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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Modern School: Educational Vichy Summit in Denver

Modern School: Educational Vichy Summit in Denver

Educational Vichy Summit in Denver



Approximately 150 school districts from 40 state sent teachers, school board members and administrators to the Denver Educational Summit this week. The summit was organized by the Obama administration and was an attempt to get labor to support his corporate Ed Deform agenda.

Arne Duncan told teachers at the meeting that unions and school leaders had to shed their old divisions, which is an absurdity when you think about. If by school leaders he means administrators, then the divisions are built-in by the very nature of the relationship. Admin is the boss, the teachers are the employees, an adversarial relationship by definition. He asked teachers to be more open-minded about pay and evaluation systems, which highlights the absurdity of his plea: bosses want to get more work out of employees for less pay and unions, if they are worth their dues, fight for better pay and working conditions. The only way for this “old division” to be



The LAUSD Doomsday Budget


School districts throughout the state of California are drafting a series of alternative budgets, hoping to be ready for which ever financial reality turns out to come true. Currently, Gov. Brown is promising the same k-12 funding as last year, assuming voters agree to tax themselves in June, a promise that is likely to be broken. If this fantasy does not come true, the Legislative Analyst Office has proposed billions of dollars in cuts. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has just approved their doomsday budget, and sent layoff notices to over 7,000 employees.

The 
Los Angeles School Board voted 5 to 2 in favor of the Doomsday Budget, which includes $408 million worth of cuts. If the Brown tax plan goes through, however, the cuts will closer to $200 million. LAUSD is also asking