CURMUDGUCATION: AZ: What Teacher Layoffs Look Like In An Anti-Teacher State

CURMUDGUCATION: AZ: What Teacher Layoffs Look Like In An Anti-Teacher State

AZ: What Teacher Layoffs Look Like In An Anti-Teacher State

Carie Caruso conferenced with her supervisor and was told she was a highly effective teacher. The next day, in an online meeting, she was told that she was out of a job. 47 other teachers were part of that meeting.

Angela Philpot had 23 years of experience, but this week she was one of the 150 teachers laid off by Gilbert Public Schools in a surprise meeting with a principal who read a scripted statement from the district. No comments or questions were allowed. Philpot is an Arizona Education Association officer.

Arizona public schools have seen a big drop in enrollment this year. The Arizona School Boards Association says that 40,000 children became "ghost students"-- they just didn't show up,. and nobody knows where they were. About half of the drop in enrollment are kindergarten and first grade students. Charter schools have seen a slight growth (about 18,000), but not enough to account for all the public school losses.

And so, in an attempt to "right-size" budgets, school districts are chopping staff.

A decade or so ago, Arizona's legislature decreed that these sorts of layoffs could not consider seniority or tenure. So how are these decisions made? With evaluation rubrics like this one: CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: AZ: What Teacher Layoffs Look Like In An Anti-Teacher State

Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans – North Texas Daily

Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans – North Texas Daily

Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans

The recent controversy surrounding the reopening of U.S. schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has placed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Republicans on the same team against teacher unions. Bloomberg and Republicans have spewed rhetoric that exposes the anti-educator beliefs inherent to the oligarch and the GOP.

“It’s time for Joe Biden to stand up and to say, the kids are the most important things, important players here,” Bloomberg said during an interview on MSNBC. “And the teachers just are going to have to suck it up and stand up and provide an education.” This is not the first time Bloomberg has made an enemy of himself against teachers’ unions. In 2013, Bloomberg compared teacher unions to the National Rifle Association.

Bloomberg’s unwarranted advice to President Biden does not have much basis in the political reality of the moment. Presidents should never have to “stand up” to teacher unions. Instead, whoever the president is, regardless of party, must always be doubtfully allied with teacher unions.

There is nothing that the unions want more than to be included at the negotiating table. American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten published an article that laid out a plan for reopening schools. Teachers are yearning for the classroom, the only problem is lawmakers are not willing to make the investment to do so safely.

Carefully reopening all public schools is a massive task mainly because marginalized schools lack funding for resources required to follow health protocols. It is no surprise that the ninth richest person on the planet — who also made $6.8 billion since the COVID-19 pandemic started — is out of touch with the economic challenges that ill-funded schools face.

AFT has estimated that reopening schools would require $116.5 billion in federal funding. The price tag seems high, but dissecting the figure reveals essential costs such CONTINUE READING: Attacks against teacher unions uncovers anti-educator nature of Bloomberg and Republicans – North Texas Daily

Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers

Arthur Goldstein has taught ESL for decades in New York City. He is tired of being lectured by billionaires like Michael Bloomberg about how to teach or what a slacker he is.

He writes in The New York Daily News:

There’s lots of talk about whether or not school buildings should be open. European school buildings recently shut over concerns that children do indeed spread the virus. Yet former Mayor Mike Bloomberg now says, “It’s time for Joe Biden to stand up and to say, the kids are the most important things and important players here. And the teachers just are going to have to suck it up and stand up and provide an education.”

In fact we’ve never stopped doing that, but Bloomberg seems not to have received the memo. Bloomberg says kids are most important. Twelve years of working in New York City schools under Mike Bloomberg tell me to him, CONTINUE READING: Arthur Goldstein Asks Michael Bloomberg to Stop Disrespecting Teachers | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment

So I posted this on Twitter, and drew the response pictured here

There's a special group of folks among those who hate teacher unions and the teachers who belong to them. You'll remember these folks from back in the days when we were going to use test-based teacher ratings to fire our way to greatness. Their story of the US public education system is something like this--

The whole system is a sham, a massive con perpetrated by the teachers union, in which they get a whole bunch of people who don't want to teach, don't even want to work, but just want to sit lazily in a comfy sinecure for which privilege they pay a kickback to the union, which is only interested in public education as its big fat fund raiser.

You won't find these people writing in any mainstream outlets, but you sure can meet them on Twitter. And as the battle over re-opening school buildings heats up, they are pointing their fingers with great fervor, because they are sure this is a gotcha moment. "Look!" they want to holler. "See? I told you! Teachers do not actually want to work. This (probably fake) pandemic gave them an excuse to sit at home and get paid for doing nothing, and they don't want it to end! I told you and told you--they're a bunch of lazy slobs attached to the public taxpayer teat. This proves it!!" And CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: This Is Not An Anti-Teacher Gotcha Moment