Teacher World

More bad news out of Providence, Rhode Island. As if it wasn’t bad enough to hear the ghastly news that all of Providence’s nearly 2,000 teachers were told that they might be terminated next year, a closer look at the manner in which this terrible situation was handled reveals some potentially grim ulterior motives; the terminating of seniority as well.

Mayor Angel Taveras has stated from the start that his recommendation to terminate all teachers’ contracts was strictly to balance the city and the School Department budgets. He explained that terminating everyone’s contract would save money since “teachers who are dismissed and not rehired will not end up in a substitute teaching pool.”

But according to David V. Abbott, the state’s deputy education commissioner, there is a significant difference between layoffs and dismissals. Under state statute, when a teacher is laid off, they are put on a recall list; they haven’t been dismissed and if a job for which they are qualified becomes available, they are rehired based on seniority. But these teachers were not laid off; they were terminated, which means that every one of them may have to reapply for their job just like any new teacher coming into the school system. Seniority may not factor in at all.

Executive Director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees Tim Duffy explained that what is further muddying the waters is the fact that this whole situation is “unchartered territory”, leaving questions such as would dismissed teacher get a hearing before losing their jobs, would the district have to state the reasons why each teacher is being terminated, and could teachers appeal their termination?

As if the situation isn’t messy enough, Providence recently altered their policy regarding how vacancies would be filled; starting last fall, filling vacancies is no longer based solely on seniority. According to the new policy, teachers must be interviewed by the principal and a team of colleagues, and they must turn in a model lesson plan as well as a writing sample. This new policy was implemented to guarantee that the most qualified teachers would fill available positions.

On Thursday, teachers met with the superintendent to discuss their future. After the meeting, Alison Deitch, a teacher for the school system, told the Providence Journal, “When they do rescind [the dismissal notices], from what I understand, there is no seniority. If you’ve been a teacher for 30 years, good luck.”

In spite of heated accusations of seniority-busting, Mayor Taveras maintains that their decision was not motivated by a desire to eliminate seniority-based hiring, and claims that they will let teachers know as soon as possible who will be able to keep their teaching jobs.

Providence Teacher Union President Steve Smith claimed that the mayor was “waging a war on workers, not a war to fix a budget or our schools.”

In an attempt to restore seniority rights to its constituents, the Providence Teachers Union has sued the district, but no settlement has been reached yet, leaving the teachers in this district with no guarantees regarding what is to come. And, just when you think that the situation could not get any bleaker for these folks, their union contract expires at the end of this year.

Teacher's Unions David Abbott, Mayor Angel Taveras, Providence, Rhode Island schools, teachers, Tim Duffy

After much controversy and media attention, Coach O’Connor told his team on Friday night that he had resigned from his position as the coach of the Holy Family University basketball team, where he had worked for only a year.

As I reported in an earlier blog, on January 25, O’Connor got pretty physical with one of his players, Matt Kravchuk, resulting in a torn ligament in Matt’s wrist which requires surgery and has caused him to have to stop playing basketball. He also suffered a blow to the nose and mouth which began to bleed after this incident, and which the coach badgered Matt about verbally before finally throwing him out of the practice.

Many of us watched the video of the practice and later saw O’Connor and Kravchuk on Good Morning America. We know that O’Connor was finally suspended from his coaching duties after continuing to coach for five games after Matt reported this incident to the school. We know that an apology of sorts was offered to Kravchuk from O’Connor, who continued to defend his actions as being necessary to toughen up his team after an embarrassing loss, and maintaining that this is how he teaches his players in a high intensity, one-on-one rebound drill.

Now, this is the truly unfortunate part of this whole story. Clearly O’Connor was basically a good coach. His team gave him a standing ovation when he walked into the meeting where he would later announce his resignation. The team sent a letter of support for their coach to the school when this incident occurred. And according to O’Connor, the team was really down when he told them he was resigning and expressed that they wanted him back as their coach.

Shawn Smith, the father of the team’s leading scorer, said of O’Connor, “He’s a very intense coach and that’s why I liked the guy. My son is very upset and I think they’re all upset about it. He was a Division I coach and brought some intensity to the program. He was definitely helping these kids. From what I’ve seen and what my son tells me, he was a very fair coach who lived and breathed basketball. He’s the kind of guy I want to coach my son. It’s very unfortunate, because all I heard about Coach O’Connor was good, and all the other coaches really liked him.”

Unfortunately, a good coach had to walk away from a coaching position where it sounds like he was liked and respected because of one practice where things got out of control (and he was out of control at that practice, no mistake about it). Do I wish it could have ended differently? Yes, as I’m sure many of you out there do, too. (For sure Dana does, who has steadfastly commented on behalf of O’Connor since my first blog.) I wish Matt could have heard an apology from the coach that he could have accepted because it admitted a lapse of better judgment and disappointment in having allowed that lapse. Had this been handled immediately and sincerely at that practice, in front of the very camera that caught the over-the-line behavior, how differently this story could have ended.

A missed opportunity to be humble and admit a mistake; not an accident, not an unintentional event, but an honest-to-goodness mistake, cost this coach a position he clearly valued and cost his team not only a coach they liked and respected, but the opportunity to respect him even more for admitting his failure and allowing everyone, including Kravchuk to move on from there and work together to build a better team.

No one’s a winner here; not Matt, who is facing surgery and probably the ridicule of his former teammates, not the basketball team, who will have to get through the rest of the season with a new head coach and some bitter feelings, and certainly not Coach O’Connor, who will have to live with the reminder of his actions in that fateful practice and how they changed his life.

O’Connor said of himself, “There’s no question. I’m a good coach. I worked my [butt] off. If that 30 seconds ends my career, that would be very difficult.”

It would be difficult and very unfortunate. I think O’Connor’s a good coach who had a bad practice, and I hope he’s learned from those 30 seconds and gets another opportunity to show that those 30 seconds have taught him how to be a better coach in the future.

Teacher-World's Blog coach, Coach O'Connor, Holy Family University, Matt Kravchuk, resignation

Teachers everywhere took a collective gasp and felt a cold shiver down their spines when we heard the news out of Providence, Rhode Island on February 23rd, where 1,926 teachers were handed pink slips. Is this another Central Falls; firing teachers due to a school’s low test performance? No, this is the newest threat to teachers, as if we need another one; making cuts to balance the deficits created by reduced government funding.

On Tuesday, a day that has been compared to Pearl Harbor by the Providence teachers union, teachers were told by Superintendent Tom Brady that with a projected deficit of almost $40 million, the school’s situation was dire. Which is the reason why all of the teachers in this district received letters from Brady explaining, “Since the full extent of the potential cuts to the school budget have yet to be determined, issuing a dismissal letter to all teachers was necessary to give the mayor, the School Board and the district maximum flexibility to consider every cost savings option.”

Mayor Angel Taveras explained that state law in Rhode Island requires that teachers be notified by March 1 of potential changes to their employment status, and with planning still underway as to how the projected deficit will be offset, they decided it was best to inform everyone of the potential of being fired since they are unsure how many will actually be laid off.

Clearly, not everyone who received a pink slip will be let go, but obviously many will with a deficit of $40 million. So these poor teachers must now wait while their fates are being determined by the mayor, the school board, and the district. The anxiety and stress that this announcement will create is unbelievable. Yet, in spite of this demoralizing news and the fear it has created, these teachers will be expected to continue to prepare their students for their upcoming state achievement tests and carry on the plethora of duties teachers face daily without upsetting their students; maintaining a positive environment for the sake of their children. Under the circumstances, that’s a heck of a lot to ask, isn’t it?

Wouldn’t it have been more humane if decisions had been made in anticipation of the March 1st deadline? Couldn’t the mayor, the school board, and administrators have been deliberating on these issues for the past several months so that only those unfortunate teachers who had to be released would have received their pink slips rather than putting everyone through the hell that those who will be let go will have to experience? Handling these cuts in this horrific manner has shown no compassion, quite the opposite; it has sent a clear message just how brutal a process it will be.

As Providence Teachers Union President Steve Smith told The Providence Journal, the decision was “beyond insane.” He said he was caught completely off-guard by the letter from the superintendent, and he said, “Let’s create the most chaos and the highest level of anxiety in a district where teachers are already under unbelievable stress. Now I know how the United States State Department felt on December 7, 1941.”

Teachers in Providence, I offer my heartfelt sympathy for what you are going through, and I am sure I am not alone in praying that this horrible situation is resolved with greater compassion in the future.

Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog budget deficits, Mayor Angel Taveras, pink slips, Providence, Rhode Island teachers

Well, by now you have read the news about the vote taken in the wee hours of the morning today in Wisconsin; a fitting twisted ending to a despicably twisted bill.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know Democrats have been using delay tactics to try to put off this vote, and we knew that the three days of filibustering they engaged in to try to continue to delay the vote would eventually prove to be ineffective. But I was truly hoping that cooler heads would prevail during this delay; that Governor Scott Walker and his Republican cohorts would be moved by all of the protests they have listened to for days both in their state and in others around our nation who are calling for an anti-union bill, and they might tweak this bill enough that it would be more palpable for those of us who are in the public sector.

Perhaps a compromise to increase our pension and health care contributions while maintaining our rights to collective bargaining would have been better received. How about a promise to delay the vote until a real plan was in place addressing how the void created by the loss of collective bargaining will be filled; how salaries will be both effected and determined, what will be the new guidelines for evaluation and will those guidelines be solely based on state test scores and a value-added model, how will reduction in force be handled, and the myriad questions and concerns those of us in education are experiencing right now? Having the plan in place before the vote was taken might have calmed our fears or at least given us a clearer picture of what lies ahead and how this legislation will affect us personally.

So, with all of the tension, fears, and drama, to read the actual account describing how the vote was taken in Wisconsin just adds to my outrage, and I’m sure to the outrage of others as well.

Here is how Julie Kent of ClevelandLeader described it: “Just after 1 am, Republicans cut off debate on the financial bill, and quickly called for a vote. In the confusion, approximately one-third of the lawmakers, including 25 Democrats, two Republicans and one independent, did not get a chance to vote on the bill at all. Democrats reportedly “exploded” in furor when they realized that the vote had been open only for just a few moments. Nevertheless, it passed 51-17. The debates over Walker’s bill had gone on for 60 hours, and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote began. Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, a Republican, opened the roll and closed it within seconds. Only 13 of the 38 Democrats managed to vote in time.”

Clearly the Republican representatives were anxious to get on with the vote now that the Democrats were in the room, and I am sure they were sick of listening to the Democrats drone on and on in an obvious attempt to disrupt the voting. But Republicans obviously had the majority here and should have been able to pass this bill once the voting was announced. For decency’s sake, give everyone a chance to go on record with their vote rather than cramming it down everyone’s throat.

This was nothing less than railroading, which sends a clear warning to those of us in the public sector of how we will be treated in this unfair and unreasonable political arena in which we have become the sacrificial lambs on the altar of the national debt.

Now, we lambs wait nervously and anxiously for this legislation to go to Wisconsin’s senate for a vote; another uphill climb for Republicans as the Democratic senators are holed up in Illinois in the Democrats’ continued attempt to squash this bill.

Teacher-World's Blog Anti-Union bill, Democrats public sector, Governor Scott Walker, Republicans, Wisconsin

Here comes another bizarre story out of Philadelphia’s Holy Family University of another coach who took things way too far.

In late January, at a team practice after a particularly humbling loss, Coach O’Connor had the team doing high intensity one-on-one rebound drills, in an effort to instill toughness in his players. The video of the practice shows him suddenly charging sophomore, Matt Kravchuk, stripping him of the basketball and knocking him forcefully to the ground with a forearm to the chest. In the process, Matt injured his wrist, and his nose and mouth were both bleeding. While he was still on the ground, you can see from the video that Coach O’Connor kicked him in the back, although he claims he was only nudging him to get him up.

Matt got up dazed and bleeding and went to the end of the line. At some point, the coach saw that Matt was bleeding and yelled, “Got a little @$#*ing blood on you? Good!” Apparently, Matt told Coach O’Connor that he was bleeding because of him, at which point O’Connor kicked him out of the gym yelling, “Get the @$#* outta here! GET THE @$#* OUTTA HERE!”

Matt Kravchuk reported the incident to the school and its athletic director, Sandy Michaels, and he and his family waited for eighteen days for some response regarding what the school was going to do about this horrendous incident. Finally, after O’Connor continued to coach five more games with no penalty or apology, Kravchuk filed a police report and leaked word of what had occurred to the media. That was when Holy Family University announced that O’Connor was being suspended; however, Matt and his family feel that this situation is still unresolved as questions regarding both the length of his suspension and the reason the school allowed him to continue to coach for five more games after this incident are still unanswered.

Today, both Coach O’Connor and Matt Kravchuk, along with their attorneys, appeared on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos, where a golden opportunity for O’Connor to clear the air and make some extremely necessary apologies was ignored, leaving anyone who watched this interview with a decidedly foul taste in their mouths! O’Connor showed incredibly poor judgment by continually denying that he had done anything wrong. He even had the audacity to maintain repeatedly that what he had done was “unintentional” and simply an “accident”. Here’s an example of the best he could muster when Stephanopoulos tried to get the two to resolve this situation: “Matt, this was an accident,” O’Connor said. “I was just trying to make us a better team and make us more competitive and in doing so an accident happened. It was unintentional by me and I’m really sorry that it happened.”

Now, anyone who watches this video would find it impossible to see this coach’s actions as anything but intentional and purposeful. There was no accident involved here, and his ranting afterwards is further evidence of how out of control O’Connor’s behavior was. He owed this boy, who clearly had admired his coach before this incident, the decency to admit his failure and to sincerely ask for a chance to make it right.

Under the circumstances, when Matt was asked by Stephanopoulos how he felt about O’Connor’s “apology”, I don’t think anyone can fault him for saying: “To be honest, it’s kind of hard to accept your apology just because you claim it’s justified and you claim you weren’t crossing the line. I came to Holy Family to play basketball and now I’m injured and I can’t play. And I can’t play for you anymore because as your player I’m supposed to be able to respect you but I don’t feel I can do that anymore.”

I know coaches are given fairly wide berth when it comes to how they talk to and treat their players. I have never quite understood the rationale behind this philosophy, but anyone who has ever been on a team or had children who play on a team, know this to be true. And, unfortunately, we all have known coaches who take it too far and use their position to humiliate and destroy their players rather than to encourage and positively mentor them. In the process, students like Matt Kravchuk pay the price.

Now, here’s the bitter irony of this sad tale. O’Connor, who claimed to be working his team so hard on that fateful day in January to toughen them up; this coach who thought being a guy who pushes his players around would teach them how to be stronger on the court, came off like a wimp and a coward when he faced Matt on Good Morning America today. In sharp contrast, Matt, who was slammed to the ground by his coach and ridiculed for not being tough enough, came off as a courageously mature young man who refused to accept feeble words from a coach for whom he has clearly and understandably lost all respect.

Teacher-World's Blog Coach O'Connor, Good Morning America, Holy Family University, Matt Kravchuk

Two counties in Florida are introducing random drug testing in their high schools. Some might consider this a drastic measure, and some are already arguing that it is a misuse of power. So what is the rationale behind such a forceful stance?

In Escambia County, the school board unanimously voted last Thursday night to begin random drug testing at their middle school and high schools next year. The targets of the drug testing are those who participate in extracurricular activities, those who play sports, and those who drive to school. If a student tests positive, they have the right to an independent test before any decisions are made or action is taken. If, however, the student tests positive again, they would be removed from that sport or extracurricular, and the parents would have to work with the school to agree upon a plan to get their child the help they need. 

Superintendent Malcolm Thomas explained that they hope that this measure will keep students from even trying drugs. “It’s that beginning point we’re trying to deter,” Thomas said. “If I can get you to say no from the beginning, and I want to say no because I want to be in the band, I want to be on the football team, and I’m not going to jeopardize my future; it gives them a way to save face in their peer group.”

What is the reaction from the community? Surprisingly, most of the parents support the random drug tests because they feel it might be a deterrent, and they want to know if their children are doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. But the ACLU is totally against this new school rule, claiming that the district is trying to take over the role of parenting. They claim that the move is financially irresponsible and “an expansive growth of government.”

Drug testing of student athletes was made legal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995, and in July 2009, the Palm Beach County School Board voted to approve the testing of student athletes in grades 9-12. The board stated the necessity of this decision because “some students who participate in interscholastic athletics and who are popular role models among their peers at school are also involved in the illegal use of drugs and alcohol.”

In order to avoid negative controversy, the board decided it would not do drug testing in all of their schools initially, so testing has been limited to three high schools in Palm Beach County who volunteered to participate and additionally limited  testing to their student athletes who are on the baseball and softball teams. Testing is done by a company in Palm Springs at no cost to the district through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and the guidelines allow for testing of any illegal substances.

School administrators claim that the testing has been fully supported by the parents who felt that it was a proactive strategy to prevent drug problems. And Bill Weed, the athletic director at Gardens Hills, one of the high schools that volunteered for random testing, said, “It gave the kids another reason to say no and not be tempted.”

So, how does it work? A computer picks five students randomly each month from the three schools to be tested, and head coaches can also have a student tested if they suspect they are using drugs. But students and parents must give consent before any testing is allowed. If a student tests positive the first time, they typically face a 10-day suspension from the team and must enter a treatment center and agree to follow-up testing. Violators are not reported to law enforcement, and there are no academic consequences. A second offense would result in being banned from the scholastic activity for a year, and students who refuse to submit to a drug test are not allowed to play high school sports for a year, at the conclusion of the season.

Although official results have not been published for privacy sake, this program is being credited with a 5 percent decline in students using alcohol and marijuana and lower use of commonly abused prescription drugs, cocaine, and other illegal substances, according to a report by an independent research firm.

So what do you think? Is this a program that might be effective in deterring drug and alcohol use in schools nationwide, or is it a case of schools overreaching their control? Seems to me that any program that might prove successful in decreasing the abuse of drugs and alcohol by our young people by offering more positive choices and providing firm intervention and rehabilitation is well worth it. I’m all for creative measures if they prove effective in preserving one of our nation’s most important resources; our young people.

What about you?

Teacher-World's Blog Escambia County, Florida Schools, Palm Beach County, random drug tests on students

I have written to you about Diane Ravitch before; a powerful woman well-grounded in education and one-time staunch supporter of No Child Left Behind but now just as staunchly opposed to all that No Child Left Behind stands for. Well, my respect for this woman has grown as she has now spoken out about what is happening in Wisconsin. Here are some of her salient points.

First, she accuses conservative Republican governors like Chris Christie of New Jersey, John Kasich of Ohio, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Rick Scott of Florida, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin of wanting “to sap the power of public employee unions, especially the teachers’ union, since public education is the single biggest expenditure for every state.”

Thousands of public sector workers have camped out in Wisconsin protesting Walker’s plan to reduce their take-home pay by increasing the amount they will have to contribute to their pension plan and their health care benefits at the same time that they plan to restrict their collective bargaining rights. Walker claims these cutbacks had to be imposed because the state is broke, but, Ravitch claims, “Teachers noticed that he offered generous tax breaks to businesses that were equivalent to the value of their givebacks.”

Ravitch goes on to enumerate the cause of the “simmering rage” felt by the nation’s teachers. “They have grown angry and demoralized over the past two years as attacks on their profession escalated. The much-publicized film Waiting for ‘Superman made the specious claim that ‘bad teachers’ caused low student test scores. A Newsweek cover last year proposed that the key to saving American education was firing bad teachers.”

Following this was the outrage felt by teachers everywhere when the leaders of the Central Falls School District in Rhode Island threatened to fire the whole staff of the town’s only high school due to poor performance on test scores. She points out that what really concerned teachers when they heard this news was the positive way it was received by both the Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama, who both felt it was a fine idea, even though there had been no evaluations of anyone at the high school.

Ravitch points to the Race to the Top program as another way that teachers have felt under attack. “The Obama administration’s Race to the Top program intensified the demonizing of teachers, because it encouraged states to evaluate teachers in relation to student scores. There are many reasons why students do well or poorly on tests, and teachers felt they were being unfairly blamed when students got low scores, while the crucial role of families and the students themselves was overlooked,” wrote Ravitch.

Finally, she points to the despair teachers felt in August when we read about the outrageous report in the Los Angeles Times in which this paper rated 6,000 teachers in Los Angeles as either effective or ineffective using the Value Added Model and students’ test scores. As you recall, the publishing of these ratings online led to the apparent suicide of one of these teachers who was rated ineffective, in spite of his consistently good evaluations. But as Ravitch points out, “Testing experts warn that such ratings are likely to be both inaccurate and unstable, but the Times stood by its analysis.”

Now, teachers are facing the latest and most demoralizing attack of all, the plan to abolish our right to due process, our seniority, and, in some states, the loss of collective bargaining rights. Ironically, Ravitch points out, “Actually, the states with the highest performance on national tests are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire, where teachers belong to unions that bargain collectively for their members.”

She points out that the reason conservative governors want to reduce the power of the unions is because they actively lobby to increase funding for education while reducing class size. If they can shut down teachers unions they also shut down the biggest opposition to making cuts in education.

Ravitch eloquently and masterfully summarizes what those of us in public education are feeling when she concludes: “There has recently been a national furor about school reform. One must wonder how it is possible to talk of improving schools while cutting funding, demoralizing teachers, cutting scholarships to college, and increasing class sizes. The real story in Madison is not just about unions trying to protect their members’ hard-won rights. It is about teachers who are fed up with attacks on their profession. As the attacks on teachers increase and as layoffs grow, there are likely to be more protests like the one that has mobilized teachers and their allies and immobilized the Wisconsin Legislature. “

Educational Reform, Funding Education, teacher evaluations, Teacher-World's Blog Central Falls Rhode Island, collective bargaining, Diane Ravitch, Race to the Top, Value Added Model, Wisconsin protests

All eyes are on Wisconsin right now, as it leads the way in this horrific battle to begin to regain control of our nation’s huge budget deficits at the expense of public employees and their unions. And if what is happening in Wisconsin is a sign of what is likely to come, I, like many other public employees, am becoming fearful of my future and my ability to retire any time in the future.

After nearly a week of protests in Madison, Wisconsin, with 70,000 protesters chanting, beating drums, debating, and voicing their fears and concerns, Republican lawmakers in this state remain apparently unmoved. And on Saturday, supporters of Governor Scott Walker, who is pushing for a measure that would force government workers to contribute more to their health care and pension costs and which would largely eliminate collective bargaining rights, showed up to support his plan, although their numbers were significantly less. 

Republicans claim these concessions are necessary in order to deal with Wisconsin’s projected $3.6 billion budget deficit and to avoid layoffs of government workers. Other states have joined in for the same reason.

Democrats offered on Saturday, to agree to parts of Governor Walker’s proposal, but maintained that workers should retain their rights to negotiate through their unions. Senate-Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, said that the GOP will not accept this offer, and also claimed that the restrictions on collective bargaining are necessary in order to give local governments and the state the flexibility they need to balance budgets after cuts are announced next month.

In Ohio, Governor John Kasich wants to restrict union rights for state workers and workers in townships, cities, counties, school districts and publicly funded universities, due to an estimated $8 billion deficit. In general, his suggested legislation would eliminate salary schedules, a plan which has received support from local tea party leader Ted Lyons from Troy, Ohio.

But other states, like Michigan, are progressing more moderately in the hopes of avoiding the controversy this legislation has prompted in so many states around the nation. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder also wants savings from public employee costs; however, he is not pushing to abolish collective bargaining rights. He does want all government employees to pay 20 percent of their health care premiums, but he is trying to work with the unions in his state. “As a practical matter, we’re asking for $180 million in concessions, and we know we need to go bargain for that,” Snyder told reporters Thursday after delivering his 2011-12 budget proposal. “We want to do that thoughtfully in partnership with our employees. We’re not here to create threats.”

How is it possible that we, who are in education, who are paid so little for what we do, and who spend so much out of pocket to supplement the materials and resources needed to successfully do our jobs, are one of the targeted groups to help bail out our nation’s debt? Most teachers I know work at least two jobs to make ends meet because our salaries are so low compared to those who are in the private sector.

So, why do we stay in education? Because we have a calling; we have a love of teaching and the children we teach. And so, we put up with the salary and supplement it in other ways so that we can afford to continue in the profession we love. If this legislation passes, we will be told to make further monetary sacrifices, and to make matters worse, we will have no one to stand up for us; no one to make sure that our rights are being protected. With no guidelines in place to control how cuts will be made, what would keep school districts from cutting employees at the top of the pay scale to help off-set budget deficits? Further, is it likely that our already meager salaries might be cut to decrease school deficits, making our ability to retire after 30-35 years of service a distant dream?

With Republicans holding the majority in Congress, it is becoming increasingly clear what the future holds for those of us in the public sector. I just hope and pray that we can ride out this latest storm.

Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog Governor Kasich, Governor Rick Snyder, Governor Scott Walker, public workers, SB5, Scott Fitzgerald, unions, Wisconsin

Have you contacted your representatives about Senate Bill 5 yet? Let me relay information to you directly from an attorney about what this bill would mean for education.

The firm of Muksovitz & Lemmerbrock, LLC, Attorneys at Law, sent a letter to the Cleveland Teachers Union on February 17, about SB5 after studying it in detail, and gave permission for this information to be shared with “anyone who cares about education, cares about children, and cares about teachers.” A copy of the original letter was sent to our union as well as, I’m sure, most unions throughout Ohio, and, since I believe that anyone who is reading my blogs, cares about education, children, and teachers, I am sharing the contents of this letter with you in the hopes that you will be outraged enough to do something about it, too.

Quoting from the letter directly:

“Senate Bill 5… moves forward with mandates that dictate how local school boards must operate in ways that are anti-teacher and anti-student. For example, the proposed legislation would do the following:

1. Tenure-SB5 eliminates all continuing contracts for new teachers and dictates that limited contracts may not be for more than one year. This provision will undermine the ability to attract the best and the brightest into the teaching profession.
2. Wages- It would be unlawful for school districts to base teachers’ salary on experience and education. Without any guidance whatsoever, the bill requires school districts to base salary solely on ‘merit.’
3. Health Insurance- It would be unlawful for school districts to negotiate the type of health care offered to employees, or the level of benefits available. It would be unlawful for a school district to charge employees less than 20 percent of the total premium for health care, although they could charge more.
4. Layoffs- It would be unlawful for school districts to base layoffs of teachers on seniority, within certification-which is the current method. Instead, school districts would be mandated to base layoffs on the ‘quality of performance’ of the teachers. This ‘quality of performance’ would be determined solely by the school district by considering the level of license the teacher holds, whether the teacher is ‘highly qualified,’ the value-added measure the school board uses to determine the performance of students assigned to the teacher’s classroom, the results of the teacher’s evaluation, and ‘any other criteria established by the board.’
5. Class Size- It would be unlawful for the school district to negotiate class size, or the number of teachers required in any category, such as the ratio of special education students assigned to special education teachers or to regular education teachers.
6. Leave Provisions- It would be unlawful for school districts to negotiate sick leave, maternity leave, injury leave, or assault leave provisions. These provisions must be set unilaterally by the school district and adopted as board policy.

As I stated earlier, SB5…makes the relationship between teachers and their school district worse than ever before. It mandates unilateral control over teachers and classrooms without any checks and balances in place. It outlaws collaboration. It is not designed to help children. It is designed to demonize teachers and destroy public education.” The letter is signed by Susannah Muskovitz.

Sobering news, but not surprising in the current atmosphere in which education’s woes are dumped on the doorstep of the public education system. This government will not be content until public education is a thing of the past, and they can get on with the business of treating education like a privatized business. And if we don’t raise our voices high and in huge numbers, that is exactly what will happen, and SB5 is just the tip of the iceberg.

Stand up! Speak up! Call and write your local representatives. Send the message that Senate Bill 5 is unacceptable! If there was ever a time to come together as educators in this country, it is now!

Teacher-World's Blog Senate Bill 5, students, teachers

Anyone other than me in the mood for a more uplifting blog tonight? Well, when I fell upon this article, I knew I had to do a huge shout-out for students from the University of Mobile for a job well done.

On Friday, February 11, in an effort to raise awareness of the homeless who live on the streets in Mobile, these students from UM took to those streets to make a difference. The first task of the night was to build a cardboard city on the intramural field at the university. They bundled up and stayed the night in their “Cardboard City” in an effort to experience for one night what it would be like to live as the homeless do.

In the morning, they served breakfast in two downtown shelters where they were challenged to interact with those who lead the fight against homelessness to learn what they could do to help the homeless in their community. Additionally, the university’s campus ministries collected warm clothing to deliver to the homeless on February 12.

This Cardboard City event followed The Heritage Foundation’s “Seek the Welfare of the City: Finding Effective Responses to Poverty & Human Need” conference which was held at the University of Mobile, February 10 and 11. The purpose of this convention was to emphasize the necessity of “responding to issues of poverty, hunger, and social justice from a Christian worldview.”

This is the second year that students have set up this Cardboard City in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless. This year’s students said it made “them realize how much they have and how much they take for granted”.

What a wonderful activity! What an eye-opener it would be for all of us. We see the homeless everywhere. And, I hate to admit it, but I think we almost become immune to their condition. Maybe a night out in the cold, in a cardboard box would be a great wake-up call for those of us who are so used to the warmth and safety of the walls that surround us!

Hats off to you students who participated in this event! I hope it has inspired you to continue the good work you have started, and may it inspire the rest of us to help in your cause, too.

Teacher-World's Blog cardboard city, homeless, University of Mobile