As Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency reported on Tuesday (see the link below), Becky Pringle, secretary-treasurer of the three million-member National Education Association (NEA) teacher union, admitted to delegates arriving at the giant union’s annual convention early this…
The American Thinker examines how big teachers union have become impediments for needed education reform: American public education may be in crisis, but teachers are fairly happy with their lives, according to a new Gallup poll: The…
Jesse Jackson had no problem was marching alongside the International Socialist Organization to protest against Rahm Emanuel’s school closings. When a blogger asked about it, he was assaulted: The Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Police Department were obviously working in tandem last…
Looks like Mexico also has Big Labor Kingpins as well. From Forbes’ Kenneth Rapoza: Elba Esther Gordillo. Mexican Teahers’ union Kingpin..(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the…
When teacher union bosses are seeking to justify their monopoly privilege to speak for educators who don’t wish to join the union as well as union members in contract negotiations, or their power to force union nonmembers to fork over…
The boss of the Chicago Teacher's Union talked about killing rich people and her audience got a big chuckle: The Chicago Teachers Union is not just about looking out for its members’ interests. The union wants to fundamentally changeAmerica, too. That shift occurred when the radical Karen Lewis was elected as its president two years ago. She’s best known for mocking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s lisp and for taking on – and defeating – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the district’s first teachers’ strike in a generation. CTU leaders have been on a victory lap of sorts since the September strike, with union activists seeing themselves as protectors of union power during a time of membership decline and education reform at the state and local level. They’ve also taken on the role of social activities, fighting for causes like the Occupy movement and gay marriage, which have nothing to do with education. Some union leaders have called for violence and other radical tactics to achieve social goals.
Just when you think they can't go any lower, the union bosses have filed a lawsuit in Louisiana to force children to attend poor schools. The Wall Street Journal opines on the latest big labor outrage: Here's the bizarre world in which we live: In 2007 Gabriel Evans attended a public school in New Orleans graded "F" by the Louisiana Department of Education. Thanks to a New Orleans voucher program, Gabriel moved in 2008 to a Catholic school. His mother, Valerie Evans, calls the voucher a "lifesaver," allowing him to get "out of a public school system that is filled with fear, confusion and violence." So what is the response of the teachers union? Sue the state to force 11-year-old Gabriel back to the failing school. This week a state court in Baton Rouge is hearing the union challenge to Louisiana's Act 2, which expanded the New Orleans program statewide and allows families with a household income less than 250% of the federal poverty line to get a voucher to escape schools ranked C or worse by the state. Gabriel's voucher covers $4,315 in annual tuition. The tragedy is how many students qualify for the program. According to the state, 953 of the state's 1,373 public schools (K-12) were ranked C, D or F. Under the new program, more than 4,900 students have received scholarships allowing them to attend non-public schools. Enter the teachers unions, which sued this summer to stop the incursion into their rotting enterprise. According to the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Association of Educators, the voucher program steals money from public schools.
[media-credit id=7 align=”alignright” width=”150″][/media-credit]As WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Conway reports, Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Chicago’s school system’s debt status, warning that the Chicago School Board, because of various provisions of the new teachers’ contract, will be hard-pressed to make the budget adjustments needed…
Despite decades of failure in our public school, the union bosses who run the teachers union don't take criticism real well. A union funded front group are villifying a new movie "about the brutal retaliation of a teachers union against a teacher and a single mother has inspired real-life union vilification of the movie and a campaign against entertainers who have anything to do with it," Margert Eagan reports: [media-credit name=" " align="alignleft" width="250"][/media-credit]“Won’t Back Down” tells the story of a teacher (Viola Davis) and a single mother (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who battle to oust the union in a poor, failing Pittsburgh school. Produced by Walden Media, it’s an emotional roller coaster aimed at mainstream audiences unlike “Waiting for Superman,” Walden’s previous anti-union and much-heralded documentary. “The basic question the film asks is what you would do if your daughter was trapped in a failing school,” said Walden co-founder Michael Flaherty yesterday in his Burlington office. But instead of actually responding, he said, critics anxious to maintain the status quo “are a lot more interested in intimidation and the politics of personal destruction.” In real life, Parents Across America, an advocacy group which has received union funding, has launched a “fight Hollywood” campaign asking members to contact entertainers at all involved with the film or even a summer concert to kick it off. The intent, according to its website, which lists phone numbers and emails of agents and publicists, is to brand the film as a “feel bad, not feel good” movie. On their list: Davis and Gyllenhaal, plus Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Jack Black, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and Josh Groban.