Teacher Strike!

[bpwallace49]

Teacher unions are NOT like the "Hoffa Teamsters". That is the National DOES NOT CALL A STRIKE! The local does that. They are what the constituents (local members) say they are and act accordingly nothing more. That is the National Union does NOT have any say so in whether or not to strike. Teacher unions are local and only LOCAL! The national/state is there only for resources, help, and ancillary stats. They (The National) have no say/opinion to strike, except for help for the local. If they ask for help, they get it, but they don't get mandates from the national/state union.

 

As far as the union members only thinking about their salaries....no one knows what they are striking for line by line of a proposed agreement! It could have some student welfare, it may not, but typically the details are not exposed during negotiations.

 

I have no comment about the strike itself. Just read the above and be informed about how teacher unions work.

 

Rockin . . I never said or implied that it was a national union. It is very clearly a local union.

 

My point is when salaries are public, and in this economic climate, what is the completely unreasonable, outrageous, harming the safety of puppies request that would need the nuclear option of a strike? Isnt a strike the last option after everything else is discounted and ruled out? The absolute weapon of last resort? And this weapon (on the surface, but mind you, that is what is reported and criticzed) is being used over a 1% drop in pay, dictated by the budget?

 

My continued question is a 1% drop (on average 600 bucks, pretax, per year) worth going to the mattresses over?

[SEC=UGA]

Editor's note: William J. Bennett is the Washington fellow of the Claremont Institute. He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and was director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.

 

(CNN) -- Last week, the College Board dealt parents, teachers and the education world a serious blow. According to its latest test results, "SAT reading scores for the high school class of 2011 were the lowest on record, and combined reading and math scores fell to their lowest point since 1995."

 

The reading scores, which stand at 497, are noticeably lower than just six years ago, when they stood at 508. And it's just the second time in the last 20 years that reading scores have dropped so precipitously in a single year.

 

Yet, according to the College Board, there is no reason to panic. The results, they say, "reflect the record size and diversity of the pool of test-takers. As more students aim for college and take the exam, it tends to drag down average scores."

 

Since when has diversity and more students taking the test become a legitimate excuse for bad scores? A conservative certainly could not get away with blaming falling test scores on diversity. Imagine the outcry.

 

 

William BennettIncreased diversity and student participation are very good things, but we should not console ourselves with excuses for falling scores, especially considering the amount of money we spend each year on education.

 

The 2011 budget for the Department of Education is estimated to top $70 billion, while overall spending on public elementary and secondary education is about $600 billion a year. By comparison, in 1972, before the Department of Education even existed, SAT critical reading scores for college-bound seniors were above 525, more than 20 points higher than they are today, while today's math scores are only slightly better than in 1972.

 

Does school repair funding create jobs? As the United States increases education spending, our students' scores should not be getting worse. For a long time, I, along with other conservative reformers, have been saying that real reform means more than throwing money at the problem. Now, an unexpected voice from across the political spectrum is agreeing.

 

Steven Brill, founder of Court TV and The American Lawyer magazine, and author of the new book "Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools," has turned the journalistic magnifying glass on the nation's public schools and teachers' unions. Brill's book is one of the most in-depth and closely researched looks into the modern workings of the education "blob" in recent memory. And Brill is a liberal, a very thoughtful and careful liberal, and he is criticizing the heart of liberal power: the teachers' unions.

 

Brill closely traces the modern education reform movement from Race to the Top, to KIPP Academies, to Teach for America, to such high-profile reformers as Michelle Rhee and Joel Klein, while lamenting obvious long-standing barriers to educational improvement such as the "last in, first out" policy that requires teachers to be laid off based purely on seniority rather than performance.

 

Brill scours the inner workings of public school teachers' contracts, uncovering such gems as a New York City contract provision "allowing the principal no say over the format of a lesson plan."

 

He recounts his exposure of New York City's infamous "rubber rooms," where hundreds of teachers under investigation for misconduct or incompetence were sidelined for years at full pay with nothing to do but watch the clock tick down each day. The practice was discontinued after his reporting revealed it.

 

In another illustrative case study, Brill compares Harlem Success I, a charter school, with P.S. 149, a traditional public school. Both schools happen to share the same building in New York City, with very similar students, parents, socioeconomic conditions and environments. But Harlem Success blows P.S. 149 out of the water. Eighty-six percent of its students were proficient in English in 2010, compared with 29% of P.S. 149's.

 

Throughout the book, Brill uses examples like these to explain how fossilized teacher union contracts, lax or nonexistent teacher evaluations, and unmovable wages and benefits have straitjacketed any hope of real reform. The solution, Brill says, is to overhaul the public school education system in order to motivate and inspire better teachers. Rewriting union contracts and paying teachers based on performance, not seniority, are among the first steps Brill advises. The United States can afford to pay our nation's best teachers more, while holding bad teachers accountable and paying them accordingly.

 

Brill's work represents a real tug-of-war inside the Democratic Party, between the teachers' unions and modern reformers, for control of the nation's education machine. The old guard of the Democratic Party, the AFT and NEA, believe that the blame for stagnant and falling test scores falls on anyone but them. Yet, new Democratic voices, such as Cory Booker, Geoffrey Canada and Rhee, are vocally questioning what was once unquestionable -- that contracts, wages, benefits, accountability and standards need sensible reforms.

 

The latest drop in SAT reading scores should not be written off as a statistical outlier, but should be a wake-up call to heed the chorus of reformers, conservatives and liberals alike, whose prescriptions are timely, relevant and might be just what we need to turn our public schools around.

[SEC=UGA]

Still on strike after a Judge declared the strike illegal and ordered them back to work... Can't they hold ALL of them in contempt for this?

 

The union for striking Tacoma teachers says school district negotiators walked away from the table Tuesday night and no new talks are planned.

 

Classes for the district's approximately 28,000 students were canceled for the seventh day since the scheduled school year began.

 

Tacoma Education Association spokesman Rich Wood said the negotiations were going well and the teachers thought they were close to an agreement when the district negotiators walked out just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

Wood said the union offered two new contract proposals during the meeting.

 

Dan Voelpel, spokesman for the Tacoma School District, said the two sides were still far from an agreement and called the situation "extremely frustrating."

 

He said district negotiators saw no reason to continue meeting.

 

"We are ready to bargain if the union wants to bargain," he said. "If the union wants to stick to their positions and hold children of Tacoma hostage for what they want, we don't see any reason to talk."

 

Voelpel said the district has accepted Gov. Chris Gregoire's invitation to have both sides come to Olympia to discuss the situation.

 

Wood said he was not aware of a formal invitation from the governor, but said the union would do whatever it takes to get an agreement.

Edited September 21, 2011 by SEC=UGA

[SEC=UGA]

 

Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff issued the temporary restraining order and ordered that schools reopen immediately after the Tacoma School District took the striking teachers and the Tacoma Education Association union to court....

 

During Wednesday's court session, Chushcoff held up photographs of a sign he said had been placed at his home. The printed sign said "Support Tacoma teachers."

 

Chushcoff responded by saying, "It's not appropriate to try and influence or intimidate me."

 

At least they're more civil than us rednecks... Back in the day we'd throw a brick through a window with a note atached to it.

Edited September 21, 2011 by SEC=UGA

[CowboyGal2011]

Law gives huge pension perks to union leaders In all, 23 expected to collect combined $56 million in their lifetimes

[tosberg34]

Law gives huge pension perks to union leaders In all, 23 expected to collect combined $56 million in their lifetimes

 

absolutely disgusting. Unions need to be abolished. Period.