Teachers+Unions

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Calif. Teachers Show Support For Cop Murderer

April 12, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

What the hell the un-American, murder-loving “teachers” in California should care about a cop-killing scumbag in Philadelphia is anyone’s guess.

Convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal is finding some support in an unusual place – at the California Federation of Teachers Convention.

Last month, delegates there passed a resolution to reaffirm their support for Mumia.

Of course, the former member of the Black Panthers who was found guilty of murdering Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner around 13th and Locust streets back in 1981.

He has been sentenced to death. His supporters argue that his trial was unfair and that he is actually a Civil Rights hero.

This murderous piece of garbage put a gun to a policeman’s head and pulled the trigger coldly and with calculation and in front of multiple witnesses.

Mumia should not be drawing breath. He should be executed and with extreme malice at that.

Yet we have these so-called teachers all the way in California coming to his support decades after his guilt has been established. And they are calling Mumia a “journalist,” worse yet.

Unions are inherently un-American.
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Calif. Teachers Show Support For Cop Murderer”

Budget - Chicago - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois Teachers Pay Nothing or Little into Their Pensions

April 7, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Larry Snow

Illinois teachers qualify for a full 75 percent pension after working only 27 years. Most adults work for 27 years before they turn age 50.

Democrats want retail and construction workers to think that the majority of Illinois teachers are seriously paying into their pensions. The truth is, ordinary workers are made to do this for them, big time.

First, teachers have no Social Security taken out of their paychecks. Ordinary workers get hit with a 6.2 percent deduction for Social Security. It’s a deduction they have to pay federal and state income taxes on. Democrats gave teachers a huge loophole of not paying income taxes on any of their pension deductions. This enormous no-tax handout to teachers amounts to billions of dollars each year.

Over 51,000 of the total 132,502 teachers in Illinois contribute nothing from their K-12 paychecks into their pensions. Illinois law says it is to be 9.4 percent.

About an additional 32,000 teachers pay little into their pensions. It is 1.81 percent to be precise for these 31,956 teachers. Paying less than 2 percent is little unless you want to bamboozle ordinary working people into thinking the opposite…

Read the rest at ChampionNews.net.

Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

NEA: We Are One. We Are Everywhere. We are at War!

April 5, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

National Education Association declares war, but finding allies could be difficult

It’s hardly a secret that the National Education Association is an organization that has had its political way for the past 35 or so years. However, voters are fed up with the union’s attempts to keep a failing public education system from being reformed and having massive debt foisted on them in the form of public employee pensions. In November, the populace voted flinty governors and no-nonsense legislators into state houses all over the country.

Clearly NEA, to maintain its hegemony, must now combat the reform fires that are spreading wildly from sea to shining sea. But according to teacher union watchdog Mike Antonucci, the megaunion is indeed going to war with not as much money as they once had. “… after some 27 years of increases, NEA membership is down in 43 states. The union faces a $14 million budget shortfall, and the demand for funds from its Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund is certain to exceed its supply. Even the national UniServ grants, which help pay for NEA state affiliate employees, will be reduced this year.”

So, what will the war look like?
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NEA: We Are One. We Are Everywhere. We are at War!”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teacher Union Leaders Go Public and Confirm Their Fecklessness

March 30, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Weingarten is schooled by WSJ’s Jason Riley; Van Roekel is clueless as usual.

The National Education Association and the American Federation of teachers represent over 4.5 million teachers and educational support workers across the United States. These two unions have been under attack for the past few years by reformers who point to their slavish clinging to the status quo as a major barrier to badly needed education reform.

Since the election in November when American citizens voted forward thinking legislators and governors into office, education reform has made great strides across the country. The elected officials have been attacking the union’s sacred cows with a ferocity that hasn’t been seen before – eliminating seniority and tenure, introducing merit pay, defining teacher accountability, more school choice programs, etc. are all on the agenda.
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Teacher Union Leaders Go Public and Confirm Their Fecklessness”

Budget - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Teachers Unions and Truth: Rarely Does the Twain Meet

March 26, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Misinformation is at the heart of unionspeak.

Public school teachers have been told for years that they are only respected by the general public because Big Union fights for them and gets them that respect.

However, the opposite would appear to be true. America still loves its teachers…the good ones, that is. They don’t like the bad ones, the self-pitiers and the bullying unions that keep incompetent teachers on the job, ruining the lives of thousands of children every year. Nothing makes this point better than the recent situation in Wisconsin where certain members of the teaching community showed their true colors.

The unions also tell teachers that if not for them they’d be toiling away for minimum wage. But again, that’s wrong. And it’s not only teachers who buy this line – much of the general public does too.
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Teachers Unions and Truth: Rarely Does the Twain Meet”

California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - NEA - Public Employees Unions - Teachers Unions - Unions

An Orgasm for the Children

March 18, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

NEA’s reprehensible sexual agenda goes on unabated and the MSM is MIA.

At a time when teachers’ unions are battling for their collective bargaining lives, courtesy of Governors Scott Walker, Chris Christie, John Kasich et al., it’s hard to go a day without reading a newspaper account of the latest union news. However, there is a story involving the National Education Association that has flown under the mainstream media radar.

I could not find a single MSM account of a talk given at a UN conference on March 3rd where Diane Schneider, representing the NEA at the “Commission on the Status of Women” said:
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An Orgasm for the Children”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

No Citizen Left Untaxed

March 15, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

NEA boss has it backwards when he claims that America cannot have a middle class without unions.

Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, America’s largest union, claims, “In actions more fitting for comic book arch-villains, a new crop of state leaders have launched blistering attacks on working families disguised as budget and education reforms, and many have sought to strip workers’ rights to have a voice through their union.”

If he is correct and the middle class is being threatened, it is the public employee unions (PEUs) that are doing the threatening. Fewer than one in eight Americans are in unions but more than 50% of them are in PEUs. It’s hardly a secret that PEU pensions are in the process of sending various states and cities around the country into insolvency.
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No Citizen Left Untaxed”

Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - PLA - Republicans - Senate - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Just Can’t Win Dept: Unions Honor Traitor Republicans, Dems Call Unions Traitors

March 14, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Traitors to the right of them, traitors to the left of them, traitors in front of them… behind them, around them within them… in the they-just-can’t-win department, unions held a soiree for the traitor Republicans that voted in favor of some of the pro-union provisions in last week’s temporary budget and their pals in the donkey party were heehawing in rage to beat the band over the whole thing. The news is quite revealing in a number of ways, really.

On March 10 Politico reported that 15 labor groups held a little “thank you” party on Capitol Hill for those Republicans that voted in favor of the few pro-union amendments to the CR. Only those Republicans that voted in favor of the unions were invited.

Of the pro-union amendments, one would have repealed the Davis Bacon prevailing wage law and the second would have prohibited the federal government from observing project labor agreements (PLAs). The latter failed by a 210 to 210 tie vote. Some Republicans claimed that they voted in favor of the PLA amendment by accident due to the flurry of amendments offered in a short space of time before the votes came due.

Democrats on the Hill were not amused by the union’s reaching out to the GOP, though.
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Just Can’t Win Dept: Unions Honor Traitor Republicans, Dems Call Unions Traitors”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

VIDEO:Big Unions, Big Money, Big Payback

March 10, 2011 by

Video courtesy of the Workforce Fairness Institute. WFI’s YouTube Channel.

Unions: Losing friends all around
By Nina Easton, Fortune/CNN Money

As Barack Obama stood on that frigid inaugural stage in 2009, labor leaders could envisage the glorious future awaiting them. Here, at last, was a President determined to help unions rebuild their sagging ranks by supporting a “card check” bill that would change the way unions are allowed to organize workers. Here was a President who openly criticized fellow Democrat Bill Clinton for signing the North American Free Trade Agreement. And here was a President who would put government health care for the uninsured at the center of his agenda.

Two years later card check is dead, Obama is out promoting free-trade deals, and his health care reform plan — passed without a government option — faces an uncertain future in the courts. And now a costly new front has opened in labor’s struggles: the states, where budget-cutting governors are targeting union salaries, benefits, and even collective-bargaining rights.

Not even the most union-friendly President in three decades can soften this harsh political terrain — a problem sure to vex his 2012 reelection bid…..

Read the rest at CNN Money.

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

Deasy and Duffy: The Dinosaurs Amongst Us

March 7, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

School district and teacher union leaders need to embrace serious education reform or go the way of the Stegosaurus.

My post last week concerned itself with the fact that some or even many teachers might lose their jobs come June due to the dire financial straits in which many school districts find themselves. The Los Angeles Unified School District alone sent Reduction in Force (RIF) notices to over 4,000 teachers, advising them that they may be laid off at the end of this school year. I made the point that many of the cutbacks would not have been necessary had the districts not over-hired in the first place.

Upon hearing the news of the RIF notices, John Deasy, the man who very shortly will take over as LAUSD Superintendent, whined, “The state of California does not support children. Period.” This ridiculous statement was a response to the fact that out of necessity, the legislators in Sacramento – hardly a flinty bunch – will be making cuts in education spending.
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Deasy and Duffy: The Dinosaurs Amongst Us”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Education - GOP - Government - Iowa - Liberals - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Iowa State University Uses ‘Non-Partisan’ Programs for Hyper Partisan Union Support

March 4, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now, to you and me the word “non-partisan” would mean that no political position should be advocated. Sadly, to the left-wingers that run Iowa State University, “non-partisan” seems to mean just another opportunity for pushing a hyper partisan, left-wing, union-supporting message on students because the union thugs at ISU are now using the Student Ambassadors program to push the union’s political positions quite despite that the charter governing the program specifically says that it is to be a non-partisan affair.

Iowa recently elected a Republican governor to office and he is facing the same budget crisis that every other governor is facing due to the profligacy of past Democrat administrations and their cozy, parasitic relationship with the government employee unions. As a result of the budget crunch Governor Terry Branstad has been pushing some very modest budget reforms for Iowa. This, of course, has the elites in the government employee unions up in arms. They don’t want to see their gravy train grind to a halt. This includes the mis-educational establishment in Iowa — as it does in every other state.

Now, ISU has a student government program called the ISU Ambassadors. These “ambassadors” are supposed to connect students with university and state government, or as the website says, to serve as a “connection between Iowa State University, the state legislature, and Iowa communities.”
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Iowa State University Uses ‘Non-Partisan’ Programs for Hyper Partisan Union Support”

Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Hate Crimes - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Morals/Sex - PCism - Society/Culture - UN - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Our Modern Universities: Live Sex Shows in the Classroom

March 4, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, what do you get for $500 an hour if you are Northwestern University Professor John Bailey and you’re looking for a new way to teach your class about sex? Apparently you get a live sex show right in the classroom where a woman is impaled with a sex toy jammed on the end of a reciprocating power saw. Nice way to spend university donor’s money, isn’t it?

Professor Bailey and his fist full of university cash paid one Kevin Melvoin-Berg to bring a woman and her “fiance” into the classroom where she was brought to orgasm with the aforementioned powertool turned sex toy. Melvoin-Berg runs a Chicago area touring company called Weird Chicago where customers are taken on a tour of all the strangest places in the city. Those “weird” places include areas where there have supposedly been ghost sightings, 20s era gangland sites, serial killer sites, and old prostitution sites in the city. This multitalented character bills himself as a “psychic detective and ghost hunter,” as well. Yes, he’s just the sort of legitimate expert that a university should turn to in order to teach students about human sexuality, ya know?

Like a good educator, Professor Bailey took the intellectual road to defend his inclusion of live sex shows in his class room, too. As he told the Daily Northwestern,”Sticks and stones may break your bones, but watching naked people on stage doing pleasurable things will never hurt you.”

Oh, this prof is way too intahlekshual for me, I have to say.
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Our Modern Universities: Live Sex Shows in the Classroom”

Barack Obama - Business - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Peter Roskam - President - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Says Gov’t Employees Not to Blame, Yet in 41 States They Make More Than Everyone

March 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a recent interview with Channel 4 TV News in Milwaukee, President Obama denied that government employees are responsible for the “budget problems” that the nation faces and that employees such as those in Wisconsin are not to blame. We shouldn’t “vilify” them, he said. Yet, seeming to contradict Obama’s claims USA Today has reported that in 41 states government employees make more on average than workers in the private sector.

In a fine demagogic manner Obama told Channel 4 that we need to understand that these public employees are “our friends and neighbors.”
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Obama Says Gov’t Employees Not to Blame, Yet in 41 States They Make More Than Everyone”

Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Larry Sand - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions

RIFs, Grifters and Reality

March 2, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

Excessive teacher hiring invariably leads to layoffs; teachers need to understand this trap and protect themselves.

We are now in the midst of RIF season. In California and elsewhere, when the economy is unstable, Reduction in Force (RIF) notices must go out to teachers by March 15th. These notices apprise teachers that they may be out of a job come June. School districts don’t know in March what their budget will be for the next school year, so they typically plan for a worst case scenario. It’s almost unheard of that all teachers who get the notices actually get laid off, but some will, and teachers must be notified if there is any chance they will lose their jobs.

When the school districts send out the notices, the teachers unions angrily point fingers at the district, insisting that they cut the bureaucracy instead and suggest that taxes should be raised rather than cutting back teachers. What the districts and the unions don’t say is that they are the problem; they are complicit in the process whereby teachers lose their jobs.
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RIFs, Grifters and Reality”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Liberals - NEA - Warner Todd Huston

National Education Association to Double Members’ Dues Spent on Politics

February 27, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as it tops the list of organizations spending money on political causes, the National Education Association (NEA) is planning to double the amount of its members’ dues spent on politics so that it can spend yet more on political campaigns — and all left-wing causes to boot.

Last year the NEA teachers union spent over $56 million on left-wing political causes but that is not enough according to union’s leadership. They want more. In 2010 the NEA took $10 from each member and spent that amount on its political activism. Going forward the NEA has announced that it will hike that amount to $20 per member.

The spending hike supposedly has a five-year sunset time limit on it, but as Mike Antonucci notes, the last time such a hike was proposed it also had a sunset provision but that provision was never implemented.

This raise in political spending comes at a time when the NEA has seen membership fall by some 54,000 members and found a $14 million shortfall in its general operating budget.

One wonders how members feel whose organization can’t even pay its bills but is doubling its spending on politics?
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National Education Association to Double Members’ Dues Spent on Politics”

Larry Sand

Closing the Door on Ed Reform: Ho-hum – Just a Typical Day in California

February 27, 2011 by

-By Larry Sand

No one should be surprised at the actions of teachers unions and their acolytes who laid their cards on the table a long time ago.

In an op-ed published in the San Jose Mercury News last Wednesday, I made the point that while the rest of the country had made some positive movement toward badly needed education reform, we in California hadn’t. In fact, with Jerry Brown’s re-election as governor, we took several steps back.

True to form as a teacher union sycophant, the new (and former) state leader fired the entire school board which included prominent education reformers like Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution — the organization behind the new Parent Trigger law that enables parents at poorly performing schools to sign a petition that could ultimately force a change in school governance. Brown replaced the board with a group that has no history of reform including Patricia Ann Rucker, a former California Teachers Association lobbyist.
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Closing the Door on Ed Reform: Ho-hum – Just a Typical Day in California”

Budget - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Teachers Union Thugs Comparing People to Hitler, Shutting Down Schools, Losing Their Argument

February 17, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One cannot be a leftist without being a hypocrite. It really is just that simple. The last several days in Wisconsin has again born that truism out, too, as teachers union thugs in the Badger State have indulged every manner of behavior that they have constantly condemned the right for engaging in — even as no one on the right has actually done the things the left charges them with doing.

With the protests that swept down upon the State Capitol in Madison we are seeing the sort of behavior that is the antithesis of democracy. These teacher thugs are flooding into the capitol disrupting the state senate chambers, these teacher thugs are sporting signs with Governor Walker depicted as Hitler, these teacher thugs are attempting to thwart the will of the voters that put a Republican Governor into office to do exactly what he is trying to do, these teacher thugs are even making a pig sty out of the capitol grounds with piles and piles of garbage.
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Teachers Union Thugs Comparing People to Hitler, Shutting Down Schools, Losing Their Argument”

Budget - Children - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Republicans - Right To Work - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Tennessee - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Tennessee County School Board Fires Teachers Union

February 5, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now this is more like it. Back in October of 2010 the Summer County, Tennessee School Board decertified the Sumner County Education Association (SCEA), the union for county teachers, because it no longer satisfied the law by counting as members fifty percent plus one of the total number of employees requiring a teaching certificate. This, school board officials said, means that the SCEA can no longer engage in collective bargaining for teachers.

The school board has used this opportunity to immediately begin rewriting the relationship between teachers and schools.

Naturally, the union is running straight to what is usually the last bastion of mindless obeisance to union obstructionism, the courts, and is suing to force the school board to accede to union demands regardless of the law.
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Tennessee County School Board Fires Teachers Union”

Budget - California - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

As We Lose Our Jobs, Unionized CA College Profs Want More

January 28, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Without question we are living through the worst economic times in generations and Barack Obama’s policies aren’t helping alleviate the pain. Pain is, indeed, the watchword, too. Nearly everyone knows someone that has lost his job. Nearly everyone has lost money for their retirement. Everyone is feeling the pain. And no one is very sanguine that it’s getting any better. Well, no one but unionized university professors in California, anyway. They are so sure that things are better than ever that they expect constantly growing pay and even richer benefits to be borne on the backs of the taxpayers.

There’s a lesson in this somewhere.

California’s university professor union, the California Faculty Association, has looked upon the crumbling state of California in the economic disaster that is the United States and instead of seeing a goad toward austerity, the CA sees greater spending as an answer to what ails them.

The gal these unionistas have.
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As We Lose Our Jobs, Unionized CA College Profs Want More”

Children - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy

January 18, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It isn’t just national issues that the Old Media misreports. As we focus on the “big” stories of the day, we often overlook the local scene and the left-wing excuse for “reporting,” therefrom. This is a perfect example of that.

Imagine you are a sophomore in high school and your sex ed teacher forces you to prance about your classroom singing and dancing to “The Vagina Dance” in a puerile attempt to teach the parts and functions of the female sex organ. Worse, imagine you are a male student in a classroom of such an unhinged teacher? Well, we don’t have to imagine it too hard because this exact situation has happened in a classroom in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs. But don’t worry. Chicago’s Old Media is all about reporting this incident honestly. Well, if honestly means to ignore relevant facts and shore up support for the out of control teacher and smooth things over for the school, that is.

Early this month, parent Robert King, whose son goes to Crystal Lake’s Prairie Ridge High School, complained to school authorities over the inappropriate teaching methods of health teacher Jacqulyn Levin. As a teaching tool Levin used “The Vagina Dance,” a song replete with dance steps and arm movements, and required her entire co-ed class to participate in it – all to the tune of The Hokey Pokey, no less. As it happens King’s son was uncomfortable being required to prance about the room, arms emulating fallopian tubes, and singing about vaginas, so the parents complained.
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Newspaper Ignores Facts in Teacher’s ‘Vagina Dance’ Song Controversy”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - California - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - New York - Public Employees Unions - Sex Offenders/Rape - Taxes - Teamsters - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Child Molesting Teacher Can’t Be Fired Thanks to Union

December 28, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 1997 a Brooklyn teacher was accused of attempting to molest a sixth-grade girl at PS 138. As it happened, he admitted the behavior, but no criminal charges were filed when all was said and done. Still one would think the fact that he inappropriately fondled a teen should be enough to get him fired from his teaching position. But then again, in New York you can’t even fire a child molester if he happens to be a teachers union member.

Thanks to the fact that it is nearly impossible to fire a teacher, this lowlife has been drawing his almost $100,000-a-year salary to do nothing. You heard that right, to do nothing.

You see, even as the union agrees that this pedophile isn’t fit for a classroom, the union still won’t agree to his being fired. So, teacher Roland Pierre sits in a “rubber room” five days a week and does nothing and he’s paid $97,101yearly to do so. And that doesn’t include benefits.
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Child Molesting Teacher Can’t Be Fired Thanks to Union”

Budget - Chicago - Children - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - GOP - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Republicans - Taxes - The Heartland Institute - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union Prez Lewis With Heartland Institute’s Behrend on Chicago’s Fox

December 24, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Illinois state government is discussing ideas of education reform and it is assumed that a vote on a plan of one kind or another might occur in the state capitol in Springfield as early as January. Fox Chicago had Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and the Heartland Institute’s Bruno Behrend on the show to discuss the issue. (Dec. 17, 2010)

FOX Chicago Sunday: Karen Lewis & Bruno Behrend: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

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Teachers Union Prez Lewis With Heartland Institute’s Behrend on Chicago’s Fox”

Chicago - Children - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

40% of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Own Kids to Private Schools

December 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Liberals love to claim that the public school system is the shining success story of the American political system. And even when the schools break down in effectiveness, liberals double down on their support for them and insist that we spend ever larger chunks of the taxpayer’s money to “fix” them.

Of course, even as liberal politicians constantly extol the virtues of the public schools they are quietly sending their own kids to private schools. These hypocrites don’t seem to mind sending the public’s kids to subpar, failing schools but they’ll be damned that they’ll do so with their own kids.
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40% of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Own Kids to Private Schools”

Budget - Chicago - Children - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Property Taxes - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois School Uses ‘Stimulus’ $$ For Raises and Bonuses While Raising Property Taxes

December 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Arrogance is an ugly thing. But it seems that Grayslake School Board Superintendent Ellen Correll has it in spades. Not only did she and four other board members vote to increase its tax levy on the community, but she also announced that she used federal “stimulus” money to dole out raises and bonuses to teachers and administrators.

The school board claims that it needs to raise the tax levy by 8.3 percent because of shortfalls in operating costs. Tax rates are limited on existing properties and is capped by law so due to this the tax hit on older properties would not be as great as 8.3 percent. New properties, however, are not capped.

But in this economy, who can afford property taxes to go up yet again? As school board member Michael Carbone said in his comments, statistics show that in 2009 one in three houses sold in the district were in distress and in 2010 it was 50%.
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Illinois School Uses ‘Stimulus’ $$ For Raises and Bonuses While Raising Property Taxes”

Barack Obama - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Health - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teachers Union’s BIG Break: Obama Let’s Them Get Out of Obamacare

November 30, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the list was revealed of 111 corporations and unions that got a free pass to get out of having to suffer under Obamacare given them by their bought-and-paid-for president, we see that the teachers really got a break.

With over 350,000 members, the United Federation of Teachers is one of the largest organizations on the list of those 111 given such favorable treatment.

But the real hypocrisy is the fact that the UFT was one of the biggest activists in favor of Obamacare And now they are being given a waiver to get out of suffering under it?
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Teachers Union’s BIG Break: Obama Let’s Them Get Out of Obamacare”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Liberals - President - Public Employees Unions - Social Security - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Teacher Union Chief: Big Boss, Big Hypocrite

November 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

What was it that our apologizer in chief and his minions have told us? Wasn’t it that we all have to sacrifice because the U.S. is less than she used to be? Well American Federation of Teachers union chief, Rhonda “Randi” Weingarten, says phooey on that. Sacrifice if for the unwashed masses, not her.

Weingarten was full of dire warnings for Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Even though the commission said that funding for education should not be cut Weingarten wanted to warn the commission that she and her union would attack them anyway for their recommendations on cutting Social Security and Medicare. What this has to do with teaching is anybody’s guess.

She boldly asserted that “shared sacrifice means holding millionaires responsible” for footing all the bills. I’m sure she feels everyone else should be left off scot-free.
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Teacher Union Chief: Big Boss, Big Hypocrite”

Anti-Americanism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Massachusetts - Media - Media Bias - PCism - Race - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Harvard Sick of All Those Old White Guys

November 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Boston Globe is all aflutter that Harvard University is adding “diversity” to its portraits of celebrated professors, teachers, and associates. The paper is pleased to report that instead of only having upon its walls all those boring, evil, dead white men, now Harvard will be adding black men, black women, and Asians to the display.

Boston Globe clucks disapprovingly that of the some 750 oil portraits in Harvard’s collection of celebrated alumnus only two are of “minorities,” and only just over 50 are of white women. The Globe thinks that Harvard needs some “diversity” and these terrible portraits of evil white men presents an “incomplete picture of Harvard that the university is seeking to change.”

“There’s a significance to portraiture, in demonstrating to people of all backgrounds that their presence and contribution are appreciated,’’ said Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, which for eight years has been quietly commissioning portraits of distinguished minorities and women to hang in Harvard’s hallowed halls.

Of course, what we have here is not in keeping with what Harvard once stood for: excellence. Instead of a proud tradition of the best and brightest, now Harvard’s portraiture will genuflect toward “diversity,” racebaiting, and “multiculturalism.”
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Harvard Sick of All Those Old White Guys”

Business - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NJ Teachers Union Bragging They Can’t Be Fired

October 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Shock videographer James O’Keefe has released video of New Jersey teachers union members bragging that it is nearly impossible for them to be fired by the state.

Daily Caller reports: (Warning foul language uttered by teachers in videos)

In one video, Alissa Ploshnick, who is identified as a special educator at Passaic Public Schools, seems to verify the worst suspicions of education reformers. “It’s really hard to fire a tenured teacher,” she says. “It’s really hard – like you seriously have to be in the hallway fucking somebody.”

As an example, Ploshnick said, “we had a teacher that just recently was like – you NIGGER,” adding that the teacher was demoted, but is still teaching.

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NJ Teachers Union Bragging They Can’t Be Fired”

Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Massachusetts - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Killing Local Libraries?

October 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In this era of severe budget cuts, layoffs, and job loss, people in the real world are making due with less. Businesses are cutting back and people are hurting everywhere in this era of Obama. Local governments are also starting to find this economic climate challenging. But even as local budgets are taking hits, unions seem to think it’s still the same flush economy they’ve been taking advantage of for decades.

In the case of two school libraries in Massachusetts teachers unions are so arrogant and greedy that they would rather see the facilities shut down and books left unavailable to kids than see schools keep libraries open with volunteers manning them.

Teachers unions in Bridgewater and Raynham have filed a grievance that might prevent volunteers from working in the libraries. The volunteer workers were to serve as a stop gap effort by the schools to keep the libraries open and serving kids.

Catch this idiotic excuse that union thug, Anita Newman, babbled to explain why the union is trying to close libraries:
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Union Killing Local Libraries?”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Illinois - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

The Law: Bought And Paid For By Unions

October 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Public School system is out of money. Like every business in the real world one solution was to layoff workers, in this case some 700 teachers. In the real world that is the way the cookie crumbles. Such employees would put themselves on the market and look for new jobs. Life moves on. But in the world of public employees unions, such employees run to the judges they’ve bought and the law they wrote themselves and had passed by politicians bought and paid for. So taxpayers are forced to give them concessions, paybacks, and special favors. It all amounts to more proof of union graft and corruption at its most common.

This has happened once again in Chicago as the teachers union went to court to prevent the everyday, common cost cutting measure of laying off workers that every normal American is faced with. And, like the true Chicago Way- styled politics that Illinois is used to, the “law” that was written by unions, paid for by unions, and passed by unions was invoked by judges placed in their court rooms by union money.

And who is left holding the bag? The taxpayers, of course.
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The Law: Bought And Paid For By Unions”