Free Republic

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana will be home to one of the nation’s largest school voucher programs once Gov. Bobby Jindal signs legislation that recently passed his state’s legislature. Today, by a vote of 60-42, the Louisiana House of Representatives approved Gov. Jindal’s voucher expansion, which passed the Senate last night 24-15. “This is a momentous day for the families of Louisiana,” State Superintendent of Education John White said. “All students deserve a fair chance in life, and that begins with the opportunity to attend a high-quality school. These policy changes are aligned with that central belief, and Gov. Jindal and...

...The mayors want a raft of changes. They want to replace the uniform pay scale with merit pay. They seek to expand public charter schools, which are largely non-union. Some want to lengthen school days, requiring teachers to work more hours. And nearly all of these mayors have set their sights on the one workplace protection that teachers have held central for more than 100 years: tenure. The unions say many of the “fixes” embraced by the mayors are trendy ideas without evidence that they help children learn. Instead, they allow politicians to appear as if they are making improvements...

The New York governor secures a breakthrough agreement on teacher evaluation.In a landmark victory, New York governor Andrew Cuomo and the state’s teachers’ unions have reached agreement on the structure of a new evaluation policy for public school teachers. In the new system, 40 percent of each teacher’s evaluation will be quantitative—based on his students’ performance on standardized tests—while the remaining 60 percent will be qualitative, deriving from subjective measures of his effectiveness, including at least one unannounced observation by the principal. The new evaluations will be hard to buck. Only 13 percent of teachers receiving a bad rating on...

Hagen Road Elementary school principal is asking parents to tell kids they will be getting a "special snack" before the test that will boost brain power. (Handout, Sun Sentinel / February 27, 2012) At least one South Florida campus is hoping that feeding students a "special brain snack" will trick them into thinking it will boost their FCAT performance. From skydiving to mohawk hair cuts, school principals have tried various stunts to pump up test scores. The latest? Administrators at Hagen Road Elementary want kids to think eating an "FCAT power bar" will guarantee great results on the exams...

In three weeks, six L.A. Unified employees have been booked on suspicion of sex-related crimes. The Miramonte episode has sparked some people to come forward and others to be more watchful, police say....... [read it] ....In the past, district officials would never reveal what happened to a teacher who was dismissed or removed until they had to — they often cited the employee's privacy rights and a fear of litigation. But now, some district officials, including school board member Nury Martinez, are insisting that parents and campus colleagues have a right to know what allegedly happened.............

Disgraced 'ogle' teacher retires The city's king of the "rubber room" has stepped down. Disgraced educator Alan Rosenfeld, 66, retired on February 3, after a decade of milking tax payers for a $100,049-a-year salary even though he hasn't set foot in a classroom since 2001, school officials said today. The retirement came just days after the Post ran a series of stories exposing Rosenfeld, including how he was banished to a "rubber room" in 2001 for allegedly ogling eighth grade girls -- but then spent his time working on a personal real estate portfolio worth up to $10 million. An...

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...