Posts tagged public schools
Staff at New Orleans’ French immersion school, Lycée Français, vote to unionize
May 16, 2024 // This week's vote comes as Republican state lawmakers have introduced several bills aiming to weaken public-sector unions. However, one of the harshest measures, which would outlaw collective bargaining for teachers and other public employees, would not apply to charter schools because the federal labor board has ruled that they are entitled to union protections. Lycée Français is the seventh New Orleans charter school to unionize since 2013, when Morris Jeff Community School joined UTNO. The other union schools are Rooted School, International High School, Bricolage Academy, Ben Franklin High School and the Living School, though that school is set to close.
MPS support professionals vote to authorize strike
April 27, 2024 // Education support professionals working in Minneapolis Public Schools voted to authorize a strike on Friday. Support professionals overwhelmingly approved the potential strike in a vote last night. This comes after the teachers chapter of the union reached a tentative agreement with the district. The union said 92% of members who voted were in favor of the authorization.
If Only Low-Income Kids Had a Union
March 21, 2024 // Lawmakers failing to align with the unions’ objectives may jeopardize their backing during election season, which not only includes financial funding but also campaign support such as organizing get-out-the-vote efforts and door-to-door canvassing to secure the victory of their favored candidates. Parent activists are growing increasingly frustrated with being overshadowed by teacher unions. During a Feb. 28 press conference at the Legislative Office Building, the Connecticut Parents Union (CTPU), an advocacy group focused on educational reform, joined forces with activists from Danbury and Middletown to urge lawmakers to fund and open charter schools in these cities. The state Board of Education has already given approval to the schools in question, but the General Assembly has yet to allocate the required funds. Specifically, Danbury Prospect Charter School received approval in 2018, and Capital Preparatory (CPREP) in Middletown was greenlit in 2023.
Will the Teachers’ Union Crush Education Opportunity in Connecticut?
March 5, 2024 // Ultimately, their reluctance to embrace opportunity scholarships forces one to question the priorities of those who lead the teachers’ union: Is it to teach children so they’re prepared to engage in the world and lead lives of dignity and purpose? Or, cynically, are union leaders afraid that if students opted for private schools, their coffers would receive less funding from local and state boards of education?
Commentary: Teachers Union Head Mystified by Increase in Homeschooling
November 19, 2023 // Parents started seeking accountability on their own terms, at home. The surge in homeschooling during the 2020 school year has not dropped off, attracting enthusiasts from diverse racial and income backgrounds. While there are many reasons for the shift, a significant factor is leaders like Weingarten left a vacuum parents had to fill. When they did, parents learned they could do it without the leaders who left them in the lurch. Their kids' education could be flexible and tailored, without the constraint of having to sit at a desk between four walls for seven hours a day. Parents learned they had the power to fix some of the problems the pandemic posed.
Camas teachers strike, prompting district to cancel 1st day of classes
August 31, 2023 // To district officials, the strike is an aggressive measure. School leaders are considering filing an injunction in court in a bid to end the strike, spokesperson Doreen McKercher said. In Washington state, it’s illegal for public employees — including teachers — to go on strike. Judges have ruled against teacher strikes in the past but rarely impose any penalties.
VALLAS: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION OUT TO DESTROY SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE OF CHARTER SCHOOLS
August 28, 2023 // Contrary to the propaganda of the Chicago Teachers Union and their national allies, charter schools are public schools. They are free and open to all students. A charter school is a public school that operates as a school of choice. Yet in Chicago, charter schools receive over $8,600 less in funding per pupil than their typical public-school counterparts, despite 88% of the students they serve being in poverty, compared to 78% of the total public-school population. Why do teachers unions despise charters? Because they are independent public schools free of certain state and collective bargaining mandates that would limit their ability to design and operate a school that prioritizes children.
Under new Michigan law, schools can value seniority over quality
August 18, 2023 // Critics of the bill, such as Michigan House Republican Leader Matt Hall, claim that the law harms teachers and unnecessarily gives organized labor more control. “Now they’re giving union bosses free rein to lord over the most important decisions at our schools,” Hall said in a statement on the bill. “Teacher placement, performance evaluations, and communication with parents are all vital to creating an effective learning environment and fostering good working relationships with families.” Most states allow some form of collective bargaining in public schools. Six states — Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas — explicitly ban it. Nine states — Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisiana, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming — have no statewide basis for collective bargaining. Instead the decision is left to individual jurisdictions. Michigan also stands apart with its law on seniority pay. Public Act 116, which Whitmer signed this month, includes a provision prohibiting “length of service as the sole factor in personnel decisions.”
Opinion: Pols, teachers unions aim to scrap tests to hide huge learning loss
April 3, 2023 // The learning loss resulting from the longest public-school closures imposed on blue-state kids in urban districts where teachers unions hold the most sway is devastating and will have generational consequences. Now the educators and politicians who supported prolonged school closures are trying to hide the evidence of their unconscionable decisions. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a former teachers-union member and current teachers-union donee, has introduced the ludicrously entitled More Teaching Less Testing Act, which would abolish the third grade through eighth grade standardized math and English tests — the clearest proof of how costly school closures were for learning. When you put the title through the Orwellian doublespeak reader you get: Less Learning and No Accountability Act.
Washington: Union deserves detention for threatening a teacher strike in Kent
August 26, 2022 // A 2006 opinion from the state Office of the Attorney General says, “In Washington, state and local public employees do not have a legally protected right to strike. No such right existed at common law, and none has been granted by statute.” It adds that “statutes presently do not impose penalties on public employees for engaging in a strike.” The lack of penalties might be why even though public teacher strikes are illegal in Washington state, they still happen. Teachers who are union members but whose unions don’t represent them well should visit optouttoday.com to learn more about how to opt out of a union, allowing them to follow their consciences and saving them union dues.