"This is historic for the children of this state."

Did they erupt in joy for the children who now have a real opportunity to choose success over failure?  Er, not exactly: Republicans dropped a legislative bombshell tonight as they slammed through a dramatically revamped education bill that will give tax credits for families at “failing schools” to send their children to private school or [...]

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Who's been painting my roses red?!

From the leader of the unfailing public servants who brought you 350,000 Chicago students abandoned for two weeks, comes this gem. Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union: In the clip, recorded Dec. 2 during her keynote address of the Illinois Labor History Society’s Union Hall of Honor dinner and posted on YouTube Monday, [...]

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It's good to be king.

We tend to pay a lot of attention to what teachers’ unions spend on politics, but even that lofty amount pales in comparison to what they what they spend on themselves. Like teaching, union work is a labor-intensive enterprise. Unlike teaching, the structure of union benefits resembles an inverted pyramid, where a lot of people [...]

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School choice -- or the lack thereof.

Since his election, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has championed the cause of education reform by permitting more private-sector competition into the school system — the ire of the teachers’ unions be darned. One of his signature achievements, a private-school tuition voucher program that allows low-income children (those from families with a household income less than [...]

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In the red.

It is easy to forget that teachers’ unions are private entities, with income, expenditures and bottom lines that ultimately determine their health and effectiveness. Their revenues, however, are almost the entirely the result of the dues payments of public employees. If unions increase dues, the onus is on the  members. It is much better for [...]

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It's for the students...

The Chicago teachers’ strike is an awkward dinner conversation between President Barack Obama and his former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.   Many of the policy prescriptions in the new Chicago teachers’ contract designed to create more accountability are supported by the Obama administration. As the Chicago teachers’ strike continues, we’ve learned that they make $71-76,000 [...]

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Fighting for their right to party.

When the teachers in Chicago walked out on strike this week, some wondered whether that might provide a boost to Barack Obama — perhaps an opportunity to intervene and resolve the issue.  Three days later, the Washington Post doesn’t sound too hopeful.  Given the fact that Obama’s first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now [...]

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Heh.

Neither Jay Carney nor Romney mentioned Rahm in their respective statements on the strike (Carney punted on the matter altogether, not surprisingly), but Ryan knows a political opportunity when he sees one. In a standoff between two of Obama’s biggest cronies, his former chief of staff and the unions that bankroll him, The One’s going [...]

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Free advertising for charter schools and school choice.

Parents in Chicago had to scramble today as teachers walked out last night after weeks of contract negotiations, launching their first strike in 25 years.  Already the nation’s first- or second-best paid teachers among urban school districts, the union rejected an offer from the school board that would have increased their pay by 16% over [...]

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Unaccountable

The fine state of public education and the iron fortress of the teachers unions gets yet another black eye this week after video emerged of a shocking incident which took place in the classroom earlier this year. The action allegedly took place back in February in Gig Harbor, Florida Washington, but the public didn’t become [...]

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Changes

We see plenty of political humor these days stemming from the policies and comments of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but not all of his ideas are suitable for satire. Back in 2010, the mayor proposed some remarkable changes to the public education system, including a plan to “end tenure as we know it.” [...]

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Pander-monium.

Is it just me, or do certain Democrats seem to have difficulty distinguishing the difference between “education” and “teachers’ unions”? Anyone? Speaking to the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, Vice President Joe Biden accused Mitt Romney of awarding education with something less than priority-status. Oh, the humanity: Biden addressed 2,500 delegates at the American Federation of [...]

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In Michigan ... perhaps.

Can illiteracy on its own be a civil-rights issue?  The ACLU believes so, and will file a lawsuit in Michigan state court on behalf of students in Highland Park School District who cannot read at grade level after several years in school.  The plaintiffs will argue that a state law requiring intervention to bring failing [...]

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Misbehavior?

Maybe it’s just because I live in New York. I mean, intuitively I’m positive that there must be stories in nearly every state of the union where you’ll hear about public school systems, teachers unions and horrendous educators running out of control. But it sure seems like these stories all come from the Empire State. [...]

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Guess what the taxpayers are covering now

Welcome to scenic and historic Buffalo, New York! It’s a great place, famous for chicken wings and an NFL team which holds a record which may never be broken. But for all its glory, like so many other cities and towns across the Empire State, Buffalo is facing big budget problems. Belts are being tightened [...]

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Proving ... ?

Given that the “Recall Walker” effort reached 300,000 signatures in just 12 days, it would have been far more surprising if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s opponents didn’t manage to collect enough signatures to go forward with the election. Still, 1 million signatures is nearly twice the number needed to trigger an actual election — and [...]

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A Saul Alinksy surprise for Ms. Lacroix.

The obnoxiousness continues. Not content to picket the Capitol and petition for the recall of any and every state leader who had a hand in the passage of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, union leaders are now harassing a teacher who appeared in an ad in support of Walker. In a basic black-back-dropped [...]

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No real surprise there.

In case you missed it, United Wisconsin announced earlier this week that its members collected more than 300,000 signatures in support of a Scott Walker recall election in just 12 days. That’s not necessarily surprising — single-issue activists are notoriously focused and motivated people — but it’s still impressive, translating into more than 1,040 signatures an hour. That’s [...]

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The education bubble.

California’s university system — like the rest of the state — is in dire straits financially. Small wonder, then, that schools there have begun to give some thought to the expansion of cost-cutting online education programs. But predictably, the California teachers’ unions have something to say about that: The specter and promise of online education [...]

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WEAC breaking faith with employees?

As an employer, the Wisconsin Education Association Council would like a little latitude to lay off and hire according to what makes sense rather than according to arbitrary union rules. But the National Support Organization, the nation’s largest union of union staffers, won’t have that. When WEAC posted a job listing for the position of [...]

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The disaster we were warned about?

Remember when Democratic senators in the Wisconsin state legislature said Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to limit collective bargaining for public teachers’ unions would be detrimental for students? When union protesters — among other cruder criticisms — enjoined politicians to “care about educators like they care about your child”? Looks like the law that caused [...]

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The protesters tired out?

The Tennessee state legislature tomorrow will vote on a bill that would limit collective bargaining for teachers’ unions — the only government unions allowed in the state of Tennessee. The bill echoes the legislation the Wisconsin legislature passed earlier this year in the face of union protests and the flight of 14 Wisconsin state senators. [...]

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"Tough call"?

Should teachers intervene to break up fights in classrooms? That’s the question posed by Fox News in Dallas-Fort Worth last night after a YouTube video showing a very one-sided fight made the rounds. In the video, which picks up the altercation in progress, one boy punches another with the requisite bully flourishes while the victim [...]

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Doling for Dollars

A new poll out from Rasmussen would seem to indicate that the increasing costs and scandals associated with teachers unions are taking a hefty toll on their public image. Nearly half of those surveyed – 46% – were of the opinion that the unionization of teachers was “a bad thing.” Only a bit over a [...]

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Monopoly.

The standoff in Wisconsin will stretch into its third week, and the fleebaggers in the state Senate still refuse to return to vote on the bill passed in the Assembly on Friday morning.  Legislators say they will remain out of state as long as the bill is on the table, and demand that Governor Scott [...]

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