Posts tagged education
Is a Contract Close? Teachers Say They’re Getting ‘Strike-Ready.’ FUSD Plans Update on Talks.
October 13, 2023 // Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson and other district leaders have scheduled a news conference for Friday morning to provide an update about contract negotiations with the Fresno Teachers Association. The news conference will be at 11:30 a.m. in the downtown Education Center. Nelson will be joined by School Board members and “additional leaders,” the district said in a news release Thursday afternoon. Fresno Teachers Association leaders declined to comment to GV Wire.
Dartmouth Men’s Basketball Makes Employment Case at NLRB
October 6, 2023 // Houston also noted that Dartmouth can recruit a basketball player, provide him need-based financial aid, and then, for one of many reasons, dismiss the player from the team after he enrolls. If the student remains enrolled at Dartmouth as a student, he’ll continue to receive financial aid. That point was designed to show the aid is based on being a student, not a player. Houston also stressed that athletes at Dartmouth are repeatedly told they must prioritize their education and class attendance, including when there are scheduling conflicts with the team. He further said that the athletic department “has no say over admissions,” decisions for which are made by the admissions office, nor does the athletic department have any say over financial aid, and that aid itself has nothing to do with athletic talent.
Analysis: Workers have more bargaining power amid changing labor landscape | Tatiana Bailey
September 12, 2023 // And here’s the monkey wrench. Some of these worker asks are related to disruptive technological changes like artificial intelligence, better known as AI, and alternative energy. For example, Hollywood writers don’t want entertainment companies to use AI to write scripts. Auto workers are worried about their job security because of electric vehicles. Unionized workers, in particular, are trying to secure a bigger piece of the pie as it relates to corporate executive pay, but they are also trying to secure their place in a world that is likely shifting to fewer workers and more technology. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
First Faculty Unions Form at Two Maryland Community Colleges
September 7, 2023 // Before passage of the 2021 collective bargaining law, some employee groups were already organized at the Community College of Baltimore County, Montgomery College, and Prince George’s Community College. There are additional faculty organizing efforts by AFT-Maryland underway now at the Community College of Baltimore County and Prince George’s Community College.
America’s Largest Teachers Union Isn’t Beyond Reform
July 20, 2023 // Washington can make the NEA less political and more accountable by revising its federal charter.
Randi Weingarten Appointed to DHS School Safety Advisory Council
June 23, 2023 // In the fall of 2020, Weingarten denounced calls to reopen schools as “reckless, callous, cruel.” An AFT affiliate in Chicago similarly condemned then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2022, who called her efforts to reopen school “rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny.”
Teachers’ Union Girds for Battle As Woodland Park Parents Push Back
June 21, 2023 // This April, the Colorado Education Association (CEA) passed a resolution condemning capitalism, citing its fundamental “exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources.” Due to seemingly endless resources from their national organizations, teachers’ unions often go unchecked in school districts, especially in deep blue states. Parents from Colorado’s Woodland Park School District, however, have taken a stand against the Woodland Park Education Association (WPEA).
Gov. Shapiro, Choose School Choice Over Union Power Grabs
May 18, 2023 // Government union PACs spent more than $20 million in Pennsylvania during the 2021–22 election cycle. More than 92 percent of those contributions went to Democratic candidates and causes. The money helped Democrats gain a majority in the state’s House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years. House Democrats, plus one lone Republican, have now backed the top priority of union executives. House Bill 950, a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose union mandates on employees who do not necessarily share the political agenda of union leaders, passed 102 to 99 on May 3. The bill takes its inspiration from a law out of Illinois that prohibits elected officials from advancing right-to-work initiatives that safeguard First Amendment rights. Josh Shapiro, the commonwealth’s Democratic governor who took office in January, has been a consistent opponent of right-to-work laws. However, he has not yet publicly commented on the push for union mandates in the current legislative session.
Don’t Be Fooled by Randi Weingarten’s Rehabilitation Tour
May 8, 2023 // Weingarten worked for six years as a history teacher early on in her 40-year career. But for most of her life, she has advocated for teachers' interests, which is demonstrably not the same as "helping kids." To tell parents, many of whom are concerned by the two decades' worth of progress wiped out in math and reading for fourth-graders; the fact that eighth-graders' average math scores fell in all 50 states minus one; and may have in some cases initiated the exodus of some of the 1.3 million children from the public school system, that the person who helped keep schools closed has their kids' best interests in mind is deeply offensive. Her job is fundamentally to secure higher pay and more job protection for teachers who pay union dues, not to make sure your child is happy, healthy, or safe.
Teachers union chief hires seasoned lawyer ahead of Hill testimony
April 20, 2023 // Randi Weingarten is lawyering up. The American Federation of Teachers president has retained a top white-collar defense attorney ahead of her scheduled testimony on school closures during the height of the Covid-19 crisis to the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic next week. Weingarten is taking a swipe at the panel’s Republicans ahead of an all-but-assured grilling from conservatives looking to probe the union’s alleged influence over federal disease-mitigation guidelines the GOP blames for closing schools.