Posts tagged unfunded mandate
Douglas County files lawsuit challenging legality of unionization in sheriff’s office
May 10, 2024 // Prior to the lawsuit, the county also argued that the FOP misled employees, leading them to believe the sheriff supported unionization efforts when he did not. “This trickery by the union caused many employees to sign their names in support of a union because they were falsely led to believe Sheriff Weekly supported it,” county Commissioner George Teal alleged in a video message. The sheriff’s office provided the News-Press the letter that Teal apparently referred to. “In the spirit of transparency and support, I met with Sheriff Weekly to share the survey results and discuss our proposed course of action. Sheriff Weekly expressed his continued support for us and the FOP,” said the letter, signed as “president” of the local FOP branch. Also before the lawsuit, the local police union accused Weekly and other Douglas County officials of engaging in unfair labor practices during the unionization efforts.
NYC Teachers, Migrant Students, and The Clash of Two Titans
January 27, 2024 // Among those policies were Assembly Bill A6328A and Senate Bill S9460. SB 9460 placed a mandatory limitation on the number of students per teacher—which will predominantly benefit wealthier areas. According to an analysis from the city’s Independent Budget Office (IBO), the law will require at least an additional 17,700 new teachers by 2027—when the law takes full effect. Officials have tried to warn of the law’s cost tradeoffs, namely that because the city’s highest-poverty schools already have smaller classes, they stand to benefit the least from the state’s class size cap. This means that funding will benefit wealthier areas, as opposed to the highest-poverty areas. Assembly Bill A6328A, also supported by UFT, codified migrants as a protected class, extending the right to a free education for every resident between the ages of 5 to 21, regardless of citizenship status. Since the new laws have passed, it’s estimated that 53,000 new migrant students have enrolled into public schools, 85% of which are non-English speaking.