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February 28, 2013

Rise & Shine: Girls wrestling teams to launch at 16 city schools

by Philissa Cramer, at 6:58 am

The Public Schools Athletics League is starting wrestling teams for girls, who already compete. (Times)
As the city works to clear public schools of PCBs, more schools’ light fixtures are springing leaks. (NY1)
Schools up for closure, again, have large shares of needy students. (GothamSchools, SchoolBook, NY1)
Astoria parents are upset about the city’s proposal to trim down a popular gifted program. (Daily News)
The city is going through with school budget cuts even though the state cannot. (GothamSchools, NY1)
The family of a Bronx seven-year-old arrested at school is suing the education department, too. (Post)
The parent council of District 29 in Queens will vote tonight on districtwide school choice. (Daily News)
The Daily News says the renewal of the UFT Charter School is “a massive failure of accountability.”
Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, a top federal official says schools should give breakfast in classrooms. (WSJ)
Philadelphia opened teachers contract talks with an offer of big cuts to pay and protections. (Inquirer)
Chicago plans to hold charter schools more accountable for their finances and performance. (Tribune)

Larry Littlefield

“All I see in this contract is worse outcomes,” said Poyourow. “They’re trying to deprofessionalize teaching and make them feel like peons. You’ve got to ask yourself, ‘What’s the strategy behind that?’ ”

Paying for the massive pension hole, which wasn’t even mentioned in the article. In the end, that matters more than anything. Particularly children, and younger teachers.

I’m not sure of the relative blame in Philadelphia, with regard to retroactive pension enhancements and taxpayer underfunding, but I do know they are broke. In part because rather than make less drastic sacrifices in the past, before those now retired got out, they chose to defer costs to the future, which is now the present.

Just as NYC is doing now. In another UFT win.

This is what counts a success, but unions and politicians who represent those cashing in and moving out. Philadelphia has a very high tax burden as a share of income, bad schools, and now underpaid future teachers. The likely compromise? No reductions for teachers with seniority, but a minimum wage starting pay for new hires. And the elimination of any expectation that teachers will do their jobs, because they are underpaid (despite high labor costs). I know it, because we’ve seen it.

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