Posts tagged teachers
Billboard campaign spotlights Oregon union’s flirtation with socialism
August 2, 2024 // What many teachers paying monthly dues to the Oregon Education Association (OEA) may not know is that their union has opened its doors to the nation’s foremost socialist group, allowing DSA to hold monthly meetings in OEA’s Salem office, as reported by the Freedom Foundation’s Research & Government Affairs Associate Ben Straka earlier this year. To inform Salem educators about the questionable use of their dues-funded union headquarters, the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon team developed and positioned billboards in the area, announcing: “OEA
Commentary: Call for End to Israel Aid Is More Proof Organized Labor Is Progressivism and Progressivism Is Organized Labor
July 24, 2024 // The UAW called for a cease-fire in Gaza in December of last year, with some UAW locals calling for one mere days after the Hamas attack on October 7. The UAW, in particular, has a large contingent of higher-education workers in its ranks, with college campuses being hotbeds of anti-Israel activism. The UAW represents about the same number of workers at the University of California system as it does at General Motors. The UAW Arab Caucus, which also supports the BDS movement, called for the union to change its stance from calling for a cease-fire only to also calling for a halt to all U.S. military aid back in February.
New York measures to fire ineffective teachers repealed
July 2, 2024 // In addition, teacher evaluations will no longer have to consider test scores, student growth scores and other measures that the state tried to use from 2010 until when the pandemic hit in 2020.
How did Clovis Unified’s Faculty Senate violate labor rules? What’s next for teachers?
June 30, 2024 // At some point – the district said it’s not sure exactly when – Clovis Unified started financially supporting the Faculty Senate, and controlling it in other ways, which made it less of an employee representative body and more an employee relations arm of management, according to state labor officials. This included paying for supplies, a car and cell phone for leadership, stipends and other expenses. The state said that Clovis spent $610,000 on its Faculty Senate from 2020-2022. Meanwhile, none of these resources and access was granted to the Association of Clovis Educators (ACE), a teacher group attempting to unionize since 2020, or other groups attempting to unionize or form other representative groups.
CALIFORNIA: Charter School Teachers Vote To Unionize (Commentary)
June 25, 2024 // Private sector employees have been most affected by these losses. While only 6% of these employees are represented by unions, 32.5% of their public-sector counterparts have these protections. One of the ways that right-wing politicians have tried to reduce these rates is to transfer education funds from public schools to privately run schools whose workers are not represented by unions. Since California voted not to allow school vouchers in 2000, Privatizer’s primary way has been through charter schools. This has been particularly true in Los Angeles which has more students in charter schools than any city in the country. Unions do not represent employees in most of these charter schools, but that is starting to change.
Wisconsin unions argue for overturning 2011 law that ended nearly all collective bargaining
May 30, 2024 // Public worker and teachers unions argued Tuesday that their lawsuit seeking to strike down a Wisconsin law that drew massive protests and made the state the center of a national fight over union rights should be allowed to proceed, even as the Republican-controlled Legislature sought to have it dismissed. It is the first challenge to the law known as Act 10 since Wisconsin’s Supreme Court flipped to liberal control last year.
COMMENTARY Chicago Teachers Union: An Example in Corruption
May 29, 2024 // The scandals didn’t end in 2023, regrettably. An ethics complaint filed in 2024 over a “leaked email detailing a plan to help students vote” violated the CPS Code of Ethics, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, which filed the complaint. To be fair, CPS officials aren’t barred from engaging in some political activities. They cannot, however, conduct such activities during working hours. The Illinois Policy Institute claims the email shows “the union is asking its members to violate the CPS Code of Ethics and possibly other state or city provisions.” In fact, while writing this article, another shocking revelation came out about the Chicago Public Schools system. A former student is suing the CPS, alleging that a dean there raped her at the age of 15 and then posed as her stepfather to get her two abortions, and the staff failed to report it. I need to stop writing before another scandal comes out, or I’ll have to add that, too.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CUTS CLASS TO LOBBY, COSTING TAXPAYERS UP TO $141K
May 17, 2024 // Teachers can partake in political advocacy on their own time, but this day of action occurred during regular school hours and at taxpayer expense. It doesn’t help that most of the students they left behind are unable to read or do math at grade level, and could have benefitted from a normal day of instruction. Chicago Public Schools has seen steady budget growth combined with dwindling enrollment. CPS’ per-pupil operational spending is $24,132, up more than 50% from $15,878 in 2018. CTU held a similar event with students during the March 19 primary election when they took students out of class to hear from proponents of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax hike, were told how to vote and then marched to the polls. The tax hike failed.
KIPP St. Louis Charter High School Educators to Vote This Week on Whether to Oust AFT Union Bosses
May 14, 2024 // “AFT union officials haven’t stood up for us,” commented Johnston. “I think the majority of my coworkers agree that they’ve only made it harder for us to help our students succeed, especially through a divisive strike order, and that’s a trend I hope we can reverse with this vote. We hope the election proceeds without delay and without interference from union officials.” The NLRB has scheduled a vote to occur on Friday, May 17. According to Johnston’s petition, the vote will occur among “College and Career Advisors, English Language Learners, Leads, Lead Teachers, Learning Support Teachers, Mental health Professionals, School Nurses, Special Ed. Teachers, Specials Teachers, Speech Language Pathologists, Virtual Learning Facilitators, Behavior Support Specialists, High School Registrars, Long Term Subs, Office Coordinators, Paraprofessionals, Permanent Building Subs and Receptionists” at the school.
Half of Massachusetts residents support legalizing teachers’ strikes
April 22, 2024 // Massachusetts state leaders have said they have no appetite for changing Massachusetts law to make it legal for public teachers to go on strike, but public opinion is more on the union side. In a new CommonWealth Beacon/GBH News poll, 50% of state residents favored legalizing teachers’ strikes, while 34% said strikes should remain illegal, and 16% said they were unsure or did not answer (toplines, crosstabs). The survey, conducted by the MassINC Polling Group, comes on the heels of strikes in five Massachusetts school districts over the last two years. It is illegal for public sector employees to strike in the state, but that hasn’t stopped a wave of walkouts signaling a more militant posture on the part of teachers’ unions. The longest – and most recent – strike closed schools in Newton for two weeks in late January and early February.