Civil servant work stoppages are illegal, but school bus drivers aren’t subject to same fines. (Post)
Parents and politicians rallied outside a struggling school to celebrate that it won’t be closed. (News)
Democrats in Albany are supporting a comprehensive DREAM act for the first time. (Times)
A new report documents Mississippi’s school-to-prison pipeline, already under federal scrutiny. (Times)
Former Turnaround Teacher
You can’t stop judgement day only delay it…The UFT painted themselves into the corner when they went to Albany and made the back door APPR deal with Cuomo. They sold it to the members as a win, and most bought it (I mean hey it made Bloomberg angry). However, under the law a minimum of 20% of our evaluations will be tied to test scores, and what many informed education experts (called tea partiers by our own union) have refered to as “junk science.”
Although I truly hope the delegates/chapter leaders wisely reject this deal, and although I will be down at the DA picketing with MORE today, inevitably we will have a new evaluation tied to test scores sooner or later. This will only lead to more useless test prep, particularly in struggling schools, and excessive paper work for teachers and administrators alike.
Larry Littlefield
I wonder if, by cutting busing costs in half and getting those state funds, the city could increase its contribution to the teacher pension fund to equal benefit payments without additional cutbacks in services? (Assuming no raises until tax revenues rise enough to cover them).
Because that is what has to happen, so that pension assets do not have to be sold off to pay current benefits (which is leaving nothing for the future), whatever interest and dividend payments are earned can be used to get the fund out of the whole over a decade or two, and at least the contributions of new teachers, who have to pay in more due to the “screw the newbie, flee to Florida” cycle, will be saved for their own pensions — rather than immediately paid out to those who fleeced and fled.
Last I checked, another $1 to $1.5 billion per year for teachers (and perhaps $2 billion to $3 billion for everyone else) might have done it.
I noticed that…
The teachers union of Hamburg, NY will not accept the new teacher evaluation. If they can refuse to accept it, why can the UFT do the same?
The white elephant in the room is that many principals are not veteran teachers or were never teachers. The process of terminating an incompetent teacher is their job and the burden of proof to show that the teacher is incompetent and should be terminated falls on the principal. Here’s a true fact about principals. They don’t want to do the paperwork; they don’t understand pedagogy and don’t recognize competence. Therefore, it is easier if the APPR is in place so those charlatans of administration can point the finger at a teacher and say “you’re fired”. No necessary burden of proof on them to show their reasoning for the firing.
If the UFT agrees to the APPR, they are forcing the clock back in time to the 1900s where teachers had no say-so, no rights, no protection, no respect. The repercussion to the members will be devastating. Oh the sad loss of a profession!
Ellen
Bus companies are suggesting that they hire scabs with a two hour CPR training to drive buses for kids with special needs. Are they kidding? It takes years for drivers to understand the issues some students with special needs have…..phobias, breathing issues, medications, autism, cerebral palsy. One two hour class in CPR? Do they really care?
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