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Monday, April 2, 2012

Divisive Right Wing Rhee Attacks Minnesota Teachers

MN Progressive Project:: StudentsFirst Attacks Minnesota Teachers:


StudentsFirst Attacks Minnesota Teachers

by: dan.burns

Mon Apr 02, 2012 at 09:36:41 AM CDT

Last week I got two items in the mail from something called "StudentsFirst." Here's one side of one of them:
Don't those young'ns look thrilled, to be learning (and, presumably, crushing standardized tests) the StudentsFirst way!
More below the fold.
dan.burns :: StudentsFirst Attacks Minnesota Teachers
The purpose of the mailings, was to try to get me to encourage Governor Dayton to sign H.F. 1870, which would allegedly "reform" teacher tenure.  One even has a couple of postcards, that I could just detach and mail.  (To be fair, I also get mailings from places like the Sierra Club, with the same kind of clip-and-send advocacy items.)  I didn't send them;  whether or not anybody else did,Dayton didn't go for it.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday that he won't sign legislation that would allow schools to lay off teachers based on factors other than seniority.The Democrat governor called the bill "more of a political ploy than a serious policy attempt" and said it was among several Republican initiatives introduced this year aimed at undermining teachers, public schools and unions.
"It's just another round of onslaughts, all with the underlying premise that public schools are failing," the governor said during a news conference at the Capitol.
Governor Dayton is spot-on, of course.  The real purpose of this legislation is to make it easier for districts to get rid of committed, experienced - and better-paid - teachers, and replace them with newbies that aren't ready to do much but try