KEVIN D. LILES/KEVIN D. LILES/KEVINDLILES.COM Stacey Abrams’ mother dropped out of school at age 8, but a neighbor prodded her to go back where, with the encouragement of caring teachers, she became the valedictorian of her high school. Abrams says that is the redemptive power of public education. Abrams is shown here with her parents…
Category: Pension & Salary
Public schools and the push to privatize everything
By SAM OSHERSON Sunday, September 23, 2018 (New Hampshire) Despite their euphemisms about “choice” and claims about “personalizing” education, the “school choice” advocates display a surprising ignorance about public education in New Hampshire. Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut, for example, routinely misrepresents what happens in public school classrooms, incorrectly dismisses N.H. public education as a…
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…
Despite Wisconsin’s top 10 public school ranking, debate over education funding remains
Wisconsin has one of the 10 best public school systems in the country, according to a new study by the financial consumer website, WalletHub. In its report “2018 Best and Worst Public Schools,” WalletHub ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on scores across 25 key metrics within two main categories…
If you have a kid in public school (or know one), you need to follow this race
If you care about public education, about what Arizona students are learning and how well prepared they are to succeed in college and beyond, you should care who wins the election for superintendent of public instruction. Even if the office is largely administrative. The education superintendent alone can’t change what we pay teachers, what we teach…
New Mexico loses education lawsuit
By Dan Mckay And Shelby Perea / Journal Staff Writers Friday, July 20th, 2018 SANTA FE – New Mexico is violating the constitutional rights of at-risk students by failing to provide them with a sufficient education, a state judge ruled Friday in a blistering, landmark decision. Judge Sarah Singleton ordered the governor and Legislature to establish…
Questions surround ruling on New Mexico education funding
Shelby Perea and Dan Boyd Tuesday, July 24th, 2018 A judge’s ruling that New Mexico has not been meeting its constitutional obligation to provide a sufficient education for all students — especially those characterized as at-risk — continued to reverberate Monday, with plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit hailing it as a harbinger of a fairer…
Salary disparities are hurting special education students too
Qualified special education teachers are leaving nonprofits at an alarming rate Special education teachers working in certain New York City nonprofits are paid much less than teachers with the DOE. By TOM MCALVANAH JULY 20, 2018 On June 28, New York Nonprofit Media’s piece on a New York City Council Education Committee hearing titled New York City…
Kent public school teachers rally for better pay; threaten strike in the fall
POSTED 1:32 PM, JULY 19, 2018, KENT, Wash. — Teachers in Kent rallied for better pay ahead of a district meeting Thursday where the teacher’s union presented a counterproposal. The Kent Public School District has offered a 3.1-percent increase for teachers, which the Kent Education Association Bargaining Team says is not acceptable and doesn’t meet cost…