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The Blog
The crisis in American education is really about how to find and retain and nourish ordinary teachers. They are the ones who do most of the work, have the greatest influence, and are under the greatest stress.
When teachers and other school employees work collaboratively with administrators and others on school improvement, students do better.
We're supposed to be exploring every conceivable alternative for turning the domestic economy around. So why are Republicans, at state and federal levels, waging a rhetorical, legislative, and administrative War on Education?
The state of teachers unions is unstable at best. If they want to remain relevant, they must join the millions of American parents and children demanding equality in education now or be left behind.
Rupert Murdoch may have called Gov. Cuomo "chicken" for refusing to take on the city's teacher's union. But judging from his latest State of the City address, Mayor Bloomberg sounds like the real chicken for refusing to take on Ray Kelly.
Of course you've never seen a State of the City speech. If the mayor expected you to care about it, he wouldn't do it in the middle of the afternoon. But there is a nice tea-leaf quality to this annual ritual. You can get a sense of what the Big Man really wants us to pay attention to.
Making an impact for kids is the reason we joined this profession. A system that provides options and pathways to do exactly that is one that should excite any teacher.
Should New York City should fire half the teachers and double class size in its public schools? Mayor Bloomberg's proposal made me curious. What kind of education did Mayor Mike choose for his daughters?
Are the best, most experienced D.C. teachers concentrated in the wealthiest schools, while the worst are concentrated in the poorest schools? Or does the statistical model ignore the possibility that it's more difficult to teach a room full of impoverished children?
"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation" has taken on new meaning. The people of Ohio used their citizen veto decisively to repeal legislation that would have stripped police officers, teachers, firefighters and other public workers of their right to bargain collectively.
The leadership of today's teachers' unions stand firmly against tenure for undeserving teachers. But I can also assure you that some (not all) of the union bashing isn't about better education.
Originally published on turnstylenews.com/occupy, Turnstyle News' special coverage page of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Also in RSS form>> By...
Monday's editions of the LA Times, Daily News and La Opinion carried an ad from a coalition of civic and community organizations aimed at influencing the negotiations between the LA Unified School District and its teachers.
Here's an important question: What sector of public employees recently received a 71 percent approval rating from its core constituents? If you said elected officials, well, you are wrong. Give up? The answer is teachers.
Eliminating "tenure" may be politically popular, but eroding due process and the 'just cause' standard creates an environment where even good teachers can be fired just 'cause it serves some other interest.
The color of your skin and your zip code are almost entirely determinative of the quality of the public education this nation provides. This is deeply, profoundly wrong and is contrary to everything this nation stands for.
