AN INTERVIEW WITH ARLENE INOUYE The teachers strike wave has reached Los Angeles: teachers there recently voted overwhelmingly to strike. They are fighting against school privatization, wage and benefit cuts, and the nationwide project to dismantle public education. he education strike wave initiated by West Virginia’s wildcat has reached the coasts. Teachers in Washington and Pennsylvania have walked off the job…
Category: Accountability
Public Schools Question Special Education Funding Fairness As Voucher Program Expands
September 26, 2019 EMILY FILES Is state special education funding in Wisconsin unfair? School districts from Eau Claire to Oak Creek say it is. They see inequity between public schools and a relatively new voucher program. The Special Needs Scholarship Program is another chapter in Wisconsin’s storied school choice movement. It provides an approximate $12,000 scholarship — or…
Spokane Public Schools teachers to vote on salary agreement Thursday
Aug. 29, 2018 By Jim Allen For the teachers and classified staff in the Spokane Public Schools district, Thursday should be a rewarding day. The day begins with back-to-school activities and ends with a membership meeting at Shadle Park High School, where teachers and classified staff will vote on a tentative salary agreement with the district….
America’s public school teachers are far less racially and ethnically diverse than their students
Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 20% of all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States during the 2015-16 school year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That makes teachers considerably less racially and ethnically diverse than their students – as well as the nation as a whole….
Seattle teachers and staff vote to authorize a strike — unless a deal is reached by Sept. 5
By Dahlia Bazzaz It’s official: Teachers and school staff in Seattle voted to authorize a strike Tuesday evening. The strike could take effect if negotiations with Seattle Public Schools don’t result in a tentative contract by the first day of school, Sept. 5. The vote followed perhaps the state’s first official strikes that disrupted the first day…
Families of public school students with disabilities win legal battle
By BEN CHAPMAN AUG 29, 2018 Families of public school students with disabilities won a legal battle Tuesday when a federal court judge dismissed the city’s attempt to throw their suit out on procedural grounds. The lawsuit filed in October 2017 by three city families with the advocacy group Advocates for Children charged the city Department…
Plans to improve public education advance in Annapolis
BY MICHAEL B. JEFFERSON AUG 27, 2018 There was good back-to-school news for Baltimore students and families in the work session held last week in Annapolis by the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, better known as the Kirwan Commission. Under the recommendations of the panel’s working group, pre-K would become much more accessible to…
Detroit schools shutting off drinking water because of lead, copper
Lori Higgins, Aug. 29, 2018 The Detroit school district is shutting off drinking water to all of its schools after test results found elevated levels of lead or copper in 16 out of 24 schools that were recently tested. “Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other…
Poll: 2 in 3 say public school teachers underpaid
By Laura Meckler / Washington Post Posted at 11:21 AM Most Americans say public-school teachers are underpaid and say they would support them if they went on strike for better wages, a new poll shows, offering backup for newly assertive educators. At the same time, the poll found American confidence in teachers at a low point. Also,…
We Can’t Just Sue Our Way To A Better Education System
Aug 29, 2018, Natalie Wexler Frustrated with a lack of progress—especially for poor and minority students—some education activists are resorting to lawsuits. But courts aren’t equipped to address obstacles that are deeply rooted in the American approach to teaching. A lawsuit filed in 2016 charged that conditions in Detroit schools—including a lack of teachers, books, pencils, and…
Standing Strong for Public Education! 