Posts tagged SCHOOL CLOSURES
Commentary: How the Teachers Union Broke Public Education
June 7, 2023 // School closures were not just an issue that impacted teachers, kids, and parents—this policy will have decadeslong ripple effects that will reverberate through every aspect of society. While savvy middle class and affluent families may opt for charter and private schools as a solution, the poorest and most vulnerable children, such as my former students, will remain trapped in a rotting system. The children who never catch up will grow into damaged, illiterate adults who cannot participate in the labor force and who are plagued by social dysfunction and decay. Ultimately, the union will achieve its vision of remaking the world—only it will be a broken, disfigured world that no one wants.
Teachers unions demand housing, transportation and other student supports during negotiations
May 26, 2023 // Teachers unions in school districts across the country are demanding improved salaries, benefits and class sizes when it’s time to renew their contracts. They are also leveraging negotiations to benefit school employees, students and their families. This process, known as bargaining in the common good, has been used to gain agreements on a host of items, such as housing assistance for low-income students, updating antiquated school facilities and increasing the number of psychologists, social workers and nurses on campuses.
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.
Teacher Unions Suffer Pandemic Backlash
December 13, 2022 // A big complaint of union members is that the National Education Association and its state affiliates report spending more than twice as much money on political expenditures than they do representing its members. According to a Freedom Foundation investigation, the Oregon Education Association (OEA) has lost just shy of one in five of its members. They have taken advantage of the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that mandatory union dues violate public employees’ First Amendment rights
Florida Teachers’ Union Bleeding Members
November 3, 2022 // The Florida Education Association (FEA) lost more than 4,500 members – a 3.3 percent drop – in just the 2020-21 school year. By comparison, the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) lost 2.3 and 2.1 percent of their memberships, respectively, in the same single school year.
Op-ed: The Teachers’ Unions’ Blame Game
August 23, 2022 // AFT’s allocation of 30 percent of its 2020–21 expenditures to politics, totaling $48.4 million in political activities and another $5.9 million in contributions. And they’re only second to the National Education Association (NEA), which devotes nearly 50 percent of its expenses to political endeavors, according to research from Americans for Fair Treatment. Given that the NEA spends twice as much on politics (almost all of which is devoted to Democrats) as on representing its members, the union resembles a political, rather than membership, organization.
Dems, union leaders responsible for school lockdowns face few repercussions, despite evidence that kids harmed
August 3, 2022 // According to data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, 70% of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic. A study published by the conservative think tank Just Facts reported that the mental stressors brought about by school closures will destroy seven times more years of life than lockdowns saved. A study by the American Enterprise Institute also found that nearly 1.3 million students have left public schools since the pandemic began, and schools that stayed remote longer saw even more students leave. The World Bank reported last month that the school closures will cost this generation of students $21 trillion in earnings over their lifetimes, which is far more than the $17 trillion estimated in 2021.
Pro-shutdown teachers union bosses raked in $200K during pandemic
July 12, 2022 // The top officials at Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, each made over $200,000 while advocating for school and business closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to filings with the U.S. Department of Labor, President Denise Specht made $211,639 between Sept. 1, 2020 and August 31, 2021. Her vice president and treasurer each made $216,000. More than 80 Education Minnesota employees made over $100,000 during the same time period, the filing shows. Several of these employees are only described as “field staff” on the Department of Labor filing. Gov. Tim Walz,
Freedom Foundation: 4,000 California teachers have left the union since COVID’s start
April 29, 2022 // “We share with them the highlights, quotes, and PowerPoints and the other thing we share with them during these round tables is information about where their money is going,” Wiegel added. “Most teachers don't really know where their union money is going. A small portion goes towards their benefits but the vast majority of it is going to the national level of the union where it’s spent on political candidates and activist organizations.”