Why are teachers striking in Chicago? What are teachers unions fighting for? Is it for the students? For the schools? For the union?
Listen to the union officials themselves. You might be surprised.
Unions
The Machine: The Truth Behind Teachers Unions
Here is a great video showing why teachers unions — and public employee unions in general — should be illegal.
The Machine: The Truth Behind Teachers Unions
For the first time in 25 years, the Chicago Teachers’ Union is planning to strike on Monday.
That’s because the machine that runs the K-12 education system isn’t designed to produce better schools. It’s designed to produce more money for unions and more donations for politicians. We’re spending more money on education but not getting better results for our children and now america’s public education system is failing.
Our kids deserve better.
For decades, teachers’ unions have been among our nation’s largest political donors. As Reason Foundation’s Lisa Snell has noted, the National Education Association (NEA) alone spent $40 million on the 2010 election cycle (source: http://reason.org/news/printer/big-education-and-big-labor-electio). As the country’s largest teachers union, the NEA is only one cog in the infernal machine that robs parents of their tax dollars and students of their futures.
Students, teachers, parents, and hardworking Americans are all victims of this political machine–a system that takes money out of taxpayers’ wallets and gives it to union bosses, who put it in the pockets of politicians.
“The Machine” is 4:30 minutes.
Video produced by the Moving Picture Institute in partnership with ReasonTV.
DNC’s Joe Biden Video Features Joe Standing With a Union Criminal
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Democrat National Committee wanted to make a nice heartwarming video telling America and convention goers how wonderful ol’ “Sheriff Joe” Biden is. But, oops, one of the still photos included in the retrospective shows Biden standing chummy with a union member that was arrested for pick pocketing in 2009.
The video, titled, Vice President Joe Biden’s Story, is filled with heartwarming photos of good ol’ Joe with old folks, school kids, and American workers. But one worker in particular would have been best left out of the bio-video.
At about 5:17 into the video you’ll see a still photo of Service Employees International Union member Marshall Clemons and Vice President, Biden. In that photo you see good ol’ Joe standing next to Clemons and his wife and son. All smiles there, with Joe’s arms warmly embracing the family.
Still shot from the DNC Video of Biden and the Clemons family
It’s a nice family photo showing how personable Joe is. But who is this Marshall Clemons?
As it happens, Joe Biden did a little union-touting video with Mr. Clemons back in 2007. The film was called Walk a day in my shoes: Joe Biden/Marshall Clemons and was made in cooperation with the SEIU.
That film, too, was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of good ol’ Joe palling around with the common worker.
Still shot of Biden and Clemons from the 2007 video
But I guess Joe didn’t help Mr. Clemons make enough money at the SEIU because not long after they appeared together in the union-selling video, Clemons was arrested for stealing money out of women’s purses at the Iowa State Capital.
This is a case of a union member reaching into people’s pockets a bit more directly than they usually do. In 2009 an Iowa lobbyist caught Clemons reaching into and stealing wallets from the unattended bags of other lobbyists who were busy plying lawmakers at the state capital. The lobbyist alerted the Iowa state police and when they tracked Clemons down they witnessed him trying to ditch a second stolen wallet in a public bathroom. Clemons was charged with two counts of fifth degree theft.
This is the guy that the DNC thought was a good idea to show Vice President Biden paling around with? Does “Sheriff Joe” have a habit of hanging around pickpockets!
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DNC’s Joe Biden Video Features Joe Standing With a Union Criminal”
NY Teachers Union Protecting Sexual Predators
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the more absurd aspects of the New York school system is that the teachers union is basically given the right to investigate itself when teachers are accused of sexual misconduct. Sadly, in too many cases the union sides with the criminal teachers instead of their victims.
In the Wall Street Journal, Campbell Brown laments this cozy relationship that unions have with their predator members citing several examples of the failure to punish criminal behavior in New York schools.
“If this kind of behavior were happening in any adult workplace in America, there would be zero tolerance. Yet our public school children are defenseless,” he writes.
This lack of punishment occurs, Brown says, because of how the law is written.
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NY Teachers Union Protecting Sexual Predators”
Chicago Teachers Union President Blames Woes on ‘Lower Class’ and ‘Students of Color’
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Chicago School system is rapidly collapsing. Its graduation rate is a horrid 56 percent, its finances are in tatters, and even though the Chicago Teachers Union was offered a 10 to 15 percent raise, CTU officials still want to strike claiming it isn’t enough. So, what went wrong? CTU President says it’s all because of Chicago’s “lower class students” and “students of color.”
CTU President Karen Lewis recently took part in a strategy conference call with community organizer Jitu Brown, and retired professor and Bill Ayers associate Mike Klonsky. In the released audio of the conference call, CTU President Lewis tries to address the reason for the Chicago Public School System’s woes.
Lewis, it seems thinks that the whole decline of Chicago’s schools is because of lower class kids. Her comments are heard in the last 30 seconds of the audio.
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Chicago Teachers Union President Blames Woes on ‘Lower Class’ and ‘Students of Color’”
It’s Come to This: The ‘Tolerant’ Left’s Twitter Wishes for Scott Walker to be Assassinated
-By Warner Todd Huston
Yep, now the left reveals it’s true black, hateful, murderous heart…
I hope the governor has a good team of body guards that have all been vetted to make sure none of them are Democrats.
This is the heart of leftism. They love “democracy” when it goes their way. But when they lose, it isn’t time to retrench and try to figure out why their ideals were rejected. No, if they lose it is time to kill everyone that disagrees with them. That is the heart of leftism.
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It’s Come to This: The ‘Tolerant’ Left’s Twitter Wishes for Scott Walker to be Assassinated”
Wis. Victory Lap, Old Media Backtracking Already…
The American Future Fund just uncorked this great jbbaroo…
Love it.
**UPDATE**
… aaaannnd the union thug crying begins…
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen for a looooong time.
All I can say is… Are you crying? There’s no crying in union thuggery!!
Bwaaaahahahahaha
Democrat Vote Fraud Efforts Focusing on Dane and Milwaukee Counties
-By Warner Todd Huston
A few moments ago Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard reported on his Twitter that Democrats are getting a lawsuit ready in an attempt to get some left-wing judge to allow Dane and Milwaukee Counties to keep their polling places open late into the night so they can scam as many illegal votes as possible before the closing bell is rung.
Here is what Hayes Tweeted:
Two WI GOP sources say Dems/Barrett preparing lawsuit to keep polls open late in Dane & Milwaukee counties. GOP will fight it.
Dane and Milwaukee Counties are the two most left wing counties in the state with Dane being home to Madison, the state Capital, the same capital where thousands of union toughs spent months destroying public property in protest against their duly elected governor.
With reports that Democrats and out-of-state schemers and union thugs are bussing in thousands of illegal voters into Wisconsin, the vote fraud is mounting steadily.
As Hayes notes, the state Republicans are going to fight the move and they’d better. There is already going to be plenty of criminal vote fraud perpetrated by Wisconsin’s Democrat union thugs, so they’d better stop this move to stuff the ballot boxes even further in the two counties in question.
Democrats are not content to have an election run under rules. They are keen to play games with the system and indulge as much criminal activity as possible.
Government unions are antithetical to good government and they should all be eliminated. This travesty of an “election” is proof of that.
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Democrat Vote Fraud Efforts Focusing on Dane and Milwaukee Counties”
Chris Plante Show: Dems Shipping in Busloads of Fraudulent Voters into Wisconsin
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is the massive vote fraud I’ve been warning about and Gov. Walker better be prepared for it.
WMAL’s Chris Plante got a call today from a man claiming to be on one of four busses that are driving from Michigan to Wisconsin in order to have fraudulent voters flood the polls for Democrat Barrett who is vying to upset Wis. Governor Scott Walker.
The caller says that the busses were organized by an auto union to bring as many illegal votes to Wisconsin as they can.
Radio host Plante sums up the caller’s claim thus:
What you’re telling me is that the unions in Michigan have organized a bus convoy — and you’re riding in that bus convoy — and they’re bringing Michigan residents to Wisconsin in order to vote illegally for Tom Barrett.
Chris Plante Show: Dems Shipping in Busloads of Fraudulent Voters into Wisconsin”
Prediction: Media Will Dismiss Walker Win as Meaningless
-By Warner Todd Huston
As I write this it is only hours before the polls in Wisconsin open to take votes for the Walker recall effort. Polling data says that Walker will likely win this election, though the media spin this as a “close” thing. Whether Walker will win or not I won’t guess on the eve of voting day, but one thing I can say for a fact is that if Walker does win this election the media will claim that the election is meaningless as to any greater import to the 2012 election cycle.
That’s right, if Scott Walker retains his governorship, the media will suddenly find that this recall election really doesn’t mean a thing.
Now, this is a far different narrative as we stand pre-election day. The media has been calling this election an important bellwether for unionism. They have said that this election has excited unions and driven them to the streets in an important show of unanimity.
The election has also been called a trial run for the November presidential election one that might act as a guidepost of what will happen with Obama vs. Romney.
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Prediction: Media Will Dismiss Walker Win as Meaningless”
Supporting Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many of you are aware of the recall election being held in Wisconsin. There, leftists and union thugs throughout the state are trying to oust the only recently elected Republican Governor, Scott Walker. But something many don’t realize is that Walker’s Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, is also under recall in this needless and expensive re-do of the 2010 elections.
Kleefisch is the Republican Lt. Gov that entered office alongside Gov. Walker and she, too, is a target of these leftists. She hasn’t gotten the same publicity nation wide as Walker, of course, but she is just as deserving of our support and help. After all, the program that Walker and Kleefisch instituted has already saved Wisconsin $1 billion! Seems like a duo worth saving to me.
Despite what the pair have saved the state in budget dollars, estimates have varied on what this foolish recall election will cost, a recall effort that even liberal newspapers in Wisconsin oppose, but some are saying it will cost the donating mood, click on the image below and help Kleefisch out with the expenses that these liberals are forcing upon her, won’t you?
Recently Lt. Gov. Kleefisch was in Chicago and spoke a few words at the Tax Day Tea Party. (Video captured by MarathonPundit)
Supporting Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch”
Too Many Republican Congressmen Giving Unions Free Tax Dollars
-By Warner Todd Huston
For such a blue state, Illinois has some rather good Republicans in Congress, but on one issue many of them consistently fail. That is in their unfortunate support for Big Labor. The issue of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) is a perfect example of this penchant to support issues dear to the hearts of Big Labor.
Unions love PLAs because the rule forces government construction projects to be conducted under union rules, to pay union pay scales to workers as well as pension payments to the union plans, and requires all work to be controlled by union bosses even if the companies hired to do the work are non-union. With PLAs unions feel they have the best of both worlds because they can still benefit from free government money even when they aren’t hired to do the work. In short, PLAs are a sop to unions.
The main problem with PLAs is that they drive up the costs of government building contracts from word go. This costs us all money and in this era when we need to be cutting back the skyrocketing costs of government adding rules that drive up costs before the first foundation is dug is madness. Worse it is unfair to the largest number of construction companies that aren’t union members as they are forced as a condition of getting the work to pay unions thousands out of their pockets even as they’ll never benefit from union pensions or other programs.
Sadly, too many Illinois Republican Congressmen have been consistently in favor of allowing unions this free government handout. It is probably not a huge surprise that even Republicans in deep blue Illinois might end up bowing to the needs of greedy Big Labor initiatives. But it is not a healthy support regardless.
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Too Many Republican Congressmen Giving Unions Free Tax Dollars”
VIDEO: Violent Union Thugs Using Ball Bat on Effigy of SC Gov. Nikki Haley!
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here we have another union thug acting out a desire for violence. This time it’s Donna Dewitt, the President of the South Carolina AFL-CIO (a grand title for a chief thug, eh?), using a baseball bat to smack a piñata sporting the face of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley on it.
Now, imagine, folks, if these were Republicans using a ball bat on an effigy of a Democrat Gov. — and a female one at that. This story would be the story of the day all over the news and would go on for weeks at a time. We’d never hear the end of it from the Old Media.
Democrats do it… and crickets.
In fact, if this was a video of Republicans doing such a thing, the GOP candidate for president would be tarred with their actions. Right now we’d be hearing calls from every last Democrat, every last member of the media (but I repeat myself) for Governor Mitt Romney to disavow this violence.
Again. Democrats do it…. and crickets.
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VIDEO: Violent Union Thugs Using Ball Bat on Effigy of SC Gov. Nikki Haley!”
NEA: Poverty Pimp #1
-By Larry Sand
The teachers union not only plays the poverty card, but by battling reforms, ensures that the impoverished will remain that way
“No Education Reform Without Tackling Poverty, Experts Say,” is the title of an article on the National Education Association website. Experts? A trip into the weeds leads to something called the Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy at Georgetown University. Its main benefactor is none other than the Open Society Foundations run by former Nazi sympathizer, rabid America hater and megalomaniac, George Soros, a man who once said he saw himself as “some kind of god, the creator of everything.” Expecting anything without an agenda from this bunch would be foolish.
The NEA’s “experts” claim that pouring money into education will eradicate poverty is wrong on all counts. For example, they state that children would be better educated by attending a “high quality pre-school.” Yet Head Start, according to Reason’s Lisa Snell, U. of Arkansas Professor Jay Greene and others, has been a bust. In 2010, Lindsey Burke at the Heritage Foundation wrote,
Taxpayers have been on the hook for more than $100 billion for the Head Start program since 1965. This federal evaluation, which effectively shows no lasting impact on children after first grade and no difference between those children who attended Head Start and those who did not, should call into question the merits of increasing funding for the program, which the Obama administration recently did as part of the so-called “stimulus” bill.
So, $100 billion later, children are no better off attending a preschool, but what’s important to the unions is that more adults are employed. And that means more dues for them to spend on their progressive political agenda which favors causes that have nothing to do with education – e.g. abortion on demand, same-sex marriage, income redistribution, and nationalized health care. In 2010-2011, NEA spent $133 million in lobbying and gifts to further its progressive agenda.
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NEA: Poverty Pimp #1″
Stand Up To Bullying Day
-By Larry Sand
The NEA says that May 4th should be devoted to anti-bullying. Okay, and to be fair, I suggest that we start with the biggest organized bullies in the country – the teachers unions themselves.
The National Education Association celebrated “Stand Up To Bullying Day” on May 4th. Its website is full of advice about how to deal with what it calls “everyone’s problem.” With a solemnity ordinarily reserved for a Sunday morning sermon, NEA has created a pledge –
I agree to be identified as a caring adult who pledges to help bullied students. I will listen carefully to all students who seek my help and act on their behalf to put an immediate stop to the bullying. I will work with other caring adults to create a safe learning environment for all the students in my school.
Please note, the union talks only about children bullying other children; there is nothing about adults bullying other adults.
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Stand Up To Bullying Day”
The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education
-By Larry Sand
The president of the National Education Association continues to promote ideas that are anti-American and are turning our kids into progressive, anti-wealth, equality-obsessed robots.
Last week, the drone-like National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel gave a talk at the annual gathering of the Nebraska State Education Association. He unleashed the same tired old class warfare hogwash that teacher union leaders have been yammering about for years. The latest version of this old whine stresses closing corporate tax loopholes. As I wrote last week, the NEA claims the U.S. can recoup $1.5 trillion in taxes if those greedy corporate types would just pay their “fair share.” Van Roekel conveniently omits the fact that NEA took in $400,000,000 in 2010-2011, mostly in dues forcibly taken from its members, and didn’t pay one red cent in taxes.
Van Roekel then reprised another union mantra – claiming that NEA must pursue “social justice.” He said,
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The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education”
The Second American Revolution
-By Larry Sand
If education reformers stick to principle and don’t back down, all other obstacles to victory can be overcome.
Recently, Andrew Rotherham wrote a short piece in The Atlantic in which he describes “The 3 Main Obstacles in the Way of Education Reform.” The first obstacle he mentions is that currently “We buy reform.”
Or at least we try to. Some politicians really think that throwing money at the problem will help and the less principled ones do it because they are trying to pay back certain political allies. The result is that untold billions are taken from taxpayers to support giant bureaucracies on the federal and state levels and to prop up programs that do little or nothing to help the students who desperately need it. Rotherham writes:
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The Second American Revolution”
NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive
-By Larry Sand
Tax Freedom Day is April 17th. Freedom from teacher union extortion? To be announced.
The National Education Association has thrown itself full force into the “corporate loophole” demagoguery campaign. According to the NEA, children are being victimized by avaricious corporate types who don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The NEA exhorts the American people to “stand up for the middle class and support closing corporate tax loopholes at the federal and state level, so that additional resources can be invested in public education and other services that build our communities.” In a message oozing with class warfare, we learn that “Corporate tax loopholes are costing our schools and communities resources that would help the next generation achieve the American Dream.” (Cue the violins.)
They then post a list of programs that would thrive if the greedy corporate bastards would just pay their fair share – Title 1, Pre-K education, etc. NEA of course fails to mention that these programs, though popular, are essentially federal boondoggles. They don’t really do what they purport to do. They do make work for unionized adults, however, which if you haven’t been paying attention, is all NEA really cares about. But I digress….
Using Citizens for Tax Justice as their source, NEA claims that closing the seven largest corporate tax loopholes would provide an estimated $1.487 trillion in additional revenues over the next ten years. Coincidentally, CTJ just happens to be the union founded and funded lobbying wing of something called the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
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NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive”
Wealthy Michigan Teacher Upset She Can’t Retire at 47
-By Warner Todd Huston
It’s just unfair, isn’t it? I mean, if an $80,000-per-year, union protected, unfireable, teacher can’t retire at the extremely young age of 47 while the rest of us have to work into our 70s, well, what kind of world are we living in? That’s how teachers in Michigan feel, anyway.
Just ask the haughty Terri List, a Michigan public school teacher from Saginaw Township. She’s entirely disgusted with all those ignorant taxpayers — who vote in evil Republicans — that won’t let her retire at 70% of her salary at a sprightly 47-years-of-age. She’s so upset that she’s telling anyone that will listen that being a teacher isn’t worth the effort.
On the government union site run by the Michigan Education Association, Mz List is seen carping that waiting to retire at 60 is a travesty for the teaching profession. In what rotten world do people have to wait until they are 60 to retire, anyway!?
… only the rest of us, Mz List, only the rest of us. You know the “us” I’m speaking of Mz List? Yeah, the “us” that are with our taxes forced to pay your exorbitant salary, your overly generous benefits, and your retirement in your middle age.
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Wealthy Michigan Teacher Upset She Can’t Retire at 47″
Perverts Prevail in Public Schools
-By Larry Sand
With teacher union enabling, child abuse goes on unabated.
A male business owner joking about life for homosexuals in prison, forced a junior accountant to bend over a desk, lined up behind him to simulate a sex act, then quipped, “I’ll show you what’s gay.”
An insurance company middle manager who had been warned about touching secretaries brushed his lower body against a new employee, coming so close that she told company investigators she could feel his genitals through his pants.
A corporate vice-president sent text messages to and called one of his female underlings nearly 50 times in a four-week period and, over the winter holidays, parked himself near her home.
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Perverts Prevail in Public Schools”
Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?
-By Larry Sand
The release of teachers’ VA rankings should not be viewed as an attack on teachers, but as a wake-up call for the rest of us.
The recent release of teachers’ value added (VA) rankings by the New York Times reignited a controversy which began when the Los Angeles Times did the same thing in 2010. The value added technique of rating teachers is “based on their students’ progress on standardized tests year after year. The difference between a student’s expected growth and actual performance is the ‘value’ a teacher adds or subtracts during the year.”
The imbroglio has two facets – the first being whether or not teachers can be accurately evaluated by how well their students do on a standardized test. As I wrote in January,
In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)
The second and more contentious element of VA concerns itself with who should get to see the teacher’s ranking. Some think it should be just the principal who can use the data to help low performing teachers. Others think that parents should also be allowed to learn about the effectiveness of their child’s teacher. And finally there are those who demand that all people — especially taxpayers — should have access to them. The reasoning, of course, is that since taxpayers are shelling out for the teachers’ salaries, they have a right to know what they are getting for their money.
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Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?”
Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March
-By Larry Sand
Julius Caesar came to a bad end on March 15th, the same date many good teachers were warned that they may be unemployed in June.
“Nearly 20,000 Teacher Pink Slips Statewide Show Drastic Need for More Education Funding” screamed the headline on the California Teachers Association website.
First, let’s straighten out the union spin. Typically when a person receives a “pink slip,” it means that they are fired. What some teachers actually received is a Reduction in Force (RIF) notice, which according to state law, must be sent to teachers by March 15th if there is the slightest chance that they will be laid off in June. School districts really don’t know in March what their budget will be for the next school year so they plan for the worst case scenario. It’s unheard of for all teachers who get the notices to actually be laid off, but some will, and they must be notified if there is any chance they will lose their jobs.
As a young teacher in New York City in 1975, I lost my 6th grade teaching because the city was in the midst of a fiscal swoon. A few thousand of us were laid off because we were the newest hires, not because we were the worst teachers. The union contract did not make any provision for getting rid of the poorest performers, just the newly employed. Fast forward 37 years and we are still doing the same stupid thing.
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Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March”
Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America
-By Larry Sand
Teachers unions, known for fighting to keep pedophiles in the classroom, try to get rid of good teachers in Seattle.
Last week, I wrote about the particularly egregious case of a teacher in Rochester, NY who sent sexually charged emails to her principal and was subsequently jailed for ignoring a restraining order. Upon her release, she returned to the classroom, and in short order was accused of fondling her middle school students. But due to her union’s pressure tactics, the school board cannot get rid of this tenured teacher.
Across the country in Seattle, we now have a situation where it would appear that the local teachers union may have success in getting six teachers removed from the district.
Pedophiles? Of course not. They are talented Teach For America teachers who have received good reviews from their principals. In what could be a new low for teachers unions – and that’s really saying something – it would appear that through heavy pressure from the Seattle Education Association, the Seattle School Board may terminate the contracts of the six teachers for absolutely no good reason.
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Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America”
School Choice: Time to Move Forward
-By Larry Sand
As evidence mounts that the government/union education monopoly is failing our children, 2012 should see ramped up efforts to advance school choice.
Last week, Education Week published “What Research Says About School Choice,” in which nine scholars analyze the results of various studies concerning “school choice” – the quaint notion that parents should be able to choose where to send their kids to school. The report boasts no ecstatic claims, nothing about lions and lambs, no Hallelujah moments – just a sober look at the 20 year-old movement to end mandatory zip code school assignments. Some of the findings:
Among voucher programs, random-assignment studies generally find modest improvements in reading or math scores, or both. Achievement gains are typically small in each year, but cumulative over time. Graduation rates have been studied less often, but the available evidence indicates a substantial positive impact.
Among voucher programs, these studies consistently find that vouchers are associated with improved test scores in the affected public schools. The size of the effect in these studies varies from modest to large. No study has found a negative impact.
A third area of study has been the fiscal impact of school choice. Even under conservative assumptions about such questions as state and local budget sensitivity to enrollment changes, the net impact of school choice on public finances is usually positive and has never been found to be negative.
Also last week, the California Charter School Association released its second annual “Portrait of the Movement: How Charters are Transforming California Education.” Not a sales pitch or compilation of cherry-picked data data, the CCSA report is an honest look at California’s 900 plus charter schools which educate about 400,000 students. A few of its many findings:
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School Choice: Time to Move Forward”
Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools
-By Larry Sand
Parents send their children to school assuming that kids are its number one priority. But as recent events have shown, public schools are Ground Zero for a culture that puts children last and doesn’t hold adults accountable.
In Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee stated that it took her a while, but she finally realized that public education is really about the adults, not the kids. No truer words have ever been spoken. In too many cases, a small group of inept and corrupt adults – district administrators, school boards and teachers unions – is in charge of what has become an increasingly incompetent public education system. Recently, several scandalous events point to deep-seated problems.
First and foremost, we have the Mark Berndt case in Los Angeles. This man sexually abused children for years at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. For many reasons — including careless dismissal of children’s claims, missing teacher files and operating in a culture of non-accountability — Berndt got away with doing unspeakable things to his students for over 20 years. The system is so perverse that the school district couldn’t get rid of Berndt without going through a lengthy appeals process costing over $300,000. So, when his crimes were exposed, Berndt gamed the system by accepting a $40,000 bribe and retired – but only after racking up another year of credit toward his pension.
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Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools”
CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!
-By Larry Sand
The California Teachers Association is seeking cover in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The OWS crowd doesn’t understand that CTA and other public employee unions are a major part of the problem.
Last week, part of my post concerned itself with the March 5th “Occupy the Capitol” protest being promoted by the California Teachers Association. I wrote,
“Not only is CTA inviting the OWS rabble, they are calling for teachers to attend, even though it is a school day, thus costing taxpayers all over the state untold thousands in costs for subs and robbing children of a productive school day.”
Little did I know, March 5th was just the tip of the iceberg. The CTA website is now touting a “Week of Action” covering the first seven days of March. Many activities are planned and will be led by various “Occupy” groups that have sprung up like weeds. The result is a grand mishmash of radical organizations coming together to vent their spleen over various and sundry issues, and all links to their activities are available through the CTA website.
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CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!”
The Brazen Hypocrisy of the Teachers Unions
-By Larry Sand
When teachers unions wear their duplicity like a bright red bandana, it shows the whole world what they really are about.
Last week, New Jersey Education Association Executive Director Vincent Giordano, who makes over $500,000 a year in salary and assorted perks, shoved his foot in his mouth big time. Appearing on “New Jersey Capitol Report,” he and the host were discussing Governor Chris Christie’s plan to install a voucher system in New Jersey. Such a plan would enable students in the state’s worst performing schools to escape them with a voucher that they could use to attend a private school.
Host: The issue of fairness, I mean this is the argument that a lot of voucher supporters make. People who are well off have options. Somebody who is not well off and whose child is in a failing school, why shouldn’t those parents have the same options to get the kid out of the failing school and into one that works with the help of the state?
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The Brazen Hypocrisy of the Teachers Unions”
CTA Sponsored Legislation Could Cripple Charter School Growth
-By Larry Sand
The California Teachers Association can’t realistically unionize all charter schools, so it promotes laws that limit their numbers.
In Golden Missed Opportunity, recently published in City Journal, I examined the options that families in California have if they want to remove their children from failing public schools. The pickings in the Golden State are rather slim, and those options we do have — charter schools, homeschooling and the Parent Trigger — are constantly imperiled by a governor and state legislators who typically do the bidding of the California Teachers Association, the largest state affiliate of the National Education Association.
Charter schools are public schools which aren’t bound by the bloated union contracts that stifle so many traditional public schools. California has over 900 charter schools that currently educate about 400,000 students. To the union’s consternation, only about 15 percent of these schools are unionized. Of course, the union would like to see a 100 percent rate, but accomplishing that would take too much effort and money. Additionally, the flexibility that non-unionization offers is one of the attractions of charter schools for many teachers.
So instead of unionizing, CTA tries to eviscerate current charter laws or get caps on the allowable number of charters. At this time, there are three pieces of CTA sponsored legislation working their way around Sacramento. In fact, just last week the state assembly voted 45-28 to approve one of them, AB 1172. The bill, now in the Senate Rules Committee, was authored by State Assemblyman and former teacher and union activist Tony Mendoza. If AB 1172 becomes law, it would allow a school board to block the creation of a new charter school if it would have a “negative fiscal impact” on the school district. However, “negative fiscal impact” is never really defined, and California charter law already has clearly defined reasons why new petitions can be denied.
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CTA Sponsored Legislation Could Cripple Charter School Growth”
Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins
-By Larry Sand
Children in the Golden State will get a better education when teacher quality becomes a priority
In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia, tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, and using a value added approach, found that teachers who help students raise their standardized test scores have a lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates, greater college matriculation and higher adult earnings. (The authors of the study define “value added” as the average test-score gain for a teacher’s students “…adjusted for differences across classrooms in student characteristics such as prior scores.”)
The only caveat from the authors is that using test scores in teachers’ evaluations could lead to “teaching to the test or cheating.” Nothing new here. Some people, when involved in any kind of competition, will try to gain unfair advantage or cheat outright. Typically, it’s a small part of the population and those who do should lose their jobs and face criminal charges.
The lesson is clear: test scores can give us a great deal of information about who the really good teachers are. But California Governor Jerry Brown, unfazed by the blockbuster study, actually called for less testing in his recent State of the State address.
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Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins”
Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice
-By Larry Sand
Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California.
With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the country. In states like New Jersey and Louisiana, governors are taking the lead in proposing ways to break the devastating monopoly that government run schools – their educrat leaders, corrupt and/or inept school boards and the powerful teachers unions — have held for far too long.
As an example of Big Education gone bad, I write in City Journal about a crime that has been perpetrated on the children of California for 40 years and the lawsuit that addresses it:
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Exposing a 40-Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice”