Parents of Emerson Elementary in Compton, California, are up in arms over the school’s decision to invite former porn star Sasha Grey to read to a group of first and third-grade students, at an National Education Association-sponsored event called Read Across America. (more)
Despite Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s consistent calls for increased teacher salaries, a new study says that most public school teachers aren’t actually being underpaid. (more)
The National Education Association’s early endorsement of President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid has sparked speculation about what motivated the nation’s biggest teachers’ union. (more)
The National Education Association — which represents 3.2 million teachers and education professionals across the country — took its first step Thursday toward endorsing Barack Obama for president in 2012, TPM has learned. (more)
Talk about crappy timing for California’s Democrats: An oversized colon was sitting on the California capitol’s north lawn Monday, even as budget talks broke down and the powerful California State Employees Association and the California Teachers Association rallied on the capitol’s south lawn for higher taxes. (more)
Most people don’t think “government unions” when they hear the words “special interests.” As the battle royal in the Wisconsin statehouse shows, though, they should. (more)
During this past election cycle, labor unions invested over $200 million in support of Democrat candidates. Much of that money came from four of the country’s largest unions: the AFL-CIO and SEIU’s combined contribution was $88 million, AFSCME added $91 million and the National Education Association $40 million. This money was donated to Democrat candidates in hopes of helping them maintain a majority in the House. These hopes were crushed on November 2nd when the Republicans took back control of the House with a resounding win. This loss has effectively ended the unions’ dream of getting the Employee Free Choice Act (card check) enacted in the near future. (more)
Parents of the 216 students in Washington, D.C. who have seen Mr. Obama’s congressional cohorts gut the Opportunity Scholarship program must have found cold comfort from the President’s soothing words on NBC. The Heritage Foundation’s able education analyst Lindsey Burke tells us what Mr. Obama said to The Today Show’s Matt Lauer: (more)
Public sector unions have a crucial interest in the expansion of government, spending, and by extension, interest in laws that inhibit the free movement of workers and capital. Organized labor has become the antithesis of worker freedom, throwing millions of dollars against candidates and ballot measures that foster choice and competition. More subliminally, public sector unions’ constant advocacy for bigger government crowds out the private sector and erodes states’ free market principles. (more)
Several civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit in February against L.A. Unified and the state on behalf of students at Samuel Gompers, Edwin Markham and John H. Liechty. The complaint alleged that students were denied their legal right to an education because of the high number of budget-related layoffs at the schools. (more)
I have been enjoying the punishment that the Catholic Church has been taking for the last few weeks. As a Catholic, it just reinforces something I’ve known for a long time. (more)
Ever heard of a union that doesn’t want to give its members the opportunity to earn more money? (more)
I’m not so sure this is a great thing: (more)
Rigid contracts, uniform pay schedules, and teacher-union dues ultimately protect poor teachers and mediocre performance. When even America’s education newspaper of record, Education Week, admits that newer teachers’ commitment to the union is “tentative at best” in large part because of these policies, it is clear that union leadership is out of touch with economic and educational reality. (more)
Sometimes trouble strikes unannounced. Witness Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Other times it arrives after fair warnings, gathering like storms on the horizon. (more)
