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Wednesday, April 15, 2015

PROJECT LEAD - THE NATIONAL SUPERINTENDENTS' CAMPAIGN

National Association of School Superintendents:


 PROJECT LEAD
THE NATIONAL SUPERINTENDENTS' CAMPAIGN

RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN OUR COUNTRY’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND US
We have a superintendent with an audience in every community in America. It’s time to use our voice!
VIDEO INTRODUCTION by Colorado Superintendent Don Haddad
News - World

TWEET!  TALK!  WRITE!
 CLICK for your NASS PROJECT LEAD Tweet List
CLICK for your AASA PROJECT LEAD Tweet List


US EDUCATION IS BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE

LEARN THE FACTS FROM DIANE RAVITCH
Bill Gates describes U.S. education as a system that is “broken” and Condoleeza Rice has called U.S. schools “a grave threat to national security".  Diane Ravitch explains why these statements are "absolute, total nonsense". Click for her video and learn more!
Ravich Video Chicago 2 22 15 
Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education.  Her blog is dianeravitch.net and has received more than 17 million hits in 30 months. 
CLICK for her biography.
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Schools Matter: Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?

Schools Matter: Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?:



Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?



“Walmart fortune heiress, Carrie Walton Penner, is currently the CCSA Board Vice-Chair (term ending 6/30/2017). By most accounts Walton Penner is close to both profiteer "Ref" Rodriguez of the PUC Charter School Corporation, and the well-heeled Ana Ponce of the Camino Nuevo Charter School Corporation.” — Robert D. Skeels

PROFITS! Why Ref Rodriguez and his CCSA covet the LAUSD Board Seat
Charter industry profiteer Refugio "Ref" Rodriguez, and his California Charter Schools Association's (CCSA) ruthless campaign to capture the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education seat for District 5 has had every advantage. Rodriguez is backed with millions of dollars from an assortment of billionaires ranging from right-wing extremists like the Walton Family Fortune (Walmart) heirs to anti-public-commons ideologues including Reed Hastings, Eli Broad, and Michael Bloomberg. He has received uncritical press from all the major Los Angeles corporate media outlets. Rodriguez has waged a dishonest campaign that viciously mocked the incumbent school board member's disabilities, and went as far to makedeplorable accusations of racism. With essentially unlimited funding at his disposal, one would think that the profit hungry corporate charter school executive wouldn't need any more advantages. However, Rodriguez and his CCSA allies are leaving nothing to chance in defense of their lucrative profits. Profits that have been threatened by an incumbent who has insisted that the charter industry serve all students, not just the ones that are "cheap" to educate.

Evidence of possible further impropriety was provided by Cheryl Ortega. Ortega is the Director of Bilingual Education at United Teachers Los Angeles, has taught in the community for nearly half a century, is a member of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council, and was recently honored as the 28th Congressional District Woman of the Year. Given her long-standing ties to the community, parents frequently use her as a clearinghouse for education issues. For example, this revelation that she posted on her Facebook feed:

Interesting and shocking fact regarding the Kayser - Rodriguez LAUSD school board race. A long time friend and former school parent at Logan Elementary School, told me that parents at the Sandra Cisneros/Camino Nuevo Charter Corp School in Echo Park were paid to attend political meetings to help elect Ref Rodriguez. They were told that Bennet Kayser would "close down their school" if elected to the school board. I am not surprised at Camino Nuevo's message given their record of "misleading" parents.
Asking around, I've been informed that these parents are being paid in kind (not cash), with expensive dinners, trips to Starbucks, etc. These reports corroborate each other, and with definitive proof that CCSA and Rodriguez are chasing profits, their purported "payment" of parents to sway this election makes perfect sense. Who is doing it makes sense too.

Camino Nuevo Charter Corporation's profits depend on market share

Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Corporation (CNCA) has a long record of duplicity. Their fourteen member Board of Directors, comprised mostly of hedge fund/investment managers, venture capitalists, brokers, and bankers, is wholly Schools Matter: Is CNCA paying parents to support CCSA's Ref Rodriguez's LAUSD Board campaign?:
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Real Problems in Education and Teachers Who Cheat

Real Problems in Education and Teachers Who Cheat:



Go To Jail

Real Problems in Education and Teachers Who Cheat

 BY  LEAVE A COMMENT
In Memphis, a man who was helping an elderly woman into her car was attacked by a group of young people at a gas station across the street from a charter school. In another part of town a mom worries about gang retaliation at her child’s high school.
Memphis is not alone. No matter what city you look at, you can find frightening stories, about what’s happening to America’s young people and how it is affecting their communities. There are serious problems with our youth everywhere.
High-stakes testing is not the answer to these problems.
Going after teachers for fudging answers on high-stakes tests to save their jobs, even wanting bonuses, is no answer either. It is terribly punitive at best, considering the high-stakes culture of test-taking, and is far off the mark of the real problems facing students and this nation.
In fact, the culture of high-stakes testing is adding to the problems in our public schools and in the country. Tests waste time and resources. More importantly, tests are impersonal. They are merely a tool even when they are done right. They don’t get to the heart of who students are and what they can become if given the right support.
Most tests today don’t provide information that can practically assist teachers in directing better instruction. Teachers don’t get the information back until it is too late. This doesn’t help students!
High-stakes tests are all about comparing schools and blaming them for what they aren’t doing right.
They don’t provide any answers on how those schools can improve. The scores are also more about arbitrarily firing teachers and closing public schools. If this weren’t the case the goals would be much different, and teachers would be included in the decision-making surrounding their jobs.
The Atlanta case played into the continuous drone that an unforgiving public, and the Real Problems in Education and Teachers Who Cheat:
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Infographic: LAUSD ditching Pearson iPad program software, demanding multimillion dollar refund | 89.3 KPCC

Infographic: LAUSD ditching Pearson iPad program software, demanding multimillion dollar refund | 89.3 KPCC:

LAUSD ditching Pearson iPad program software, demanding multimillion dollar refund








Los Angeles Unified told Apple Inc. this week that it will not spend another dollar on the Pearson software installed on its iPads and is seeking a multimillion-dollar refund from the technology giant.
If an agreement cannot be reached, the nation's second-largest school district could take Apple to court. 
"While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it," David Holmquist, the school district's attorney, wrote in a letter to Apple's general counsel. The ITI, or Instructional Technology Initiative, is the district's name for its iPad program.
Holmquist said the district is "extremely dissatisfied" with the work of Pearson on its technology initiative to get computers into the hands of each of the district's 650,000 students.
"As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads," he wrote.
L.A. Unified's $1.3 billion iPad program has been fraught with problems, from issues getting the technology to work in the classrooms to questions about how the tablets were procured.
The FBI launched an investigation into the purchase in December, carting out 20 boxes from the district office on bidding material, communications and other records involving Apple and Pearson. 
An investigation published by KPCC last August found former Superintendent John Deasy and top district staffers had close ties with Pearson executives before the contract was awarded.
District officials purchased Pearson's software even though it was unfinished, and teachers complained the material seemed rushed: lessons were missing math problems and reading material and included errors. The software also lacked many interactive elements that were promised, teachers said.
“[Pearson] missed the whole point of technology — individualized  instruction, all the material in the palm of your hand," said Ben Way, a math teacher at Alliance Cindy & Bill Simon Technology Academy, a charter school that also purchased Pearson's iPad app. 
Pearson and Apple executives could not be immediately reached for comment, but Pearson representatives maintain they have held up their end of the deal.
"The course content has been complete for over a year," wrote then-Pearson spokesman Brandon Pinette in an email to KPCC in September. "Yes, there are important enhancements to add as there always will be. We will add twice a year. No digital product should ever be considered complete."

LAUSD iPads: Timeline of a troubled program

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BustED Pencils Trending News: Seattle Opt Out press conference; A child's voice; Teacher Moral plummetting | BustED Pencils

BustED Pencils Trending News: Seattle Opt Out press conference; A child's voice; Teacher Moral plummetting | BustED Pencils:



BustED Pencils Trending News: Seattle Opt Out press conference; A child’s voice; Teacher Moral plummetting

Posted  by Tim Slekar
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BustEDlogo2news logoBustEDlogo2Seattle’s NAACP stands up against targeted performance testing! WooHoo!! Education Chair, Rita Green, says “costs tied to the test this year is approximately $200,000,000 (two hundred million dollars)…” Did you hear that dollar amount?!  NAACP oppose SBAC and are calling on all parents to opt out and to opt out NOW. Jesse Hagopian, “Teachers in the Seattle public schools are not against tests, in fact they invented tests”. He speaks facts and truth to education. Listen to the whole panel of testifiers/test resisters for quality assessment.
Press Conference on SBAC Testing: Opt Out Movement Biggest in Seattle’s History
BustEDlogo2BustED Pencils blogtalkradio.com show introduces Lacey Slekar as their new Student Issues Correspondent. Listen as Lacey (12) interviews Sydney (9) regarding opt out and standardized tests.  You won’t believe the maturity level of these two girls.  A MUST LISTEN!!
4th Grader and standardized testing expert Sydney Smoot. 
BustEDlogo2If nothing else, this article has a slew of highly informative links for those seeking information about the attacks on public schools and what it’s all about.
Why Has Teacher Moral Plummeted? 

If you’re interested in receiving BustED Pencils Trending News, please go tohttp://bustedpencils.com/ and subscribe. 
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Merryl Tisch Shows How Test Supporters Get It Wrong - View From the Cheap Seats - Education Week Teacher

Merryl Tisch Shows How Test Supporters Get It Wrong - View From the Cheap Seats - Education Week Teacher:

Merryl Tisch Shows How Test Supporters Get It Wrong




New York Chancellor of the Board of Regents Meryl Tisch stopped by All In with Chris Hayes to avoid answering some pointed questions about high stakes testing and the opt out movement in New York. She had the additional disadvantage of sitting beside Diane Ravitch, who did answer questions and made Tisch look even slipperier by comparison, but I think Tisch's appearance is a quick, capsuled look at what promoters of high stakes testing get wrong.
After opening with some background (Atlanta convictions, rising parent opposition, left-and-right wing hatred for Big Standardized Tests), Hayes notes that New York's opt out numbers are huger than ever and turns to Tisch.

Hayes: When you see the reports of opting out, including the high strong numbers from some areas, do you think "People are crazy" or "We are doing something wrong"?
Tisch does not think people are crazy (phew!) and believes that people "should act in what they perceive to be the best interests of their children." That's an important construction because like many BS Test fans, Tisch is also a charter school fan, which puts her in the awkward position of believing that parents should opt out of public school, but not public school testing. Choice is only okay sometimes.
So why the push back? "Perhaps we have not been clear enough in describing the intent of the test." So, opt out is a PR problem, because if people disagree with us, it could only be because they don't understand how right we are. So what is the intent of the test?
"The intent of the test is to give a snapshot of performance and allow parents to know where their children are at any given point in their educational career as compared to their peers."
And there's your first problem, because that doesn't even make sense. "Snapshot" and "at any given point in time" do not go together. I can't see how my child is doing at any point in time because I only have a snapshot from one particular point in time.
Tisch moves on immediately to asserting that income inequality is directly tied to the achievement gap (which is actually the BS Test score gap) for our poor students, and she starts waving the Wait Let Me Speak hand at Hayes because he is completely ready to call her on that piece of baloney, so she squeezes in that poor students can't make more money unless they have access to high quality education. Hayes calls her on her correlation-causation fallacy, but I'd like to call her on her fallacious equating of high quality education and high stakes snapshot testing. What does taking the BS Test have to do with access to high quality education?
The reformster answer (which Tisch doesn't get to) is that BS Test results allow us to target the students who are struggling. The problem here is that 1) we already know where they are and 2) after years of targeting them with BS Testing, we have yet to actually get them additional resources to help them do better.
Ravitch gets her turn and uses it to point out that tests are not vaccinations and these tests are not useful because the results provide no useful information. "There is no diagnostic value to the test," somehow prompts Tisch to smirk, like she has caught the help trying to act like they know how caviar really tastes. Hayes notes that Tisch clearly has something she wants to share with the rest of the class, and she unveils Test Purpose #2.
The tests are a diagnostic tool for curriculum and instruction development on the state level, and a way of making sure the taxpayers get their money's worth.
In other words, a completely different purpose for the tests than the one she offered about two minutes earlier. It's now a snapshot of how our children, schools, and systems are doing-- for the taxpayers. So that business about info for the parents was, what-- just spitballing? Because if this is the actual purpose of the test then 1) what's wrong with the NAEP and 2) why is it necessary to test every child every year?
Hayes points out that Tisch gave a non-response to the observation that the tests are not diagnostically useful for students, parents or children, and she insists that she be allowed to insert a non-response to that point. When parents opt out it messes things up. Also, she was in a doctor's office where a parent wanted to compare their child to a growth chart. Like the vaccination Merryl Tisch Shows How Test Supporters Get It Wrong - View From the Cheap Seats - Education Week Teacher:

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Accountability for Whom? | Pedro Noguera

Accountability for Whom? | Pedro Noguera:

Accountability for Whom?



ATLANTA TEACHERS




 So much is wrong about the cheating scandal in Atlanta: the miscarriage of justice in the verdict rendered by Judge Jerry Baxter, the unwillingness of policymakers to recognize their own culpability in the scandal, the lack of attention to the educational needs of the children in Atlanta and hundreds of other communities where failed policies have undermined the quality of education children receive, and of course, the cheating itself.

There is no doubt that cheating occurred in Atlanta Public Schools (APS), and that it was systemic, pervasive and involved dozens of educators across many schools. The fact that there was extreme pressure placed on educators to obtain higher test scores, and that unrealistic goals for improvement were set, may explain why it occurred but it does not justify it. Educators may not get paid like doctors but they are trusted and generally held in high regard by the public (less so by policymakers) for the work they do. The mere fact that we apply the term in loco parentis (in place of parents) to teachers is just one of many indications that they occupy an important role in our society.
Certainly there was considerable pressure to cheat. It was created by demanding, "take no prisoners" administrators, primarily the recently deceased superintendent, Dr. Beverly Hall. Though she never admitted to cheating or knowing about its occurrence, the threats and mass firings of principals she used to get results certainly played a role in creating the atmosphere that allowed cheating to flourish. But the demanding strategies used by Hall have been followed by celebrated superintendents throughout the country, including Michelle Rhee when she was Chancellor of schools in D.C., Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York, and yet another now deceased superintendent, Arlene Ackerman, who was once highly acclaimed as an educational leader in Philadelphia.
I knew and respected Dr. Hall and I had extensive contact with schools and educators in Atlanta during the years when the cheating occurred. One of the schools I visited was Park Middle School, the site described in a New Yorker article as the epicenter of the cheating conspiracy. When I visited Park for the first time in 2001 it was a chaotic and dysfunctional school, a place not conducive to good teaching or serious learning. Over the course of the next five years I visited the school regularly, met with educators about how to address the needs of their students, and saw the school transformed into a safe, orderly place where teachers collaborated about their work and students appeared to be invested in learning.
I attributed many of the changes I observed at Park and other schools in Atlanta to the demanding leadership of Dr. Hall. Like many others, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, I was impressed by the progress that was made in Atlanta during the Hall years, 1999-2010, and I did not doubt the stunning results because I had seen concrete evidence of improvement. I had spent time in the Atlanta Public Schools in the past when Ben Canada was superintendent and I had seen the poorly managed schools up close. I was also well aware of the petty political battles among school board members that frequently degenerated into threats and name-calling and were an embarrassment to the entire city. My familiarity with the past was one of the reasons I credited Dr. Hall with the turnaround and for that reason I believed that the awards she received for her accomplishments -- Superintendent of the Year in 2010, a distinguished service award from the American Educational Research Association, an honorary degree from Bank Street College (which I received along with her) -- were well deserved.
Like so many others, I heaped praise upon the district because I'd seen the changes in the state of the schools and there was objective evidence that the improvement was real. An analysis of NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress -- also known as the nation's report card, and an assessment on which there was no evidence of cheating) results in 2012 showed that Atlanta made more progress than any other urban district in the country. Low-income African American students gained 22 points in mathematics and 12 points in 8th grade reading. Writing in a blog to explain these results, former Assistant Secretary of Education Michael Smith wrote "The evidence suggests that there was a lot going on in Atlanta from 2003-2011 other than alleged cheating. The good should not be erased or discarded."
During the decade she led the district of 52,000 children, many of them poor and African-American, Atlanta students often outperformed wealthier suburban districts on state tests. These results caught the attention of her admirers and also raised suspicion. Reporters for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and state education officials repeatedly heard rumors of cheating and began monitoring the district closely. One of my colleagues, a well-known statistician, was brought in to analyze the extraordinary increases in test scores that had occurred from one year to the next. He reported that it was highly unlikely that the increases could be explained by good Accountability for Whom? | Pedro Noguera:
Big Education Ape: Atlanta Schools Cheating Scandal - When Justice is a Crime http://bit.ly/1FLFQvn
Big Education Ape: Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rhee sentenced to 20 years for erasing grades -- Just a dream. http://bit.ly/1EIfoqh
Big Education Ape: One of Georgia's longest-ever criminal trials is over, and it's sending teachers to prison for u... http://bit.ly/1FRSTAO


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Alexander on Bipartisan Legislative Agreement to Fix No Child Left Behind - YouTube

Alexander on Bipartisan Legislative Agreement to Fix No Child Left Behind - YouTube:

Alexander on Bipartisan Legislative Agreement to Fix No Child Left Behind 





 At the start of the Senate education committee markup today of bipartisan legislation to fix No Child Left Behind, Chairman Lamar Alexandersaid the bill reflects “remarkable consensus” about how to fix the problems with the law. Alexander said the agreement will "continue the law’s important measurements of academic progress of students but restore to states, school districts, classroom teachers and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about improving student achievement. This change should produce fewer tests and more appropriate ways to measure student achievement."
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High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform

High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform:



High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again.

Posted on April 14, 2015by 
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the state legislature continue to play power games with high stakes testing while pretending to save the children and all of public education from testing harm.
This political posturing is similar to the man who murdered his parents and then claimed that he should not be jailed because he was an orphan.
Rick Scott plays for controlSince present Florida Gov. Rick Scott plans to run for the U.S. Senate, he is posturing as being better than former Florida governor and presidential candidate Jeb Bush – or tougher, or smarter, or anti-establishment, or whatever his PR department can claim. He is also planning to spend even more education funding to pay a private company to write some kind of review.
Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Limit Standardized Tests: The changes represent a departure for the Republican-controlled Legislature because it a step back from some of the reforms championed by former Gov. Jeb Bush.The new law caps statewide standardized testing at 45 hours a year. It would let school districts move up the start of the school year to Aug. 10.
The legislation would delay the release of this year’s school grades until an independent review of the new test can be performed. Other sanctions associated with annual testing would also be put on hold while the review is underway.– CBS Miami
—
Senate passes testing bill: The train wreck that is Florida’s accountability system was lambasted by Republican and Democratic senators, even by those who admitted to having voted for the ‘reforms’ over the years. “This is kind of backwards. What we’re doing is giving kids the test and then deciding afterwards whether or not we’re going validate the test,” said Sen. Jeff Clemens, (D-Lake Worth). Sen. Lee called out Bush’s foundation for pushingto maintain the current level of testing for all the wrong reasons…
There are some provisions from the old version of the House bill included in this new improved Senate version and some new language for which we all lobbied. The new version includes: • Reduced impact of test scores on 
High Stakes Testing? It’s all about the power and the money – again. | Reclaim Reform:
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Atlanta Schools Cheating Scandal - When Justice is a Crime



Cheating on a Standardize Test


Convicted of Charter School Fraud




OIG Investigative Reports, Charter School Owners Sentenced for Defrauding School to Pay for Lavish Lifestyle http://1.usa.gov/1FLBPqS

Charter school founder convicted on tax charges http://on.freep.com/1FLC1pX

 SC charter school head guilty of embezzlement | The State The State http://bit.ly/1FLC8Sl

 Charter school founders sentenced in misuse of funds - latimes http://lat.ms/1FLCfxm

 Ivy Academia founders sentenced in fraud case http://bit.ly/1FLCrwF

 Optometrist, Charter School Manager, and Now Convicted Felon Can Be Added To His Curriculum Vitae: The Continuing S... http://bit.ly/1FLCAQz

 Former charter school leader gets plea deal http://cin.ci/1FLCI2x





Need More Google Charter School Fraud
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Politicians Try to Union-Bust Their Way to the White House

Politicians Try to Union-Bust Their Way to the White House:

Politicians Try to Union-Bust Their Way to the White House



 Fiery labor icon Mother Jones cannot be resting peacefully beneath the crabgrass in the Union Miners’ Cemetery, not far from Springfield, Illinois, where Bruce Rauner, the recently elected Republican governor, has launched an unprecedented attack on organized labor. Rauner, a former private equity fund chairman, made a reported $62 million in 2013, the year before he was elected. Now the Harvard MBA is challenging public and private unions on several fronts—even pushing the state’s municipalities to create “right-to-work zones,” where workers in unionized jobs could opt out of paying union dues. This town-by-town approach is a relatively new idea and may be of dubious legality, but it’s already caused Cook County, where Chicago is situated, to preemptively declare that it won’t go along.

Rauner is part of a clique of Midwestern Republican governors challenging unions in a region where behemoths like the United Auto Workers and massive public employee unions covering teachers and other state employees have long dominated. In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker diminished the power of the state’s public employee unions in 2011 by pushing through a law that cut their benefits and limited their collective bargaining power.


That move, and his survival of a union-led recall effort in 2011, not only propelled Walker into the first tier of Republican presidential candidates; it also emboldened conservative governors and legislators around the Great Lakes. Governor Rick Snyder made Michigan a right-to-work state in 2012, and Indiana’s governor at the time, Mitch Daniels, followed suit, creating a bloc of anti-union states in what was once a labor stronghold. Their latest victory: Last month, Walker signed a law making Wisconsin the nation’s 25th right-to-work state.
Rauner’s efforts in Illinois are getting the closest scrutiny. That state is an unlikely launch pad for a crusade against union power. It has been a solidly blue state in presidential elections since 1992 and had not elected a Republican governor since 1998 until Rauner, a longtime friend of Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor who had also worked in private equity, won office last year. Conservative journalist Stephen Moore called the political newcomer’s campaign “the biggest election of 2014.“ Illinois, he wrote in National Review, “could become a laboratory experiment about whether conservative ideas can work in a state that has been ruled by...unions and a self-serving political machine in Springfield and Chicago.”
Once in office, Rauner issued a “Turnaround Agenda” that begins with this premise: “Government union leaders are funding politicians who negotiate their pay and benefits.” To put an end to that, Rauner issued an executive order challenging collective bargaining agreements with state employees and urged municipalities and counties to create their right-to-work zones.
Rauner frames the issue as one of freedom and local control. The governor says he wants Illinois communities to decide whether “their businesses should be subject to forced unionism or employee choice.” Forced unionism is a familiar phrase among opponents of collective bargaining, but it’s also a misleading one. If a majority of workers vote to form a union, then it’s customary for workers to be compelled to pay dues as a price for being in a union. Those who don’t want to join the union are required to pay something so they aren’t getting a free ride. By giving workers the prerogative not to pay union dues, right-to-work laws undercut the power of unions.
Hoping to spur municipalities to take on public-employee unions, Rauner sent right-to-work resolutions to all of Illinois’s cities and villages. A municipality can just insert its name and vote on it. It’s a smart strategy since the Illinois statehouse is solidly Democratic and won’t pass a right-to-work law. Setting fires in small towns might arouse anti-union sentiment, and it will surely inflame the unions. Last week, unions packed a meeting of the Oswego County board in northern Illinois, where the nonbinding resolution was up for discussion. Scott Roscoe, president of the Fox Valley Building Trades Council in Aurora, told a local journalist, “If we don't stop anti-worker schemes like right-to-work, more families will fall behind.”
04_10_Unions_02Anti right-to-work protester Susan Laurin (C) of Michigan State Employees Union Local 6000 yells with fellow protesters outside of Michigan's state capitol building in Lansing, December 11, 2012. REBECCA COOK/REUTERS
So far, no Illinois communities have voted to become right-to-work zones. Three local legislative bodies have decided not to approve the resolutions, one without even holding a hearing. And there’s some question as to whether the adoptions of such zones is legal. (The National Labor Relations Act seems to give this kind of authority to states and territories, but not towns.)Politicians Try to Union-Bust Their Way to the White House:
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