Posted on 02/24/2011 7:08:44 PM PST by LdSentinal
CNN) -- The firing of every teacher in the Providence public school system has set off a wave of anxiety, anger and uncertainty in the Rhode Island city, with a union leader blasting the mayor's decision as anti-union maneuvering along the lines of what's happening in the Midwest.
Mayor Angel Tavares said in a online message Wednesday that he authorized the previous day's move to dismiss almost 2,000 teachers and staff to allow for greater flexibility once the budget process is complete. Tavares also said the final number of layoffs needed to balance a multimillion budget deficit will be determined later.
Still that explanation did little to assuage those teachers in the firing line, nor did a closed-door forum Thursday with Superintendent Tom Brady on the matter.
"The mood in the meeting today was extremely grim," one such teacher, Lori Iannucci, told CNN affiliate WPRI. "Teachers felt very negative, unappreciated. No questions were answered."
Teachers said that their union wasn't notified beforehand of the termination notices. At Thursday's meeting, they said they were given general assurances that the situation could be resolved within the next month.
But Steve Smith, president of the city's teacher's union, said he believed the decision "makes no sense at all to teachers or the community." He accused Tavares of "making a political decision to take control and silence workers" -- a group that, he said, has consistently and continually worked with city leaders to implement reforms.
"It's shocking that in the midst of working in a collaborative environment ... the mayor says you're fired," Smith told reporters. "This sounds very much like what's going on in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, where lawmakers want to get rid of collective bargaining and remove the voice of workers."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Actually the industrial unions killed themselves by overeaching and destroying whole industries and millions of jobs (Airlines, Steel, Automobiles, Textiles, Merchant Marine, Railroads, etc.) The public service unions are even worse and are working on destroying themselves right now!!! It really is a shame that most Americans do not realize how destructive labor unions have been to losing jobs and industries to countries like the PRC (China), India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. And...you can blame the Democrat Party and POTUS Obama. If the unions win this battle, you can kiss the USA economy and nation goodbye!!!
screw the union
That’s funny! Lol!!
Hell they would have replacements in 2 days.
Good for him. Better for the children.
Sounds like the union wrote the story for CNN “reporter” and the “reporter” never fact checked it with the Mayor’s office. I bet the “reporter” never saw one of the notices that was sent out. Great journalism at CNN.
The “journalists” are union members too.
Just a thought... If you're working "consistently and continually" on something, that tells me you're not really making any progress on it. I guess he finally got fed up with all that consistent and continual work on reforms and just decided to start over. Good.
News from the Commonwealth of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation.
Thanks LdSentinal.
Does that make Providence a “Free fire” zone?
;-)
Didn’t someone say this is normal? Something about this happens every year.
Another thing to thank Jimmuh Carter for ... his thank you gift to the teachers unions was the Dept of Ed, and their power/influence skyrocketd. 30+ years later, we’re still paying.
One big happy family.
Well said!
And the teacher responds at the end of the article,
“How do we motivate our students to continue to value (us) as educators when our power has been taken away from us?” said Iannucci. “We’ll do our best. Really, what can we do?”
There is so much wrong with this....don’t even get me started......
I loved Reagan, worked on his 1976 campaign in Calif., and then the 80 and ‘84 back here. He was one of our greatest.
But I was deeply disappointed in one campaign promise he didn't keep: to dismantle the Dept of Ed.
I have a friend who was a Reagan appointee to the Dept of Ed - she was very aware of what evil was afoot there and went down with high hopes. After a couple years, she realized it wasn't going to happen and came back home to continue the fight - deeply disappointed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyDtYy2I0M
http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/Apl/IserbytAmDecpt2.htm
RI is a hard core Dem state. They can let the cops check illegals on police stops and other stops but the media never mentions that. I doubt anyone will get fired but the money and time is running out.
**Funny how teachers at catholic/private schools aren’t unionized and how most union member public school teachers that can afford it send their kids to catholic/private schools.**
And the children get an excellent education while not feeding at the public union trough.
**Funny how teachers at catholic/private schools aren’t unionized and how most union member public school teachers that can afford it send their kids to catholic/private schools.**
And the children get an excellent education from teachers who are not feeding at the public union trough.
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