds follow the child and not the institution.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Quote of the Day - "One of the greatest things you have in life is that no one has the authority to tell you what you want to be. You’re the one who’ll decide what you want to be. Respect yourself and respect the integrity of others as well. The greatest thing you have is your self image, a positive opinion of yourself. You must never let anyone take it from you."
Jaime Escalante Educator
April 1, 2010 11:01 AM EDT by John Stossel
Teachers Unions: Don't Work Too Hard!
Jaime Escalante -- the math teacher who became famous for teaching even the poorest kids calculus in a failing Los Angeles school -- died this week at age 78. His story shows not just what can be accomplished by great teachers, but also what damage unions can do.
Escalante got national attention when 14 out of 15 of his students at a low-ranking Los Angeles school passed the Advanced Placement Calculus exam. By 1987, 73 students from the school passed the AP calculus exam -- more than all but six other schools in the country. After a movie about his success, called "Stand and Deliver", was released in 1988, Escalante became an icon for showing that even the most disadvantaged kids could learn complex subjects if given the right instruction.
I would think that any reasonable education system would reward Mr. Escalante. But this is a unionized public school we're talking about. As Reason Magazine reported several years ago:
One assistant principal threatened to have him dismissed, on the grounds that he was coming in too early (a janitor had complained), keeping students too late, and raising funds without permission.
Can you imagine if a private school operated like that? Sadly, the story gets worse.
After Stand and Deliver was released, Escalante became an overnight celebrity... This attention aroused feelings of jealousy. In his last few years at Garfield, Escalante even received threats and hate mail. In 1990 he lost the math department chairmanship, the position that had enabled him to [teach students from 9th grade on, so that they would have adequate preparation once they got to his calculus class.]
But Escalante kept teaching, sometimes with classes of 50 students or more.
Calculus grew so popular at Garfield that classes grew beyond the 35-student limit set by the union contract. Some had more than 50 students. Escalante would have preferred to keep the classes below the limit had he been able to do so without either denying calculus to willing students or using teachers who were not up to his high standards. Neither was possible, and the teachers union complained about Garfield's class sizes. Rather than compromise, Escalante moved on.
School officials were unapologetic. One official said:
"We were doing fine before Mr. Escalante left, and we're doing fine after."
The result? Over the next five years, the number of students at the school passing AP calculus tests plummeted from 85 a year to just 11.
It is impossible to record all the innovations that unions have destroyed. But unions are clearly one reason that even though America spends more money on education than other countries, American students score near the bottom on international tests.
Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/04/01/teachers-unions-dont-work-too-hard/#ixzz0kRjTX8u6
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Quote of the Day - "One of the greatest things you have in life is that no one has the authority to tell you what you want to be. You’re the one who’ll decide what you want to be. Respect yourself and respect the integrity of others as well. The greatest thing you have is your self image, a positive opinion of yourself. You must never let anyone take it from you."
Jaime Escalante Educator
April 1, 2010 11:01 AM EDT by John Stossel
Teachers Unions: Don't Work Too Hard!
Jaime Escalante -- the math teacher who became famous for teaching even the poorest kids calculus in a failing Los Angeles school -- died this week at age 78. His story shows not just what can be accomplished by great teachers, but also what damage unions can do.
Escalante got national attention when 14 out of 15 of his students at a low-ranking Los Angeles school passed the Advanced Placement Calculus exam. By 1987, 73 students from the school passed the AP calculus exam -- more than all but six other schools in the country. After a movie about his success, called "Stand and Deliver", was released in 1988, Escalante became an icon for showing that even the most disadvantaged kids could learn complex subjects if given the right instruction.
I would think that any reasonable education system would reward Mr. Escalante. But this is a unionized public school we're talking about. As Reason Magazine reported several years ago:
One assistant principal threatened to have him dismissed, on the grounds that he was coming in too early (a janitor had complained), keeping students too late, and raising funds without permission.
Can you imagine if a private school operated like that? Sadly, the story gets worse.
After Stand and Deliver was released, Escalante became an overnight celebrity... This attention aroused feelings of jealousy. In his last few years at Garfield, Escalante even received threats and hate mail. In 1990 he lost the math department chairmanship, the position that had enabled him to [teach students from 9th grade on, so that they would have adequate preparation once they got to his calculus class.]
But Escalante kept teaching, sometimes with classes of 50 students or more.
Calculus grew so popular at Garfield that classes grew beyond the 35-student limit set by the union contract. Some had more than 50 students. Escalante would have preferred to keep the classes below the limit had he been able to do so without either denying calculus to willing students or using teachers who were not up to his high standards. Neither was possible, and the teachers union complained about Garfield's class sizes. Rather than compromise, Escalante moved on.
School officials were unapologetic. One official said:
"We were doing fine before Mr. Escalante left, and we're doing fine after."
The result? Over the next five years, the number of students at the school passing AP calculus tests plummeted from 85 a year to just 11.
It is impossible to record all the innovations that unions have destroyed. But unions are clearly one reason that even though America spends more money on education than other countries, American students score near the bottom on international tests.
Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/04/01/teachers-unions-dont-work-too-hard/#ixzz0kRjTX8u6
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Wow on NPR
The following piece appeared on the Michigan Capitol Confidential, I am so surprised to hear this was on NPR.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Debating Failing Schools
By MICHAEL VAN BEEK | March 30, 2010
Are teachers unions to blame for failing schools?
This was the question debated last week on NPR's Intelligence Squared. At the beginning of the debate, less than half the audience believed teachers unions should be faulted for poor-performing schools, but by the close of the program, an astonishing 68 percent believed school employee unions contributed to the problem.
In Michigan, with the drama surrounding the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program, the role of teachers unions has been scrutinized. The Michigan Education Association refused to sign on to the reforms passed by the Legislature early this year, and many believe this was one of the reasons why the state wasn't selected to be one of the finalists for the first round of grant money.
The Intelligence Squared debate featured six panelists, three critical and three supportive of unions. The debate became heated at times, especially when the audience began asking questions. One pro-union participant, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, insinuated that the audience was packed by groups presupposed to be anti-union.
To view the rest of the story go to the Michigan Capitol Confidential.com.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Debating Failing Schools
By MICHAEL VAN BEEK | March 30, 2010
Are teachers unions to blame for failing schools?
This was the question debated last week on NPR's Intelligence Squared. At the beginning of the debate, less than half the audience believed teachers unions should be faulted for poor-performing schools, but by the close of the program, an astonishing 68 percent believed school employee unions contributed to the problem.
In Michigan, with the drama surrounding the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program, the role of teachers unions has been scrutinized. The Michigan Education Association refused to sign on to the reforms passed by the Legislature early this year, and many believe this was one of the reasons why the state wasn't selected to be one of the finalists for the first round of grant money.
The Intelligence Squared debate featured six panelists, three critical and three supportive of unions. The debate became heated at times, especially when the audience began asking questions. One pro-union participant, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, insinuated that the audience was packed by groups presupposed to be anti-union.
To view the rest of the story go to the Michigan Capitol Confidential.com.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Education Graduates will face Tough Jobs Market
Education majors will face tough jobs market. All across America Teachers are being laid off. Two things come to mind stop encouraging children to get abortions and teaching about birth control more children will be born and enrollments will start to grow. If Unions were not so greedy they would not be facing a budget crisis.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers
The following piece appeared on MSNBC.com.
U.S. schools in ‘category 5’ budget crisis
Thousands of teachers face layoffs as recession meets falling enrollments
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 8:48 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 18, 2010
At the center of the country’s school funding crisis are little boys and girls like Kyle Wolfe, a 3-year-old pupil in Rising Stars, a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk children in communities near Rockford, Ill.
“I can’t even begin to describe the way Kyle has grown since starting this program,” said his mother, Carolyn.
Last week, the Harlem School District Board of Education, which serves the communities of Loves Park, Machesney Park and southern Roscoe, voted to eliminate Rising Stars because the state of Illinois hasn’t made good on the grants that support it. The vote means the nearly 400 youngsters the program serves “will be entering kindergarten delayed academically and socially,” said Lynn Wade, a pre-K teacher at the Donald C. Parker Early Education Center in Machesney Park.
No one disputes that Rising Stars is “an excellent program,” said Julie M. Morris, the school district’s superintendent. The decision to kill it “has nothing to do with how the program is run or what it provides to our students.” It’s just money.
Thousands of administrators and school board members across the country are making similar agonizing choices. While the recession has put a squeeze on all types of government programs, none has felt its impact more than education — the largest item in most states’ budgets.
Now, many states have nearly exhausted their windfalls from the federal economic stimulus plan, and with falling housing values shrinking property tax revenue — the largest source of public school funding — the question for state and local officials planning budgets for the next school year is: Will it be bad — or horribly bad?
For schools, historic decisions
The retrenchment is coming as the Obama administration seeks to overhaul education law in a way that makes schools compete for federal grants. But critics say the focus should be on expanding funding for all schools, not imposing even higher standards while redistributing less money.
“Resources must be adequate and equalized across schools,” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said last week in congressional testimony on the plan.
Citing research by the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, he said that “almost no states are currently funding their educational systems adequately, and most states are around 25 percent short of funding their systems at a level adequate.”
Cuts that have been announced this year are staggering:
The Kansas City, Mo., School District is closing nearly half its 61 schools, with almost 300 teachers among those losing their jobs once 29 campuses go dark.
The Montgomery, Ala., Public School Board voted last week to lay off more than 600 employees, including 415 teachers, in what it said was just the first phase of staff reductions.
In the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the Illinois 46th District school board this week approved a proposal to lay off more than 1,000 employees — about 25 percent of the district’s staff — to help make up a projected deficit of $44 million. More than 700 teachers would lose their jobs, including all first-, second- and third-year instructors.
Statewide, Illinois schools face budget cuts as high as 17 percent to make up a $1.3 billion education deficit, Gov. Pat Quinn warned last week.
In Atlanta, Superintendent Beverly L. Hall said this week that after years of cutbacks, her district’s 2010-11 budget will be almost 11 percent below its level of seven years ago.
Calling the impact a “category 5” crisis, Georgia’s state superintendent, Kathy Cox, said, “It’s going to be very tough next year. The stimulus came in and helped, but the cliff is coming."
To view the rest of the story visit the MSNBC website.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers
The following piece appeared on MSNBC.com.
U.S. schools in ‘category 5’ budget crisis
Thousands of teachers face layoffs as recession meets falling enrollments
By Alex Johnson
Reporter
msnbc.com
updated 8:48 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 18, 2010
At the center of the country’s school funding crisis are little boys and girls like Kyle Wolfe, a 3-year-old pupil in Rising Stars, a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk children in communities near Rockford, Ill.
“I can’t even begin to describe the way Kyle has grown since starting this program,” said his mother, Carolyn.
Last week, the Harlem School District Board of Education, which serves the communities of Loves Park, Machesney Park and southern Roscoe, voted to eliminate Rising Stars because the state of Illinois hasn’t made good on the grants that support it. The vote means the nearly 400 youngsters the program serves “will be entering kindergarten delayed academically and socially,” said Lynn Wade, a pre-K teacher at the Donald C. Parker Early Education Center in Machesney Park.
No one disputes that Rising Stars is “an excellent program,” said Julie M. Morris, the school district’s superintendent. The decision to kill it “has nothing to do with how the program is run or what it provides to our students.” It’s just money.
Thousands of administrators and school board members across the country are making similar agonizing choices. While the recession has put a squeeze on all types of government programs, none has felt its impact more than education — the largest item in most states’ budgets.
Now, many states have nearly exhausted their windfalls from the federal economic stimulus plan, and with falling housing values shrinking property tax revenue — the largest source of public school funding — the question for state and local officials planning budgets for the next school year is: Will it be bad — or horribly bad?
For schools, historic decisions
The retrenchment is coming as the Obama administration seeks to overhaul education law in a way that makes schools compete for federal grants. But critics say the focus should be on expanding funding for all schools, not imposing even higher standards while redistributing less money.
“Resources must be adequate and equalized across schools,” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, said last week in congressional testimony on the plan.
Citing research by the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, he said that “almost no states are currently funding their educational systems adequately, and most states are around 25 percent short of funding their systems at a level adequate.”
Cuts that have been announced this year are staggering:
The Kansas City, Mo., School District is closing nearly half its 61 schools, with almost 300 teachers among those losing their jobs once 29 campuses go dark.
The Montgomery, Ala., Public School Board voted last week to lay off more than 600 employees, including 415 teachers, in what it said was just the first phase of staff reductions.
In the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the Illinois 46th District school board this week approved a proposal to lay off more than 1,000 employees — about 25 percent of the district’s staff — to help make up a projected deficit of $44 million. More than 700 teachers would lose their jobs, including all first-, second- and third-year instructors.
Statewide, Illinois schools face budget cuts as high as 17 percent to make up a $1.3 billion education deficit, Gov. Pat Quinn warned last week.
In Atlanta, Superintendent Beverly L. Hall said this week that after years of cutbacks, her district’s 2010-11 budget will be almost 11 percent below its level of seven years ago.
Calling the impact a “category 5” crisis, Georgia’s state superintendent, Kathy Cox, said, “It’s going to be very tough next year. The stimulus came in and helped, but the cliff is coming."
To view the rest of the story visit the MSNBC website.
Friday, March 12, 2010
What Happens When Teachers' Unions Get too Greedy
The following piece appeared in the Northwest Herald. The article speaks for itself. It is refreshing to see the editorial staff of the Northwest Herald come to our side and so strongly too. Seven years ago you would never see an article like this in the Northwest Herald, they would be more likely to speak out against Jim and I.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
D-26 union must do part to pare losses
If there ever was any doubt, Monday night’s District 26 school board meeting put the debate to rest.
We now know that, for the District 26 teachers’ union, it’s not about the kids.
Maybe it was before. It certainly isn’t now.
Greed?
Yes, it’s about that.
An unwillingness to spare some of their colleagues from the unemployment line?
Yes, that’s part of it, too.
But the kids? No. Not even close.
District 26 is faced with cutting $5.4 million from its budget next fiscal year.
More than 70 teaching positions are on the chopping block.
The school board revealed during Monday night’s meeting that it twice had asked the teachers’ union to re-open its contract.
Twice it asked the union to offer concessions in an effort to save some of these 70 jobs.
Twice, the union said no thank you.
The school board asked again Monday night, and presented three options.
Option one involves a simple salary freeze, saving the district $527,599.
It would allow the district to save five teachers – one art teacher, one music teacher, one physical education teacher, and two classroom teachers.
Option two freezes teacher salaries and would require teachers to pay 20 percent of their single medical coverage, resulting in $739,149 in savings. In addition to the teachers saved in option one, three more would be spared – in music, physical education and a classroom.
Option three includes everything in option two plus a rollback of the 2010 salary increase, resulting in $1.36 million in savings. The eight teachers spared in option two would be joined by nine classroom teachers.
Any of these options would be better for the students of District 26 than eliminating the full slate of teacher positions now on the table.
So were members of the the teachers’ union willing to discuss these options, to consider making a slight sacrifice for the sake of the children?
Not hardly. At least not the union’s leadership.
“I don’t know how you can sleep at night,” a member of the union’s impact bargaining board told school board members, followed by, “You have made [this] extremely difficult, if not impossible.”
Impossible how?
The fact is, tens of millions of Americans have had to give plenty back in the midst of one of the worst economic periods of a generation. And with the state of Illinois in such dire financial straits, all public employees should expect to give something back.
We implore the District 26 teachers’ union to stop its posturing.
We implore the union’s leadership and membership to do the right thing here.
In the end, it should be about the kids.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
How do you Spell Greed?
How do you spell greed - "T-E-A-C-H-E-R-U-N-I-O-N-S" This is why teachers' unions hate homeschooling every student at home is money out of their pockets and money in taxpayers pockets. 38 free massages a year.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
In What Other Career Can You Sextext and Still get Paid?
In what other career can you sextext and still get paid? I would be fired without pay if I did this, she should be fired without pay as well. Our tax dollars should not be spent in this manner. This is also a reason why homeschoolers need to homeschool without government or public school intervention and also the reason why the money should follow the child and not the institution.
The following piece appeared on gather.com and a number of other places.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
New Hampshire teacher Melinda Dennehy arrested for sending nude photos to her student (photo)
March 06, 2010 12:06 PM EST
Melinda Dennehy is the 41 year old Londonberry, New Hampshire teacher accused of "sexting" with one of her students. According to reports Dennehy sent a nude photograph of herself to a 15 year old student. That student then forwarded that photo to his friends.
Staff of the school became alarmed when the rumors of the photograph began to circulate throughout the school. The school then began it's own investigation of the incident placing Dennehy on paid leave.
According to CBS News Dennehy was charged with one count of indecent exposure and released on $10,000 bond under the condition that she keep her distance from children ages 10 to 17 years of age.
Dennehy will face arraignment on April 30, 2010.
The following piece appeared on gather.com and a number of other places.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
New Hampshire teacher Melinda Dennehy arrested for sending nude photos to her student (photo)
March 06, 2010 12:06 PM EST
Melinda Dennehy is the 41 year old Londonberry, New Hampshire teacher accused of "sexting" with one of her students. According to reports Dennehy sent a nude photograph of herself to a 15 year old student. That student then forwarded that photo to his friends.
Staff of the school became alarmed when the rumors of the photograph began to circulate throughout the school. The school then began it's own investigation of the incident placing Dennehy on paid leave.
According to CBS News Dennehy was charged with one count of indecent exposure and released on $10,000 bond under the condition that she keep her distance from children ages 10 to 17 years of age.
Dennehy will face arraignment on April 30, 2010.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Taxpayer Funded Socialist Indoctrination Centers - Socialist Worker
Too many teachers are socialists! Don't agree? Read the story below! The following piece appears on the Socialistworker.org.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Answering the attack on teachers
March 3, 2010
It's open season on the teachers' unions--and President Barack Obama has joined the hunt.
"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in praise of the recent decision to fire all teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
But while Obama's open endorsement of an effort to bust a teachers' union may seem shocking, his administration has been hammering teachers since he took office. Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTP) initiative doles out grants to states that have laws attacking teacher seniority rights and that tie teachers' pay to student test scores.
With the recession drying up normal funding channels for schools, states are rushing to pass union-bashing laws to get a shot at the federal money--even as they impose layoffs and cutbacks to close huge budget deficits.
The two big teachers' unions--the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)--have so far failed to mount resistance to these attacks. But in teachers' union locals across the U.S., rank-and-file activists and union reformers have been trying to organize a fightback. In California, grassroots pressure led both the California Federation of Teachers and California Teachers Association to back the March 4 Day of Action to defend public education in that state.
Here, teachers across the U.S. talk about the battles they face and their efforts to resist the onslaught on their unions. Participants in the roundtable are Megan Behrent and Brian Jones from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York City; Laura Taylor from the Houston Federation of Teachers (HFT); Gillian Russom of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA); Adrienne Johnstone of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF); and Nate Goldbaum from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Read the rest of the story on the Socialistworker.org website.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Answering the attack on teachers
March 3, 2010
It's open season on the teachers' unions--and President Barack Obama has joined the hunt.
"If a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn't show signs of improvement, then there's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in praise of the recent decision to fire all teachers at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.
But while Obama's open endorsement of an effort to bust a teachers' union may seem shocking, his administration has been hammering teachers since he took office. Obama's $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTP) initiative doles out grants to states that have laws attacking teacher seniority rights and that tie teachers' pay to student test scores.
With the recession drying up normal funding channels for schools, states are rushing to pass union-bashing laws to get a shot at the federal money--even as they impose layoffs and cutbacks to close huge budget deficits.
The two big teachers' unions--the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)--have so far failed to mount resistance to these attacks. But in teachers' union locals across the U.S., rank-and-file activists and union reformers have been trying to organize a fightback. In California, grassroots pressure led both the California Federation of Teachers and California Teachers Association to back the March 4 Day of Action to defend public education in that state.
Here, teachers across the U.S. talk about the battles they face and their efforts to resist the onslaught on their unions. Participants in the roundtable are Megan Behrent and Brian Jones from the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) in New York City; Laura Taylor from the Houston Federation of Teachers (HFT); Gillian Russom of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA); Adrienne Johnstone of United Educators of San Francisco (UESF); and Nate Goldbaum from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Read the rest of the story on the Socialistworker.org website.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
A Time for Pay Cuts
The town of Croydon does a great job keeping salaries of our public employees in check, not so much in the Newport schools. Last year at the Town Hall Meeting we were told the salary increases at Newport would result in 10 teachers being laid off they were not, we were also told that the pay increases would not increase Croydon tuition but our taxes are expected to go up 20%. Are these lies, lies and more lies? Newport School employees get excellent pay, benefits and retirement and Croydon taxpayers must always give yet we who work in the public sector continue to see pay cuts, job losses and reduced benefits. Why should we continue a relationship with Newport when they look at Croydon as a cash cow? Further the thought that Newport employees want to close Croydon School and send all of our children there because their student population is declining is not only just plain greedy on their part but appalling.
Quote of the Day -
"Forcing one person to bear the burden of health care costs for another is not only a moral question but a major threat to personal liberty" -- economist Walter Williams.
The following piece appeared on City Watch.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers
Mr. Cortines, Tear Down This Wall!
SICK AND TIRED
By Ken Alpern
Just because the old Soviet Union is now confined to the history books, it doesn’t mean we don’t have any “Evil Empires” right here at home that victimize us on a daily basis. I’d say that the public unions, the LAUSD, and their enabling elected politicians just as effectively keep us “Comrades” suppressed, with our taxes misspent and any dissenting voices stifled. As the debate goes on whether to lay off good, hard-working City workers and good, hard-working LAUSD teachers, I remind you all that it’s just a simple matter of math: we either make a pay cut for City workers (ditto for the LAUSD, county, state and federal work forces) or we have to make layoffs.
As the proud son of a Los Angeles civil servant and of a teacher, I very much prefer the former, and NOT the latter, with a broadening of options for motivated public sector individuals to work more than a single job to make more money and help balance the City and LAUSD budgets.
I’ve been through rounds of pay cuts, and I now work six days a week and volunteer countless unpaid hours in my neighborhood council and in grassroots organizations (as do many of you reading this), so I think I’ve earned the right to ask the public unions and elected officials to Do The Obvious and agree to pay cuts…especially because these pay cuts reverse years of salary and pension pay hikes that never, ever EVER could have fit into any reasonable City or LAUSD budget.
Furthermore, I’m sick and tired of walking past fenced-off schools and seeing my children and their friends robbed of the same easily accessible, taxpayer-funded and public school playgrounds and fields that I once enjoyed daily usage when I was a child.
I’m sick and tired of public libraries and parks having to have budgets, staff and hours trimmed while other “Sacred Cows” such as Police and Fire declare themselves off limits to any cuts...while hinting they might not protect us, and guilting/bullying us into submission by suggesting we don’t appreciate their services, if we don’t give them more money.
I’m sick and tired of a LAUSD bureaucracy and the endless whining of the bullies and thugs at the teachers unions tell the taxpayers they have to pay MORE while we get less for our hard-earned dollars. Ditto for the LADWP.
What kind of socialist, statist hell have we gotten ourselves into?
But enough about whining—we need to have ideas, and the discussion needs to have occurred years ago, but to start NOW is better late than never:
1) While a few departments and positions can be streamlined, combined or eliminated, layoffs can be avoided--however, the public sector union leadership needs to have its collective shirt grabbed by the lapel and "get it" that a 5% pay reduction can keep all necessary City, LAUSD and LADWP workers on board and make Los Angeles a great place to live.
2) It's my contention that parks, libraries and neighborhood councils do better with their limited budgets than most of City Hall and other departments do with theirs—cuts have to be across the board, but nailing a few departments because they’re easy targets won’t get the job done
3) Library and parks hours and services need to be extended. With a shortage of open space and educational opportunities, the time is truly ripe for the LAUSD to do a much better job of partnering with the City and County of Los Angeles to fund and provide educational and recreational services.
4) There are too many turf wars between the LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles, and now more than ever we need to have schools and parks and libraries work together to support each other, and not rival each other with duplicated services and facilities.
5) Most importantly, the need to open more evening and weekend hours for schools, with their publicly-funded green spaces and playgrounds, is paramount to restoring the quality of life, trust and connection of taxpayers to the schools they’ve shelled out billions for over the past decade
Whether it’s with a fee and a legal waiver to allow kids and their parents to enjoy these facilities, and to pay for supervisors and security guards to make sure that all legal and security issues are addressed, it’s time to open up the wonderful facilities to the taxpayers who paid for them.
I’ve heard the arguments against this idea, and I’ve also heard the arguments against better coordination and joint funding between City and LAUSD park and library services, and I reject them all—as do, probably, most taxpaying parents who have to put up with this inefficient, taxpayer-hostile way of doing things.
LAUSD Superintendent Ray Cortines is, in my opinion, one of the good guys—and I think that his relationship with Mayor Villaraigosa is one that bodes well for better coordination between the City and the LAUSD. I also think that Mayor Villaraigosa’s idea of a joint LAUSD/City of Los Angeles relationship to improve the education and quality of life for children and their families was, is and will always be an idea that merits a great deal of attention and discussion.
More than ever, we need leaders who are brave and are willing to break the boxes around which we’ve walled ourselves and different layers of government into. We need the decency to tear down the barriers between LAUSD facilities in a park-poor City of Los Angeles, and we need the wisdom to tear down the blockades between rival City and LAUSD departments who provide the same services, and we need the courage to tear down the stifling obstruction between the public sector unions and the taxpayers who provide their salaries.
Mr. Cortines, please tear down this wall!
(Ken Alpern is a Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) and is both co-chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee and past co-chair of the MVCC Planning/Land Use Management Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and also chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at Alpern@MarVista.org. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw
CityWatch
Vol 8 Issue 15
Pub: Feb 23, 2010
Quote of the Day -
"Forcing one person to bear the burden of health care costs for another is not only a moral question but a major threat to personal liberty" -- economist Walter Williams.
The following piece appeared on City Watch.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers
Mr. Cortines, Tear Down This Wall!
SICK AND TIRED
By Ken Alpern
Just because the old Soviet Union is now confined to the history books, it doesn’t mean we don’t have any “Evil Empires” right here at home that victimize us on a daily basis. I’d say that the public unions, the LAUSD, and their enabling elected politicians just as effectively keep us “Comrades” suppressed, with our taxes misspent and any dissenting voices stifled. As the debate goes on whether to lay off good, hard-working City workers and good, hard-working LAUSD teachers, I remind you all that it’s just a simple matter of math: we either make a pay cut for City workers (ditto for the LAUSD, county, state and federal work forces) or we have to make layoffs.
As the proud son of a Los Angeles civil servant and of a teacher, I very much prefer the former, and NOT the latter, with a broadening of options for motivated public sector individuals to work more than a single job to make more money and help balance the City and LAUSD budgets.
I’ve been through rounds of pay cuts, and I now work six days a week and volunteer countless unpaid hours in my neighborhood council and in grassroots organizations (as do many of you reading this), so I think I’ve earned the right to ask the public unions and elected officials to Do The Obvious and agree to pay cuts…especially because these pay cuts reverse years of salary and pension pay hikes that never, ever EVER could have fit into any reasonable City or LAUSD budget.
Furthermore, I’m sick and tired of walking past fenced-off schools and seeing my children and their friends robbed of the same easily accessible, taxpayer-funded and public school playgrounds and fields that I once enjoyed daily usage when I was a child.
I’m sick and tired of public libraries and parks having to have budgets, staff and hours trimmed while other “Sacred Cows” such as Police and Fire declare themselves off limits to any cuts...while hinting they might not protect us, and guilting/bullying us into submission by suggesting we don’t appreciate their services, if we don’t give them more money.
I’m sick and tired of a LAUSD bureaucracy and the endless whining of the bullies and thugs at the teachers unions tell the taxpayers they have to pay MORE while we get less for our hard-earned dollars. Ditto for the LADWP.
What kind of socialist, statist hell have we gotten ourselves into?
But enough about whining—we need to have ideas, and the discussion needs to have occurred years ago, but to start NOW is better late than never:
1) While a few departments and positions can be streamlined, combined or eliminated, layoffs can be avoided--however, the public sector union leadership needs to have its collective shirt grabbed by the lapel and "get it" that a 5% pay reduction can keep all necessary City, LAUSD and LADWP workers on board and make Los Angeles a great place to live.
2) It's my contention that parks, libraries and neighborhood councils do better with their limited budgets than most of City Hall and other departments do with theirs—cuts have to be across the board, but nailing a few departments because they’re easy targets won’t get the job done
3) Library and parks hours and services need to be extended. With a shortage of open space and educational opportunities, the time is truly ripe for the LAUSD to do a much better job of partnering with the City and County of Los Angeles to fund and provide educational and recreational services.
4) There are too many turf wars between the LAUSD and the City of Los Angeles, and now more than ever we need to have schools and parks and libraries work together to support each other, and not rival each other with duplicated services and facilities.
5) Most importantly, the need to open more evening and weekend hours for schools, with their publicly-funded green spaces and playgrounds, is paramount to restoring the quality of life, trust and connection of taxpayers to the schools they’ve shelled out billions for over the past decade
Whether it’s with a fee and a legal waiver to allow kids and their parents to enjoy these facilities, and to pay for supervisors and security guards to make sure that all legal and security issues are addressed, it’s time to open up the wonderful facilities to the taxpayers who paid for them.
I’ve heard the arguments against this idea, and I’ve also heard the arguments against better coordination and joint funding between City and LAUSD park and library services, and I reject them all—as do, probably, most taxpaying parents who have to put up with this inefficient, taxpayer-hostile way of doing things.
LAUSD Superintendent Ray Cortines is, in my opinion, one of the good guys—and I think that his relationship with Mayor Villaraigosa is one that bodes well for better coordination between the City and the LAUSD. I also think that Mayor Villaraigosa’s idea of a joint LAUSD/City of Los Angeles relationship to improve the education and quality of life for children and their families was, is and will always be an idea that merits a great deal of attention and discussion.
More than ever, we need leaders who are brave and are willing to break the boxes around which we’ve walled ourselves and different layers of government into. We need the decency to tear down the barriers between LAUSD facilities in a park-poor City of Los Angeles, and we need the wisdom to tear down the blockades between rival City and LAUSD departments who provide the same services, and we need the courage to tear down the stifling obstruction between the public sector unions and the taxpayers who provide their salaries.
Mr. Cortines, please tear down this wall!
(Ken Alpern is a Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) and is both co-chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee and past co-chair of the MVCC Planning/Land Use Management Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and also chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at Alpern@MarVista.org. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw
CityWatch
Vol 8 Issue 15
Pub: Feb 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Are Teachers Underpaid?
You decide. No wonder Illinois' Pension System is a Trillion dollars underfunded. Any teachers worth the paper their diploma is written on knows you can not pay teachers like this and not bankrupt a State.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Top 100 paid Teachers in Illinois.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Top 100 paid Teachers in Illinois.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Homeschoolers are Heros and they save Taxpayers Billions to Boot
The following piece appeared on Foundation for Economic Education.org and speaks for itself.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Home School Heroes
By Lawrence W. Reed
President, Foundation for Economic Education--www.fee.org
(The following essay first appeared in FEE’s journal, “The Freeman,” in February 1997. In the years since, the author’s estimation of the importance of the homeschool option has only increased. Though the numbers cited in the essay are now dated, the principles expressed herein are as valid as ever.)
Of all the ingredients in the recipe for education, which one has the greatest potential to improve student performance?
No doubt the teachers unions would put higher salaries for their members at the top of the list, to which almost every reformer might reply, “Been there, done that.” Teacher compensation has soared in recent decades at the same time every indicator of student performance has plummeted.
Other answers include smaller class size, a longer school year, more money for computers, or simply more money for fill-in-the- blank. The consensus of hundreds of studies over the past several years is that these factors exhibit either no positive correlation with better student performance or show only a weak connection. On this important question, the verdict is in and it is definitive: The one ingredient that makes the most difference in how well and how much children learn is parental involvement.
When parents take a personal interest in the education of their children, several things happen. The child gets a strong message that education is important to success in life; it isn’t something that parents dump in someone else’s lap. Caring, involved parents usually instill a love of learning in their children—a love that translates into a sense of pride and achievement as knowledge is accumulated and put to good use. Time spent with books goes up and time wasted in the streets goes down.
American parents were once responsible for educating their children. Until the late nineteenth century, the home, the church, and a small nearby school were the primary centers of learning for the great majority of Americans.
In more recent times, many American parents have largely abdicated this responsibility, in favor of the experts in the compulsory public school system. According to a 1996 report from Temple University in Pennsylvania, nearly one in three parents is seriously disengaged from their children’s education. The Temple researchers found that about one-sixth of all students believe their parents don’t care whether they earn good grades and nearly one-third say their parents have no idea how they are doing in school.
Amid the sorry state of American education today are heroes who are rescuing children in a profoundly personal way. They are the home schoolers—parents who sacrifice time and income to teach their children themselves. Home schooling is the ultimate in parental involvement.
Teaching children at home isn’t for everyone and no one advocates that every parent try it. There are plenty of good schools—many private and some public—that are doing a better job than some parents could do for their own children. But the fact is that home schooling is working—and working surprisingly well—for the growing number of parents and children who choose it. That fact is all the more remarkable when one considers that these dedicated parents must juggle teaching with all the other demands and chores of modern life. Also, they get little or nothing back from what they pay in taxes for an appallingly expensive public system they don’t patronize.
While about 46 million children attend public schools and more than 5 million attend private schools, estimates of the number of children in home schools nationwide range from 900,000 to 1.2 million. That’s a comparatively small number, but it’s up from a mere 15,000 in the early 1980s. In fact, home school enrollment has been growing by an astounding 25 percent annually for several years.
Parents who home school do so for a variety of reasons. Some want a strong moral or religious emphasis in their children’s education. Others are fleeing unsafe public schools or schools where discipline and academics have taken a backseat to fuzzy feel-good or politically correct dogma. Many home school parents complain about the pervasiveness in public schools of trendy instructional methods that border on pedagogical malpractice.
Home school parents are fiercely protective of their constitutional right to educate their children. In early 1994, the House of Representatives voted to mandate that all teachers—including parents in the home—acquire state certification in the subjects they teach. A massive campaign of letters, phone calls, and faxes from home schoolers produced one of the most stunning turnabouts in legislative history: By a vote of 424 to 1, the House reversed itself and then approved an amendment that affirmed the rights and independence of home school parents.
Critics have long harbored a jaundiced view of parents who educate children at home. They argue that children need the guidance of professionals and the social interaction that come from being with a class of others. Home schooled children, these critics say, will be socially and academically stunted by the confines of the home. But the facts suggest otherwise.
A 1990 report by the National Home Education Research Institute showed that home schooled children score in the 80th percentile or higher, meaning that they scored better than 80 percent of other students in math, reading, science, language, and social studies. Reports from state after state show home schoolers scoring significantly better than the norm on college entrance examinations. Prestigious universities, including Harvard and Yale, accept home-schooled children eagerly and often. And there’s simply no evidence that home-schooled children (with a rare exception) make anything but fine, solid citizens who respect others and work hard as adults.
Home school parents approach their task in a variety of ways. While some discover texts and methods as they go, others plan their work well before they start, often assisted by other home schoolers or associations that have sprung up to aid those who choose this option. Common to every home school parent is the belief that the education of their children is too important to hand over to someone else. (My personal belief is that many inner-city government schools are so rotten to the core, so riddled with corruption, incompetence, waste, indoctrination, union goonism and nonsense curriculum that trusting a child to such an environment is nothing less than child abuse. My heart goes out to the many parents and children who have no option but to be captives.)
Writing in the July 1996 issue of Reason magazine, Britton Manasco argues that the growth of CD-ROMs, Internet services, and computerized educational networks is likely to make homeschooling even more attractive to parents. For a tiny fraction of what a printed version might cost, one software publisher is offering a classic books program that incorporates more than 3,500 unabridged literary works, complete with hundreds of video clips and illustrations. A support group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides inexpensive on-line help, resources, and evaluations for thousands of home school children worldwide. Another organization links first-rate instructors and home school students from all over the country via computer in a college preparatory program that includes a core curriculum for about $250 per course.
In every other walk of life, Americans traditionally regard as heroes the men and women who meet challenges head-on, who go against the grain and persevere to bring a dream to fruition. At a time when more troubles and shortcomings plague education and educational heroes are too few in number, recognizing the home school heroes in our midst may be both long overdue and highly instructive.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
Home School Heroes
By Lawrence W. Reed
President, Foundation for Economic Education--www.fee.org
(The following essay first appeared in FEE’s journal, “The Freeman,” in February 1997. In the years since, the author’s estimation of the importance of the homeschool option has only increased. Though the numbers cited in the essay are now dated, the principles expressed herein are as valid as ever.)
Of all the ingredients in the recipe for education, which one has the greatest potential to improve student performance?
No doubt the teachers unions would put higher salaries for their members at the top of the list, to which almost every reformer might reply, “Been there, done that.” Teacher compensation has soared in recent decades at the same time every indicator of student performance has plummeted.
Other answers include smaller class size, a longer school year, more money for computers, or simply more money for fill-in-the- blank. The consensus of hundreds of studies over the past several years is that these factors exhibit either no positive correlation with better student performance or show only a weak connection. On this important question, the verdict is in and it is definitive: The one ingredient that makes the most difference in how well and how much children learn is parental involvement.
When parents take a personal interest in the education of their children, several things happen. The child gets a strong message that education is important to success in life; it isn’t something that parents dump in someone else’s lap. Caring, involved parents usually instill a love of learning in their children—a love that translates into a sense of pride and achievement as knowledge is accumulated and put to good use. Time spent with books goes up and time wasted in the streets goes down.
American parents were once responsible for educating their children. Until the late nineteenth century, the home, the church, and a small nearby school were the primary centers of learning for the great majority of Americans.
In more recent times, many American parents have largely abdicated this responsibility, in favor of the experts in the compulsory public school system. According to a 1996 report from Temple University in Pennsylvania, nearly one in three parents is seriously disengaged from their children’s education. The Temple researchers found that about one-sixth of all students believe their parents don’t care whether they earn good grades and nearly one-third say their parents have no idea how they are doing in school.
Amid the sorry state of American education today are heroes who are rescuing children in a profoundly personal way. They are the home schoolers—parents who sacrifice time and income to teach their children themselves. Home schooling is the ultimate in parental involvement.
Teaching children at home isn’t for everyone and no one advocates that every parent try it. There are plenty of good schools—many private and some public—that are doing a better job than some parents could do for their own children. But the fact is that home schooling is working—and working surprisingly well—for the growing number of parents and children who choose it. That fact is all the more remarkable when one considers that these dedicated parents must juggle teaching with all the other demands and chores of modern life. Also, they get little or nothing back from what they pay in taxes for an appallingly expensive public system they don’t patronize.
While about 46 million children attend public schools and more than 5 million attend private schools, estimates of the number of children in home schools nationwide range from 900,000 to 1.2 million. That’s a comparatively small number, but it’s up from a mere 15,000 in the early 1980s. In fact, home school enrollment has been growing by an astounding 25 percent annually for several years.
Parents who home school do so for a variety of reasons. Some want a strong moral or religious emphasis in their children’s education. Others are fleeing unsafe public schools or schools where discipline and academics have taken a backseat to fuzzy feel-good or politically correct dogma. Many home school parents complain about the pervasiveness in public schools of trendy instructional methods that border on pedagogical malpractice.
Home school parents are fiercely protective of their constitutional right to educate their children. In early 1994, the House of Representatives voted to mandate that all teachers—including parents in the home—acquire state certification in the subjects they teach. A massive campaign of letters, phone calls, and faxes from home schoolers produced one of the most stunning turnabouts in legislative history: By a vote of 424 to 1, the House reversed itself and then approved an amendment that affirmed the rights and independence of home school parents.
Critics have long harbored a jaundiced view of parents who educate children at home. They argue that children need the guidance of professionals and the social interaction that come from being with a class of others. Home schooled children, these critics say, will be socially and academically stunted by the confines of the home. But the facts suggest otherwise.
A 1990 report by the National Home Education Research Institute showed that home schooled children score in the 80th percentile or higher, meaning that they scored better than 80 percent of other students in math, reading, science, language, and social studies. Reports from state after state show home schoolers scoring significantly better than the norm on college entrance examinations. Prestigious universities, including Harvard and Yale, accept home-schooled children eagerly and often. And there’s simply no evidence that home-schooled children (with a rare exception) make anything but fine, solid citizens who respect others and work hard as adults.
Home school parents approach their task in a variety of ways. While some discover texts and methods as they go, others plan their work well before they start, often assisted by other home schoolers or associations that have sprung up to aid those who choose this option. Common to every home school parent is the belief that the education of their children is too important to hand over to someone else. (My personal belief is that many inner-city government schools are so rotten to the core, so riddled with corruption, incompetence, waste, indoctrination, union goonism and nonsense curriculum that trusting a child to such an environment is nothing less than child abuse. My heart goes out to the many parents and children who have no option but to be captives.)
Writing in the July 1996 issue of Reason magazine, Britton Manasco argues that the growth of CD-ROMs, Internet services, and computerized educational networks is likely to make homeschooling even more attractive to parents. For a tiny fraction of what a printed version might cost, one software publisher is offering a classic books program that incorporates more than 3,500 unabridged literary works, complete with hundreds of video clips and illustrations. A support group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides inexpensive on-line help, resources, and evaluations for thousands of home school children worldwide. Another organization links first-rate instructors and home school students from all over the country via computer in a college preparatory program that includes a core curriculum for about $250 per course.
In every other walk of life, Americans traditionally regard as heroes the men and women who meet challenges head-on, who go against the grain and persevere to bring a dream to fruition. At a time when more troubles and shortcomings plague education and educational heroes are too few in number, recognizing the home school heroes in our midst may be both long overdue and highly instructive.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Can't be said enough.
If you are a State employee or a member of the teachers union you are a part of the problem and not part of the solution you are a factor in bankrupting America, your state and your town. It is time for you to go to your union heads and demand that you work together as a union to switch from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan before you all lose your retirements because America will have no choice but to not pay out these unsustainable pensions.
The following piece appeared on the American Thinker.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
February 19, 2010
News from the public employee front
Ed Lasky
As cities and states face increasing prospects of bankruptcy, who is looking out for the public good ?
Not teachers' unions - the bedrock of the Democratic party and a major beneficiary of the so-called stimulus bill that channeled hundreds of billions of dollars to cities and states so they could meet their payroll and pension obligations. The newly -elected Republican governor of New Jersey owns up to the problem and wants to meet it head on.
Governor Chris Christie:
"Make no mistake about it, pensions and benefits are the major driver of our spending increases at all levels of government -- state, county, municipal and school board. . . . We don't have that money -- you know it and I know it. What has been done to our citizens by offering a pension system we cannot afford and health benefits that are 41% more expensive than the average Fortune 500 company's costs is the truly unfair part of this equation" -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, describing the state's fiscal crisis by highlighting the case of one New Jersey teacher due to receive retirement benefits of $1.6 million after contributing only $62,000 into the retirement system.
This is what a leader does. He looks at the problem and deals with it head on. He does not look away from the problem or pass the buck. The buck (and that is a taxpayer buck) stops at his desk.
Conversely his predecessor, Jon Corzine, Democratic and Wall Street fat cat, was in bed with the public employees unions - literally and figuratively. He had a long-time affair with Carla Katz, president of the Communication Workers of America, a union that represented nearly half of all New Jersey state employees. The union endorsed him.
When Carla and Jon broke up, he rewarded her with millions of dollars. Apparently, that was not enough. A few years later, Katz was fired and expelled from the union for financial shenanigans involving the misuse of union funds. The sordid tale was symbolic of the incestuous relationship between many Democrats and public employee unions
This is not just a problem in New Jersey. The problem of sky-high salary and pension and health benefits flowing to members of public unions is an albatross around taxpayers' necks. But Governor Christie is not alone in being strong enough to want to stop the massive bleeding of the budget.
There is this Reaganesque tale:
A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system.
Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.
The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. ... The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.
But wait! It gets better! From an email from someone who seems to know the district:
Teacher salaries at the high school average $72-78k. Apparently 50% of the students at the school are failing all of their classes, and the graduation rate is also under 50%. In an effort to turn the school around, the superintendent requested some changes be made whereby the school day would be slightly extended, teachers would perform some extra tutoring, etc.
Here is my nominee for Education Secretary : that superintendent who gave us all an education in that one act.
Reagan solidified his image as a strong leader very early in his Presidency (1981). His reputation did not hinge on any actions involving the Soviet Union ("Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall" was years in the future). Instead, the Air Traffic Controllers Union (PATCO) broke the law and went on strike, imperiling our nation's aviation system. After fair warning, Reagan fired them. He dealt with the problem by using supervisors and other replacements. The previous controllers were never to be hired again. Reagan was a leader.
There is potential here for new governors and politicians running for public office. There is a revolt brewing out there - in case one hasn't noticed. The people are sick of taxes and bloated budgets. The people are increasingly learning about the rotten deals that their politicians have signed with public employee unions. They know that their childrens' futures and their own retirements are being threatened by the obligation to pay these gold-plated pension and health benefits. They want them broken and then fixed.
I think the Rhode Island teachers' behavior was shameful. Aren't they public servants? Don't they supposedly serve the public? My son's junior high school requires all students to take an absurd course called "Common Good" that supposedly teaches them how to develop a devotion to the community.
Maybe the Rhode Island teachers need to take this remedial course. They have some time on their hands now.
The following piece appeared on the American Thinker.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
February 19, 2010
News from the public employee front
Ed Lasky
As cities and states face increasing prospects of bankruptcy, who is looking out for the public good ?
Not teachers' unions - the bedrock of the Democratic party and a major beneficiary of the so-called stimulus bill that channeled hundreds of billions of dollars to cities and states so they could meet their payroll and pension obligations. The newly -elected Republican governor of New Jersey owns up to the problem and wants to meet it head on.
Governor Chris Christie:
"Make no mistake about it, pensions and benefits are the major driver of our spending increases at all levels of government -- state, county, municipal and school board. . . . We don't have that money -- you know it and I know it. What has been done to our citizens by offering a pension system we cannot afford and health benefits that are 41% more expensive than the average Fortune 500 company's costs is the truly unfair part of this equation" -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, describing the state's fiscal crisis by highlighting the case of one New Jersey teacher due to receive retirement benefits of $1.6 million after contributing only $62,000 into the retirement system.
This is what a leader does. He looks at the problem and deals with it head on. He does not look away from the problem or pass the buck. The buck (and that is a taxpayer buck) stops at his desk.
Conversely his predecessor, Jon Corzine, Democratic and Wall Street fat cat, was in bed with the public employees unions - literally and figuratively. He had a long-time affair with Carla Katz, president of the Communication Workers of America, a union that represented nearly half of all New Jersey state employees. The union endorsed him.
When Carla and Jon broke up, he rewarded her with millions of dollars. Apparently, that was not enough. A few years later, Katz was fired and expelled from the union for financial shenanigans involving the misuse of union funds. The sordid tale was symbolic of the incestuous relationship between many Democrats and public employee unions
This is not just a problem in New Jersey. The problem of sky-high salary and pension and health benefits flowing to members of public unions is an albatross around taxpayers' necks. But Governor Christie is not alone in being strong enough to want to stop the massive bleeding of the budget.
There is this Reaganesque tale:
A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system.
Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.
The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. ... The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.
But wait! It gets better! From an email from someone who seems to know the district:
Teacher salaries at the high school average $72-78k. Apparently 50% of the students at the school are failing all of their classes, and the graduation rate is also under 50%. In an effort to turn the school around, the superintendent requested some changes be made whereby the school day would be slightly extended, teachers would perform some extra tutoring, etc.
Here is my nominee for Education Secretary : that superintendent who gave us all an education in that one act.
Reagan solidified his image as a strong leader very early in his Presidency (1981). His reputation did not hinge on any actions involving the Soviet Union ("Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall" was years in the future). Instead, the Air Traffic Controllers Union (PATCO) broke the law and went on strike, imperiling our nation's aviation system. After fair warning, Reagan fired them. He dealt with the problem by using supervisors and other replacements. The previous controllers were never to be hired again. Reagan was a leader.
There is potential here for new governors and politicians running for public office. There is a revolt brewing out there - in case one hasn't noticed. The people are sick of taxes and bloated budgets. The people are increasingly learning about the rotten deals that their politicians have signed with public employee unions. They know that their childrens' futures and their own retirements are being threatened by the obligation to pay these gold-plated pension and health benefits. They want them broken and then fixed.
I think the Rhode Island teachers' behavior was shameful. Aren't they public servants? Don't they supposedly serve the public? My son's junior high school requires all students to take an absurd course called "Common Good" that supposedly teaches them how to develop a devotion to the community.
Maybe the Rhode Island teachers need to take this remedial course. They have some time on their hands now.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
W.A.S.P. Never Cease to Amaze
Fantabulous I hope to see more of this in the future.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
The following piece appears at Business Insider.com.
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
Henry Blodget
Go ahead and sleep. I make way more than your Dad.
A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system.
Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.
The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).
The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.
A sign of things to come?
Mish Shedlock has the details at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis:
Central Falls Rhode Island Fires Every High School Teacher
Here is an interesting email from "Jason" regarding high schools in Central Falls Rhode Island. Jason writes:
Hi Mish,
As I'm sure you're aware, Rhode Island has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
Central Falls is one of the poorest towns in the state. It looks like the pictures everyone's seen of Detroit or Flint. There are lots of boarded up windows, abandoned buildings, decrepit factories with broken windows, etc. It's an absolutely depressed community. According to Wikipedia, the median income in the town is $22k.
Teacher salaries at the high school average $72-78k. Apparently 50% of the students at the school are failing all of their classes, and the graduation rate is also under 50%. In an effort to turn the school around, the superintendent requested some changes be made whereby the school day would be slightly extended, teachers would perform some extra tutoring, etc.
The union balked and refused the terms, so now she is firing the entire teaching staff of the high school and replacing them. This is yet another example of unions digging their own graves by refusing to negotiate or accept reasonable terms. Sentiment is on the side of the superintendent, at least among the folks I have discussed the issue with.
Jason
With that backdrop, please consider Central Falls to fire every high school teacher.
The teachers didn’t blink.
Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.
The superintendent didn’t blink either.
After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.
Gallo blamed the union’s “callous disregard” for the situation, saying union leaders “knew full well what would happen” if they rejected the six conditions Gallo said were crucial to improving the school. The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.
Cathy
Spelling and grammar errors as well as typos are left as an exercise for my readers.
The following piece appears at Business Insider.com.
Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Of Them
Henry Blodget
Go ahead and sleep. I make way more than your Dad.
A school superintendent in Rhode Island is trying to fix an abysmally bad school system.
Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.
The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000. This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).
The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.
A sign of things to come?
Mish Shedlock has the details at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis:
Central Falls Rhode Island Fires Every High School Teacher
Here is an interesting email from "Jason" regarding high schools in Central Falls Rhode Island. Jason writes:
Hi Mish,
As I'm sure you're aware, Rhode Island has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
Central Falls is one of the poorest towns in the state. It looks like the pictures everyone's seen of Detroit or Flint. There are lots of boarded up windows, abandoned buildings, decrepit factories with broken windows, etc. It's an absolutely depressed community. According to Wikipedia, the median income in the town is $22k.
Teacher salaries at the high school average $72-78k. Apparently 50% of the students at the school are failing all of their classes, and the graduation rate is also under 50%. In an effort to turn the school around, the superintendent requested some changes be made whereby the school day would be slightly extended, teachers would perform some extra tutoring, etc.
The union balked and refused the terms, so now she is firing the entire teaching staff of the high school and replacing them. This is yet another example of unions digging their own graves by refusing to negotiate or accept reasonable terms. Sentiment is on the side of the superintendent, at least among the folks I have discussed the issue with.
Jason
With that backdrop, please consider Central Falls to fire every high school teacher.
The teachers didn’t blink.
Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.
The superintendent didn’t blink either.
After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.
Gallo blamed the union’s “callous disregard” for the situation, saying union leaders “knew full well what would happen” if they rejected the six conditions Gallo said were crucial to improving the school. The conditions are adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.
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