May 6, 2011

Public School Teachers Continue to Protest Against Taxpayers

Everyone does "pay their taxes." Schools are paid for with property taxes. Maybe if the teachers unions didn't create a giant underclass of illiterates who will never make more than minimum wage, if anything, the tax base would be more productive and more taxes would roll in. Or maybe if the teachers unions didn't get themselves insanely generous retirement packages, health insurance, vacation time, etc, at the cost to taxpayers, maybe the necessary number of working teachers could be afforded. Or maybe if the teachers unions didn't constantly back a political party and candidates who are overwhelmingly socialist and friendly to unions in exchange for their support and votes, they would be viewed as more than just a self-serving extension of the Democrat National Committee. Budget cuts are necessary because the existing system has strangled productive, profitable business, and there isn't any money left. Sorry, if you can't afford it, you can't have it. Live within your means, and if you don't like it, changes your means by attacking what is limiting you. And keep you hands out of my wallet. Earn your own money. And give however much of it to government teachers as you wish. As for me, I don't notice any private schools laying off teachers. I wonder why that is. Do you know? - Comedian, Katy, Tx High School Students walk out to protest, GodlikeProductions.com Forum, April 14, 2011

Teachers Protest N.C. Budget Cuts

Thousands of educators from across North Carolina rally Tuesday on the Bicentennial Mall in Raleigh, where they called on legislators to raise taxes to fund schools and preserve teacher jobs.


Charlotte Observer - A sea of public school teachers in red T-shirts chanted, shouted and danced through a rally across the street from the legislature Tuesday afternoon in a raucous fight against budget cuts.

Inside the building, lawmakers droned through amendments to the House Republicans' $19.3 billion budget plan that would slice about $1 billion from education.

The rally went on for hours and attracted Gov. Bev Perdue, who showed up to lend her support on a steamy National Teacher Appreciation Day. She pulled several surprised schoolchildren on stage with her and said to the crowd:

"I need to ask you, do you feel appreciated?"

"No!" was the resounding response from several thousand teachers whose homemade signs bobbed with messages such as "Education cuts never heal" and "Kids are worth a penny!"

The latter sign was a reference to a 1-cent sales tax increase that is due to expire. Democrats, including Perdue, want to keep part of the tax to avoid making deeper cuts to education, but Republicans pledged to end it.

Teachers passed buckets at the rally, collecting pennies in a symbolic gesture. The coins will be sent to the state Department of Revenue, according to the N.C. Association of Educators, the state teachers group that held the rally.

"I've got a new phrase for them," said Vickie Wilkins, a 36-year veteran who teaches at Southern Lee High School. "Do the math!"

The crowd started to chant. "Do the math! Do the math!"

"We are not getting the love, and we are not getting their respect," Wilkins said. "Who do they think are teaching their children?"

The House budget proposal would cut public schools by 8.8 percent, community colleges by 10 percent and the 17-campus UNC system by more than 15 percent.

Officials with the state Department of Public Instruction say more than 18,000 public school jobs could be lost, the bulk of them teacher assistants and support staff.

Rep. Jeff Barnhart, a Republican from Cabarrus County and a chief budget writer, said legislators have worked to protect classroom teachers. The House budget does fully fund teaching positions, he said.

"This was not an easy budget. We knew it would be difficult. I think what we've got is a good product overall."

Teachers rode buses into downtown Raleigh to attend the after-school event.

Debbie Johns, who teachers career and technical education at Southwestern High School in Randolph County, said the gathering inspired her.

"I think it's a morale booster for teachers who desperately need it right now," she said.

The state risks doing long-term damage, Johns said.

"My biggest fear is the economy in our state," she said. "Companies are not going to want to come here and stay here if the state doesn't care about education. That's my biggest fear. This is a snowball effect. This is not temporary."

The teachers were joined by about a hundred college students who marched from N.C. State University.

"This is no budget crisis," said Bryan Perlmutter, a sophomore at NCSU, where a cut of $80 million is feared. "It's a moral crisis. We will no longer sit back and watch the legislature tear apart the future of this state."

Leah Josephson, a UNC-Chapel Hill senior, said she has noticed a decline in her student experience in the past four years. One course she planned to take this year was canceled.

"Our classes are getting bigger, it's harder and harder to graduate on time, and our education is getting more expensive," she said. "We think that has to stop."

LAUSD Shortens School Day for Teacher Protest

Students in Los Angeles schools will be released early next Friday so their teachers can attend a planned protest over education state funding levels. The LA school district--the second largest in the nation--faces a $408 million budget deficit, and the local teachers union planned the protest to encourage lawmakers to extend taxes to fund the schools. Schools will be let out up to a few hours early so teachers can join in the protest, the district's officials told the LA Times. - Kids in LA Get Shortened School Day as Teachers Protest, The Lookout, May 4, 2011

May 4, 2011

LA Times - The Los Angeles school district will hold a shortened day of classes on May 13 to accommodate a planned teachers union protest without interrupting standardized testing on most campuses.

Dismissal time will vary from school to school but could be up to several hours earlier than normal. Schools will be required to make up the lost time from the shortened day later in the year, according to Los Angeles Unified School District officials.

The teachers' demonstration is aimed at encouraging state legislators to place tax extensions on the fall ballot to provide continued funding to school districts. L.A. Unified faces a nearly $408-million deficit.

Earlier this spring, the Board of Education voted to issue preliminary layoff notices to nearly 7,000 employees as a cost-saving measure.

The teachers union initially had planned to hold protests in the morning on May 13 and ask their members to report to classrooms an hour late. But district officials were concerned that mandatory state standardized tests would be disrupted and that students could go unsupervised. As a result, new schools Supt. John Deasy offered the shortened day alternative after meeting with union leaders Thursday night.

In an email to staff, Deasy wrote:
"UTLA agreed that they would adjust the focus of their day of activity to concerns about the failure of the State of California, to the public funded schools. I made it perfectly clear that the day's activities and flyer notification about this day could not focus on any concerns about LAUSD."
After classes are dismissed, teachers will pass out leaflets in front of their campuses and then go to Pershing Square to participate in the protest, organized by the California Teachers Assn., at 4 p.m.

The protest comes as district officials negotiate with unions to cut costs. Groups that represent district police officers, police sergeants and lieutenants, academic administrators and construction workers have tentatively agreed to 12 furlough days, which will save the district millions of dollars.

United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy said the other deals did not place added pressure on his members to come to an agreement.
"The [other groups] did what they had to do," Duffy said.
Teachers have agreed to furlough days the last two years and "we are interested in working with the district as much as possible," Duffy said.

But before agreeing to any furlough days or other cost-cutting measures, Duffy said, he and other union members need to be convinced the district is not wasting money. They have been going over financial documents the district has provided. Union and district officials also disagree about how much money is in a healthcare fund that L.A. Unified officials have proposed borrowing for other purposes, Duffy said.
"We want to tell our membership that we've seen the books and we've made sure every nickel and dime is accounted for," Duffy said.

Idaho High School Students Protest Teacher Layoffs Plan

February 28, 2011

Reuters - Hundreds of Idaho high school students walked out of classes on Monday to protest a plan to lay off public school teachers and curtail their rights to collective bargaining.

About 250 students were asked to leave the Capitol in Boise and take their protest signs and chanting outside to avoid disrupting state workers, police said.

The hours-long Boise rally mirrored walkouts and sit-ins by students in other Idaho cities. The protests were apparently organized by students and posted on social networking sites like Facebook.

"Teachers at our school don't really have a future under this plan," Sage Sauerbruy, a junior at Wood River High School in Hailey, Idaho, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Sauerbruy was among scores of students who signed petitions against a plan crafted by Idaho schools chief Tom Luna to overhaul the public education system for kindergarten through high school. The overhaul is spelled out in several measures working their way through the GOP-controlled Idaho legislature and endorsed by Republican Governor Butch Otter.

The plan restricts collective bargaining by public school teachers to salaries and benefits, removing from negotiations such provisions as class sizes and teacher workload. It also would lay off more than 750 teachers and require students to complete online courses to graduate.

The controversy surrounding the plan comes as efforts are under way by Republicans in Wisconsin and other states to curb teachers' and other unions.

The Idaho Education Association, which represents more than 12,000 school teachers, is strongly opposed to the plan. The teachers union said in a statement Monday it "had absolutely no involvement in organizing the protests" by students.

Boise High School Principal Ken Anderson said dozens of juniors and seniors from that school attended the protests at the Capitol. He said the education overhaul has been a topic of debate in civics classes.

"The Legislature has put everyone in a difficult situation and I guess the kids want to express their feelings about it," said Anderson.

Spokesman Jon Hanian said he was unsure Otter knew about the student walkout since he was at a national gathering for governors in Washington, D.C. A Luna spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

Captain Steve Richardson, regional commander for Idaho State Police, said he was not aware of a similar protest by students in the past.

"It was unusual," he said. "I've been associated with a number of gatherings at the Capitol and, generally speaking, that's not the type of gathering you would see.

Union Protests Spreading – Protesting in Ohio, Teacher Sick-Out in Michigan – Update – Now in Idaho, Minnesota, Is New York Next?

February 18, 2011

The Lonely Conservative - The OFA fueled public employee union protests are spreading. The US is starting to look like the Middle East. When I turn on the TV it takes a minute to figure out whether I’m seeing pictures from Egypt, Bahrain, or Wisconsin. The only difference is the protesters here are fighting to keep their privileged status.

All eyes have been on Wisconsin, where Governor Scott Walker told President Obama to “back off!” Good for him. But Wisconsin isn’t the only place where we’re seeing public employees causing trouble. They’re protesting in Ohio.

In Columbus, Ohio, about 3,800 state workers, teachers and other public employees came to the statehouse for a committee hearing. President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohioan, argued over whether the bills are “an assault on unions.”

Ohio firefighters Dave Hefflinger and Jerry Greer said they were. They stood near hundreds of workers elbow-to-elbow in the statehouse atrium and listened to a Senate hearing through speakers. Chants of “Kill the bill” echoed.

“We’re here to support our brothers and sisters,” Hefflinger, a 27-year veteran, said in an interview. “They’re trying to take away what we fought for all of these years.”

Hefflinger, 49, and Greer, 39, members of the department in Findlay, Ohio, drove two hours south to protest the bill. The measure would eliminate collective bargaining for state workers, prevent local-government employees from negotiating for health insurance and replace salary schedules with merit pay.

With states facing deficits that may reach a combined $125 billion next year, Republican governors including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich and New Jersey’s Chris Christie are targeting changes in rules for collective bargaining and worker contributions for health-care coverage and pensions.

You’d think they were calling for sacrificing the first born of every public employee. Sheesh!

In Michigan teachers illegally held a sick-out.

About 40 percent of the West Bloomfield High School teachers didn’t show up for work on Feb. 15 in the midst of bitter contract negotiations.

Superintendent JoAnn Andrees said that 41 high school teachers didn’t show up and that 36 of those teachers were not within a normal “pattern” of absences. Andrees said as many as a dozen teachers could be out on a typical day. The Michigan Department of Education said there are about 100 teachers at the high school as of 2009-10.

“Nothing has happened to this degree before,” Andrees said.

The missing classes were filled with substitutes and administrators, as well as other support staff from other buildings, Andrees said.

“I was so impressed with Bloomfield students on this day,” Andrees said. “Classes went on. … Kudos to my kids.”

What are the teachers so upset about? The district is asking them to contribute a little bit to their health and retirement plans, like the rest of us. It’s not like they can’t afford it, their pay is pretty generous. And let me point out that those teachers who called in sick will be paid for sick time by the taxpayers. But really, it’s for the children.

Update: The union unrest is spreading further. Look what’s happening in Idaho.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s vehicle was vandalized overnight at his Nampa home and he and his family have received threats, he told police.

“Yes, he has made us aware of threats to him and family members and we are looking into those, and we are aware of those, and we are doing what we can to provide protection,” Nampa Police Deputy Chief Craig Kingsbury said.

Luna said the union is sending out emails giving members the home addresses of officials. Nice.

I can’t help but wonder if this is going to happen in New York. New York teachers are among the highest paid in the United States. Some local school unions are agreeing to concessions, but not all of them. Some are digging in their heels. Governor Andrew Cuomo sent an email this week addressing the cost of education.

Right now, we rank number one in the nation in spending per student, and number 34 in student achievement. Worse still, these poor results are coming after a decade of record spending increases in education funding.

Throwing money at the problem is not the answer. We need to cut the bureaucratic fat and champion reforms that will help our students achieve their true potential.

We need to spend smarter. To this end I have proposed a $250 million fund for competitive awards to school districts that have the greatest improvement in student performance. A similar fund of $250 million will reward school districts that produce the most innovative means to cut waste from the system.

In the debate over the state budget, it is important to focus on the facts instead of overheated rhetoric. While I have asked state agencies to cut their budgets by 10%, I have only sought an average 2.9% reduction in overall school spending. And I have suggested many ways in which school districts can absorb these reductions without laying off teachers, cutting programs or harming students.

Sounds like fighting words to me. We’ll have to wait and see if those reforms he’s talking about include asking teachers to contribute more to their health and pension plans. If so, I wonder if President Obama will accuse a fellow Democrat of assaulting unions.

Update 2: It looks like Minnesota might be next.

Minnesota union members are watching the labor unrest in Wisconsin closely. And the head of the state’s 43,000-member public employees union says what’s happening in the Badger State is also headed for Minnesota.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, calls it a “deliberate plan” to break unions.

“This attack on unions and on working people emanates comes out of Washington, D.C.,” said Seide. “By extreme, cheap labor conservatives who want to pit public workers against private workers and drive down the wages and benefits of all workers.”

The Minnesota AFL-CIO has identified five separate bills they say are Republican attempts to break up unions, including cuts in wages and benefits to public workers and a ”right to work” amendment to the Minnesota’s constitution.

But Minnesota Republican leaders say voters are fed up with what they say is public union benefits that private sector workers don’t have.

Keep it up, union thugs. Show what you stand for. Close down schools so everyone finally understands it’s not about the children and never was.

Update 3:Memeorandum has a huge thread starting with a link to a WaPo article about Obama joining the budget battle opposing an “anti-union” bill. Why not call it a “pro-taxpayer” bill? And there’s this Ann Althouse post showing the violent images and rhetoric on display in Wisconsin.

Update 4: I’m not the only one who thinks New York may be next, but this time it’s not about Governor Cuomo, it’s about NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Corporate Surge Against Public Schools (Excerpt)

February 18, 2008

Steven Miller and Jack Gerson - ...If you graduated from high school in 1980, your entire k-12 education cost your fellow taxpayers about $75,000, in 2009 dollars. But the graduating class of 2009 had roughly twice that amount lavished on their public school careers. The extra $75,000 we’re now spending has done wonders for public school employee union membership, dues revenue, and political clout. It’s done a whole lotta nothin’ for student learning (see chart).

But, some readers may ask: were all those new employees teachers? About two thirds of public school employment growth has been teachers (41 percent) or teachers’ aides (23 percent). The remaining third was comprised almost entirely of support staff in schools and district offices...

Read more here and here.

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