Free Republic

The Long Beach Board of Education has just mailed a letter to 235,000 constituents declaring that the board will not be bullied by the teachers union into providing more than the 4 percent pay raise being offered. Most of us love teachers. The popular perception is that they are self-sacrificing altruists dedicated to guiding our children to a golden future. The image is that they struggle to survive on low pay and carry on instruction with few resources. While this romanticized image may actually fit a few teachers, mostly at private schools, what is seldom considered is that the unions...

A Bergen County school chief was awarded more than a half-million dollars in extra pay for unused sick time and other benefits, including $300,000 that was paid to his estate after his sudden death in 2004. The superintendent in Long Branch saw his income top $300,000 last year due to more than $110,000 in one-time buybacks and other payments. And a former superintendent from Teaneck may have added as much as $20,000 to his annual pension when his salary was boosted with end-of-career stipends and pay for unused leave. That doesn't include the $60,000 consultant contract and retirement golf trip...

In front of a crowd of angry parents, teachers and students... San Francisco's Board of Education Thursday night voted to close, merge and relocate more than a dozen public schools...due to declining enrollment. The board did its work during a five-hour meeting before hundreds of angry parents, students and teachers who filled the Everett Middle School auditorium and occasionally shouted -- or wept aloud -- as the panel voted on a case-by-case basis. The first vote hardly caused a stir in the crowd: the Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program will be merged into Rosa Parks Elementary School... But when the board...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state Senate unanimously confirmed three of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees to the state Board of Education Thursday. The senate approved student member Ricky Gill, 17, of Lodi; Bonnie Reiss, an adviser to Schwarzenegger; and Ruth Bloom, a longtime art education advocate. Bloom, 59, has developed curriculum and taught art at UCLA Extension and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Her term on the board expires in January 2007. Reiss, 48, has served as president of the Inner-City Games Foundation and is currently a senior adviser to Schwarzenegger. She has previously worked as an entertainment lawyer, accountant, producer...