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Saturday, July 28, 2018

Randi Weingarten: Teaching demands respect from Keleher | Meter

Teaching demands respect from Keleher | Meter

Teaching demands respect from Keleher
The Association of Teachers held a demonstration to clarify, among other things, the uncertainty lived by about 2,000 teachers who have not been relocated

Teaching demands respect from Keleher


Teachers and teachers of the Puerto Rico Teachers Association (AMPR) gathered today in front of the facilities of the Department of Education to demand, among other things, to clarify the process of teacher relocation after the closure of school campuses
.
According to the teacher leader, the relocation process that the Department of Education intends to carry out is not being done in accordance with the law.
"[Teachers] have the right to be on a shifts list according to their qualifications, so respect that process so that teacher who is 28 years old, have the assurance that they are not naming one who was after him", the union president, Aida Díaz, told Metro .
According to Díaz, about 2,000 teachers do not know which schools will be relocated to next semester. The school semester begins on August 13.
The teacher leader called on the Secretary of Education, Julia Keleher, to meet with the leadership of the organization. However, he warned that the official must demonstrate "good faith with the teaching [and] must be willing to listen to our recommendations."
The demonstration - in which a picket was held in front of the offices of the instrumentality - counted on expressions of the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Randi Weingarten, who also denounced the lack of negotiation between the teaching profession and the Education deparment.
"Earlier, I said that Puerto Rico experienced two hurricanes: Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Julia, one was a natural disaster and the other could be changed ... When you close 500 schools and hurt communities, we teachers and parents have the right to ask questions." , he sentenced.

The American leader also repudiated the uncertainty of thousands of teachers and students who do not know which schools will be relocated.
Just this morning, the AMPR held an extraordinary assembly at the Sheraton Hotel to ratify its affiliation with the AFT. In addition, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi offered a welcome message in which she endorsed the guild's efforts.
During the assembly, Díaz denied that the AMPR resorted to a strike. He assured that he will continue to exert pressure against the measures promoted by the Department of Education, but that if all the remedies have been exhausted, the teachers should decide whether to resort to the strike and to jeopardize the union's certification.
Also, the teacher leader said that the teacher relocation procedure is not being done according to the law because it is naming employees with less experience to the places available. According to Díaz, the process is supposed to first serve the relocated teachers with greater seniority.

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Hess/Addison: Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU

Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review

Teachers’ Unions Plan to Become ‘More Political, Not Less Political’



The recent Supreme Court decision has not led to moderation.
In a landmark First Amendment decision, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this summer in Janus v. AFSCME that states cannot require public employees to pay “agency fees” to unions. Prior to the decision, in 22 states, public employees who chose not to join a union could still be required to pay these fees — somewhat less than full dues — for union services. Some have suggested that unions might temper their left-wing politics in response to the decision, in the hopes of wooing potential members put off by union politics.

For unions, the stakes could hardly be higher. Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, warns that surveys show “many [teachers] see dues as too high” and “political activity as too leftist”; she also notes that “only half of all teachers voted for Hillary Clinton.” Internal documents from the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, anticipate that the union will lose a whopping 300,000 members. Things look even bleaker for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the nation’s other major teachers’ union, which has 15 of its 22 largest state affiliates in former agency-fee states — and already had fewer than half its members paying full dues.
By happenstance, both unions held their big national conventions in July, providing a chance to scour the tea leaves for subtle hints as to how the unions might woo reluctant members, especially the hefty share who take issue with the leftist bent that has characterized the unions in recent decades. Even before the shock of Janus, unions worked in concert with Senate and House Republicans in 2015 to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act in a push to roll back many of the federal educational excesses of the Bush and Obama years, so a shift in approach seemed entirely possible.
It turns out that the tea leaves weren’t that hard to read, after all. At the NEA’s annual convention and representative assembly in Minneapolis, things kicked off on day one with Parkland survivor and woke gun-control activist David Hogg joining NEA president Lily Eskelsen García on stage to exhort the cheering throng, “There’s nothing more powerful in America than a pissed-off teacher.” The NEA also made time to award its Human and Civil Rights Award — given to those who have “demonstrated remarkable courage and conviction to stand up for racial and social justice” — to recipients including First Lady Michelle Obama and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

The NEA adopted 122 total New Business Items, including commitments to promote the Black Lives Matter Week of Action (including supporting BLM’s demand that “ethnic studies be taught in pre-K-12 schools”), to support “a strategy postponing confirmation of a Supreme Court justice until after the mid-term election,” and to Continue reading: Teachers’ Unions Get More Political in Wake of Supreme Court Decision | National Review