City Hall Memo - Bloomberg and Teachers Wrestle Over 4% Pay Raises - NYTimes.com

City Hall Memo - Bloomberg and Teachers Wrestle Over 4% Pay Raises - NYTimes.com

As he sought to persuade wary voters that he deserved a third term as mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg sold himself as a no-nonsense financial watchdog who was ready to swing the budget ax.

The powerful union is asking the city for 4 percent annual raises for its 87,000 teachers, the same pay increase that the Bloomberg administration gave municipal workers throughout the mayor’s second term.

A year ago, the teachers’ raises seemed inevitable. In fact, the city has already set aside enough money to give teachers 4 percent increases over the next two years.

But the economic landscape has changed drastically, and Mr. Bloomberg is grappling with a tricky question: In a severe economic downturn, can the city justify giving $700 million in raises to teachers?

The decision is rich in symbolism, and will reveal much about how Mr. Bloomberg intends to govern in his third term.

If he snubs teachers and hurts their morale, he risks jeopardizing his signature policy initiative: overhauling the city’s once-troubled schools. If he demands no serious concessions, organized labor may decide he is weak and resist his spending cuts for the next four years. If he is overly combative, he could alienate unions that paved the way for his re-election, either by endorsing him or staying neutral, as the teachers’ union did.

Chicago News Cooperative - To Pay for Longer School Days, Some Parents Try Raising Money - NYTimes.com

Chicago News Cooperative - To Pay for Longer School Days, Some Parents Try Raising Money - NYTimes.com:

"After raising $35,000 for gym mats, musical instruments and other extras last year, parents at Disney II Magnet School in Chicago now face a more daunting price tag — $100,000 — to keep their children in class an extra hour each day."

The city’s public school students have some of the shortest days in the country, as both President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are encouraging educators to extend school time. The Obama administration is even dangling $4 billion in new education money in front of states that innovate in different areas, including class schedules.

Historically in Chicago, the conversation about extending the school day has been short. To do so for all 417,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools would cost around $280 million, said a system spokeswoman, Ana Vargas, making such a move virtually impossible at a time when the school system faces a deficit that could reach $900 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

“Most people would absolutely say more time is better,” said Erica L. Harris, head of the school system’s Office of Extended Learning Opportunities. But, Ms. Harris added, “That conversation ends before it starts.”

The $100,000 fund-raising drive at Disney II shows how parents at one magnet school are scrambling to make it happen. The cost estimate runs to $385 per student at the 260-student school, but the hours add up to an extra month of school over the course of an academic year.

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Film bus poses possibilities

The Signal - Santa Clarita Valley News - Film bus poses possibilities:


"With a smile on his face, Clifton Parish stood in front of about 20 Bowman High School students and called on them to give him their best Facebook and MySpace poses.

“What would that look like?” Parish asked the students Tuesday as a fast-paced dance song pumped through the packed RV-sized mobile classroom parked outside the continuation high school.

The students turned to their Apple workstations and channeled their inner models — out came smiles and giggles, pouted lips, hand signs and funky poses."

Sit-in has students fearing Hotel California | theVARSITY.ca

Sit-in has students fearing Hotel California theVARSITY.ca:

"Seventy UC Santa Cruz students occupied an administrative building last Thursday after the university approved a 32 per cent increase in student fees. In June, UC’s board of regents had raised fees by 9.3 per cent effective immediately, after an earlier 10 per cent hike in the same fiscal year.

The University of California is the fourth largest public university system in the U.S. Its 10 campuses have suffered massive budget cuts, resulting in tuition hikes and reduced student services."

The Militant - December 7, 2009 -- Education and the working class

The Militant - December 7, 2009 -- Education and the working class:

"Thousands of students and workers across the University of California system are protesting the imposition of a 32 percent tuition hike and the refusal of the university to negotiate a contract with the campus workers’ union. They deserve the support of all working people.

In the current capitalist economic crisis many of the attacks on the living standard of working people are being carried out by state and city governments. Four months ago California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a “budget balancing” package that included unpaid furloughs for state workers, closing of parks, and massive cuts in health and welfare programs."

Capitalist politicians in the state—Democrats and Republicans—are preparing a new round of cuts, which they justify on the basis of a budget deficit. From the Schwarzenegger administration in California to that of Gov. David Paterson in New York this is a fake and a fraud to protect the wealthy holders of the states’ bonds. The government in California

paid out $41 million in cash in July to its bondholders, who by law are the first creditors to be paid. In June the California treasurer promised that short of “thermonuclear war” the bondholders would be paid in full.

The sweeping tuition hike at the University of California system highlights the fact that the capitalist rulers don’t think that workers need, much less have a right to, education. The broader access to a college education by the working class was a concession wrenched from the rulers by mass social struggles— most recently as part of the fight for Black civil rights in the 1960s and ’70s.

Under capitalism there can be no meaningful education. As Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes explains in the pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning: The Fraud of Education Reform Under Capitalism, “The purpose of education is to give ‘the educated’ a stake in thinking they are going to be different—slightly better off, slightly more white collar—than other people who work all their lives. In the process, the rulers hope to make those who manage to get a college degree more dependable supporters of the status quo.”

The opposite is the case for workers. “They need us to be obedient, not to be educated,” Barnes says.

As the U.S. capitalist rulers face the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, they aim to resolve it on the backs of working people around the world. They must roll back the social wage won by our class, from schools to Social Security to Medicare and Medicaid and to health care more broadly. This is the logic of the rule of the billionaire families, the dictatorship of capital. We must answer their dictatorship by taking political power out of their hands and establishing the dictatorship of the working majority where education is a universal right, a human activity from cradle to grave.

My View: 'Race to Top' funds would carry strings - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial | Sacramento Bee

My View: 'Race to Top' funds would carry strings - Sacramento Opinion - Sacramento Editorial Sacramento Bee:

"Beware educrats bearing gifts. The U.S. Education Department is dangling up to $500 million in 'Race to the Top' grants in front of a cash-strapped California. That has desperate legislators debating a bill that would enact certain reforms in exchange for the money. But though the reforms may be laudable, and a half-billion dollars isn't something to scoff at in tough fiscal times, some skepticism is in order."


Popular Comment

Raising the cap on charter schools is BAD idea. These charter schools are run by corporate interests with one thing in mind - hand picking their students while leaving others behind. These charter school boards are also not accountable under the Brown act and do not have to hold public meetings, therefore transparency is non exisistent. It is shameful that so called Democrats like Al Sharpton and others side with Newt Gingrich in the name of so-called choice when in fact the only thing on the agenda is to dismantle public education. This one time shot in the arm is not worth risking our public education system over. Furthermore, all you have to do is take a look at St. Hope. Hear the sound of the toilet flushing? It is the sound of 4.3 billion dollars going right down the commode in the name of reform SB x5 should be rejected by the Assembly Education in california is going to end up like being employed at wal mart low wages no benefits with no future.

-- The_Ghost_of_Belle_Cooledge

California faces $20.7 billion deficit, again | billion, california, deficit - Local News - Victorville Daily Press

California faces $20.7 billion deficit, again billion, california, deficit - Local News - Victorville Daily Press:

"SACRAMENTO • Four months after closing a $26 billion budget shortfall, California lawmakers are faced with another $20.7 billion budget gap through 2011 — and tens of billions of dollars more until revenue rebounds in 2014, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“Our problem is, rather than making the hard decisions 18 months ago, we keep putting it off and so it only makes it that much more difficult,” said Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster. “Hopefully we’ll just get a plain, old reality check, because we’re running out of options...”"

Educational Results Partnership Welcome

Educational Results Partnership Welcome:

"Welcome to EdResults.org

A free school improvement system
for actionable data and
best practices to raise student
achievement and close achievement gaps."

Welcome to EdResults.org A free school improvement systemfor actionable data and best practices web site -

My Word: Awful school funding formula plagues Alameda County - Inside Bay Area

My Word: Awful school funding formula plagues Alameda County - Inside Bay Area:

"CALIFORNIA'S FISCAL outlook continues to worsen.

Concern is mounting over the impact the state's budget deficit will have on education funding.

The California Teachers Association (CTA), along with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, claims California's per-pupil funding now ranks 47th nationally. In reality, most experts agree California is around the middle of the pack when it comes to school funding, including the CTA's own parent organization, the National Education Association.

But what matters to most California parents isn't how much other states are spending — it's the results their children's school districts are getting compared to other school districts in California."

On that front, California must do better. It's not because there's too little funding. It's because the state's school financing system is illogical and inequitable.

The California School Finance Center database — a new project from the Pacific Research Institute and the Educational Results Partnership (formerly Just for the Kids-California) that compiles data from a dozen California Department of Education sources — helps shed some much-needed light on this reality.

The data show some troubling discrepancies among similar school districts.

GOODMAN: Education cuts spur student organization

GOODMAN: Education cuts spur student organization:

"California campuses have been rocked by protests this past week, provoked by massive student fee increases voted on by the University of California Board of Regents. Following a year of sequential budget cuts, faculty and staff dismissals and furloughs, and the elimination of entire academic departments, the 32 percent fee increase proved to be the trigger for statewide actions of an unprecedented scale.

As President Barack Obama's anticipated Afghanistan war strategy is soon to be announced, which, according to one leak, will include a surge of 35,000 troops, the juxtaposition of education cuts and military increases is incensing many, and helping to build a movement."

Cassidy: Elmo and Intel, helping kids learn - San Jose Mercury News

Cassidy: Elmo and Intel, helping kids learn - San Jose Mercury News:

"Anytime you recruit both Elmo and Craig Barrett to help you with a problem, you know you've got a big problem.

And so it is with the poor performance of American school kids when it comes to math, science and technology. The Obama administration this week announced that the world's most lovable Muppet and the former CEO of the world's largest chipmaker would be among those joining in a vast effort to keep the United States competitive when it comes to building the world's future."

Op-Ed Columnist - The Other Education - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Other Education - NYTimes.com:

"Like many of you, I went to elementary school, high school and college. I took such and such classes, earned such and such grades, and amassed such and such degrees.

But on the night of Feb. 2, 1975, I turned on WMMR in Philadelphia and became mesmerized by a concert the radio station was broadcasting. The concert was by a group I’d never heard of — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Thus began a part of my second education.

We don’t usually think of this second education. For reasons having to do with the peculiarities of our civilization, we pay a great deal of attention to our scholastic educations, which are formal and supervised, and we devote much less public thought to our emotional educations, which are unsupervised and haphazard. This is odd, since our emotional educations are much more important to our long-term happiness and the quality of our lives.

In any case, over the next few decades Springsteen would become one of the professors in my second education. In album after album he assigned a new course in my emotional curriculum."

BBC News - War of words over teacher numbers

BBC News - War of words over teacher numbers:

"Scotland's education secretary has clashed with local authorities over a drop in the number of teachers north of the border.

The figure fell by 1,348 over the past year, a drop which was described as 'unacceptable' by Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop.

However, her claims were rejected by local authority umbrella body Cosla, which expressed 'surprise and disappointment' at her comments.

Here are their statements in full."

Half of Scotland's councils have delivered improvements in primary school class sizes.

Half have not. What is more, there has been a sharp fall in the number of teachers. That is simply unacceptable.

Letters: On retooling of education | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Letters: On retooling of education Viewpoints, Outlook Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"In response to professor Charles Meisgeier's article about the need to retool education to teach how children learn (“America must make effort to retool education system,” Page B7, Saturday), if he looked around his community he would know there is a highly reputable and successful tool right here in Houston, The Neuhaus Education Center. NEC has taught thousands of teachers a method of teaching any subject, called Multi-Sensory Training."

Ruling on D.C. Teacher Layoffs Raises Broader Issues - Teacher Beat - Education Week

Ruling on D.C. Teacher Layoffs Raises Broader Issues - Teacher Beat - Education Week:

"A Washington superior court judge has backed Chancellor Michelle Rhee in a dispute with the Washington Teachers' Union over layoffs. The union sought a preliminary injunction that would essentially have required Rhee to reinstate teachers who were laid off supposedly due to budget cuts while other legal claims worked their way through the District of Columbia school system.

In essence, the union said that Rhee hired hundreds of young teachers over the summer, more than the district could pay for, thus forcing a later need to make cuts. Because of a series of administrative rulings in the late 1990s, layoffs in D.C. are done not only by seniority but also by performance. In this case, principals laid off many veteran teachers. That precipitated protests, allegations from the WTU that Rhee was bypassing termination procedures in the contract, and hearings with the D.C. Council."

Alaska’s Rural Schools Fight Extinction - NYTimes.com

Alaska’s Rural Schools Fight Extinction - NYTimes.com:

"NIKOLSKI, Alaska — This distant dot in the Aleutian Islands needed just 10 students for its school to dodge a fatal cut from the state budget. It reached across Alaska and beyond but could find only nine."

Built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1939, the little Nikolski School will not be the last in Alaska to close. Four others have closed this fall and at least 30 more are at risk because of dwindling enrollment; one school in remote southeast Alaska survived only by advertising on Craigslist for families with school-aged children.

“We lose one or two every year,” said Eddy Jeans, the director of school finance for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

As Alaska celebrates its 50th anniversary of statehood amid new political prominence and urban aspirations, it is confronting a legacy of loss in rural communities that are unlike any others in the United States.

Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Flypaper: Education reform ideas that stick, from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute:

"Despite the rainy weather, early morning start, and day-before-Thanksgiving scheduling, the CAP event with Secretary Duncan and NYC Mayor Bloomberg was standing room only. Going in it wasn’t at all clear what the actual purpose of the event was (Ed Trust’s Kati Haycock was on the panel as well). As it turned out, it was a stage for Bloomberg to make some important announcements.

Secretary Duncan’s opening speech was generally his ARRA/RTT talking points—not bad by any means, just not hot-off-the-presses new. Of note, he once again name-checked Louisiana for its strong use of data. He also said that RTT isn’t so much about states competing with one another as it is about each state building consensus within its borders for major change."

Accountable Talk: The Surgeon's Knife

Accountable Talk: The Surgeon's Knife:

"Looks like I'm going to lose my bet that the teachers' contract would be announced right before Thanksgiving. Unless you let me count Thanksgiving, 2o10.

Mayor4Life Bloomberg launched an attack on the UFT today, asking for the moon and trying to run an end-around through the state legislature. He wants to tie test scores to tenure, have the right to fire ATRs and in the event of layoffs, to get rid of teachers based on test scores rather than seniority. (All of you who believe that good teachers with high salaries won't get laid off, raise your hands.)"

Blather, Rinse, Repeat at The Core Knowledge Blog

Blather, Rinse, Repeat at The Core Knowledge Blog:

"In a debate on the Education Next website, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform and Pedro Noguera of New York University wrestle with the question, “Should school reformers pay more attention to the non-academic needs of poor children?” The more pertinent question might be which of the two groups Williams and Noguera speak for–the Education Equality Project (Williams) and the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education (Noguera)–is paying attention to the academic needs of poor children. Based on the evidence, it’s hard to say."

CN&R > Local Stories > California meltdown > 11.26.09

CN&R Local Stories California meltdown 11.26.09:

"The meltdown went positively volcanic this week, as UC students by the thousands protested steep tuition hikes, dozens were arrested, and we learned the state again faced a huge budget deficit that would last for at least five years.

Nov. 11: The Sacramento Bee reports that, according to the Pew Center on the States, nine other states are facing “some of the same pressures that have pushed California toward economic disaster.” With California, they represent one-third of the nation’s population and economic output.

Nov. 12: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warns that the state budget deficit could swell to more than $14 billion, and that deeper spending cuts will be needed to close it."