Free Republic

Howard Dean: "I need to take you on a tour of America's public schools; that's what I need to do." Joe Scarborough: "I've been fighting for education reform for a generation, and every time we've tried to reform schools . . . it was the Democratic party on the House floor and on the Senate floor and in the White House that stood in the way. I do not need lectures from you on education reform." And that was the polite part of the exchange! But seriously, Joe Scarborough and Howard Dean had a big-time brawl on today's Morning Joe...

Budget documents from 20 Colorado school districts show taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million over the past five years for the activities of teachers unions ... Some districts pay all or part of the salaries of full-time union leaders, salaries of teachers on leave to attend union-sponsored training and meetings and hiring substitutes for teachers who were attending union events. Critics of the practice say taxpayer money is being used to benefit unions, not children.

Tenure must go. And so must Professor’s unions. If you don’t agree with me then perhaps you have yet to familiarize yourself with the case of Professor Edward Larkin. This tenured psychopath will keep his job despite exposing himself in public in front of a 17-year old girl and her mother. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) did the right thing when they tried to fire him. But then the Professor’s union got involved. And that led to arbitration. The arbitrator’s decision was based on a single line in the contract with the UNH Professor’s union, which says a professor...

About half of Illinois public high school students flunked state exams in reading, math and science this year, the worst performance in the history of the 11th-grade Prairie State Achievement Examination, statewide test results show. The record-low results, scheduled to be released Thursday, come after Illinois closed loopholes that kept academically weak juniors from taking the exams, a practice revealed in a 2009 Tribune analysis. Some local school officials attributed their declines in part to the larger testing pool that included less-prepared students. At the same time, grade schools posted the highest passing rate in a decade this year —...

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A strong showing is expected in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, as more people join the sweeping movement sparked by Occupy Wall Street protesters. Demonstrators with the Occupy L.A. group have been living in tents outside of City Hall for about two weeks protesting against what they call corporate greed. On Tuesday, the teacher's union will join Occupy L.A. in a march to LAUSD headquarters where the school board will be meeting. They are looking to start a second occupation site to protest teacher layoffs. The union wants the district to re-hire the 1,200 teachers...

Twenty-two California schools had their test scores thrown out this year. Nearly half the campuses lost their Academic Performance Index scores because of cheating by teachers. Several others were penalized because of help teachers gave students that violated rules. Additionally, some school scores were rejected because of what appeared to be accidental actions. In most cases, schools or school districts turned themselves in. Because of budget cuts, the state Education Department no longer conducts random audits at schools or scans test booklets for irregularities. The number of schools with invalidated test scores remains relatively small but is edging upward. In...

GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - The Green Bay teachers union is upset about a change in the designated work day work hours starting next school year. The district breaks down the teaching workday with teaching time, professional time, additional duties, and lunch. The district wants teachers to be involved in a new collaborative team building initiatives for a total of 90 minutes of professional time everyday. They are adding an additional 30 minutes to the teachers’ day, while taking away an hour of personal professional planning time instead of the current two hours. Green Bay Education Association President Toni Lardinois...

Hundreds rally in downtown Pershing Square, urging legislators for ballot measures to fund schools. A teachers' union leader is released after his arrest in Sacramento with 25 others. By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times May 14, 2011 Hundreds of teachers, parents and students rallied in Pershing Square on Friday to protest budget cuts and urge legislators for ballot measures to help fund education. The protest was part of a weeklong series of events around the state intended to draw attention to education funding. Over the past three years, state lawmakers have approved nearly $20 billion in cuts to K-12 schools...

Some viewers may find the video below, of a student being punched in the face repeatedly by another student, disturbing. What many may find even more disturbing is the fact that the teacher stood by, with his hands in his pockets, as the student was beaten. However, what is truly appalling is the fact that the American Federation of Teachers is protecting the teacher’s actions inaction. According to the Teachers’ Union, the student’s teacher was justified in standing there with his hands in his pockets while a kid got beaten because, in the union’s words: “Teachers have intervened in the...

Schooled in Wisconson! The truth behind the protests.

| Michelle Rhee, the outspoken former chancellor of the Washington D.C. public school system, has a new mission in life: She wants to save the world. OK. She wants to save the United States' public education system, but it's still a massive undertaking. Her new mission -- Students First -- is being called "A movement to transform public education." And just to be sure she had a big audience for the official launch of her new venture, Rhee announced it last week on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." She also was featured on a Newsweek cover story, so the word is...

The teachers’ union in Bridgewater and Raynham has filed a labor grievance that could block volunteers from keeping the school district’s libraries open. And as word of the work action spreads, it is stirring up outrage in the two towns. Librarian positions were cut from the middle schools in both towns this year and their salaries channeled into hiring teachers to address bulging class sizes. Volunteer organizations stepped in to pick up the slack — only to be surprised and disappointed by threats of a labor complaint.

Educational achievement in Nevada is dismal. Our high school dropout rate is the worst in the nation. "Nevada's 4th and 8th graders placed no higher than 43rd in math or reading on any of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams." This poor performance exists despite nearly tripling inflation-adjusted, per-pupil spending over the last 50 years.So naturally, the Legislative Committee on Education decided yesterday to move forward on a proposal to eliminate up to 10 school days a year. Not. A. Joke. The committee did decide to recommend that the 2011 Legislature change state laws to give...

Some students in remedial courses are older workers trying to jump-start a new career. But a sizable amount are recent graduates who performed well in high school...nearly four out of five remedial students had a high school GPA of 3.0 or higher. The price of providing remedial training is costly. The Alliance for Excellent Education estimates the nation loses $3.7 billion a year because students are not learning basic needed skills, including $1.4 billion to provide remedial education for students who have recently completed high school. "From taxpayers' standpoint, remediation is paying for the same education twice," Students who need...

Hollywood stars protest school cuts in online video By My-Thuan Tran Los Angeles Times Staff Writer The parents at Wonderland Avenue Elementary in Laurel Canyon were irate about the proposed education cuts from the state budget. So instead of going to Sacramento, they went straight to Hollywood. The school's PTA president came up with the idea of creating a video, and one parent suggested they ask Brian Austin Green (of "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame) to star in it. Green, whose son attends the school, agreed, and he got his girlfriend, actress Megan Fox, to costar. The result was a four-minute...

Lights, cameras -- inaction! Two documentary filmmakers have infiltrated New York City's infamous "rubber rooms" -- the eight disciplinary dens around the city where educators accused of wrongdoing while away months, or even years, at full pay -- to reveal teachers snoozing at their desks, holding jam sessions, playing board games, and breaking into fights. These educators in limbo -- some still raking in six figures a year -- show up from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a "work" day that, in some cases, consists of holding book-club meetings and prayer sessions, repeatedly karate-kicking a file cabinet, or forming...

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency. Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers’ unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable....

over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach. Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time. And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves. The average wait for those hearings: three years. The school district doesn't release the names of the teachers, or what they've been charged with, but we've learned that right now there's a Physical Education teacher awaiting a hearing who was suspended four years ago this month and has been paid...

Christmas has come early for teacher unions (not that they believe in religious holiday traditions). President Obama's education plans give them almost all of their long wish list, and here it is only March. He is increasing teacher salaries. He is eliminating a voucher system for poor D.C. residents so that the District of Columbia's wonderful public school system can be protected from any competition (what D.C. parents would want to send their children to the private school that Barack and Michelle Obama are sending their own children to?). He has increasing the demand for unionized teachers by expanding public...

Teachers unions routinely claim that the interests of students are their top priority. So we would be interested to hear how the Pennsylvania affiliate of the National Education Association explains the proliferation of teacher walkouts in the middle of the school year. According to a recent study by the Allegheny Institute, Pennsylvania is once again the worst state in the country for teacher strikes. No less than 42% of all teacher walkouts nationwide occur in the Keystone State, leaving kids sidelined and parents scrambling to juggle work and family, potentially on as little as 48 hours notice required by state...