CA Teachers Sue Union Over Political Use Of Dues

Monday marks the start of a new school year for Rebecca Friedrichs, a kindergarten teacher at Holder School in Buena Park, a Southern California city of 82,000.

The 25-year veteran of the Savannah School District is to be forgiven if she is wary of the reception she will receive from her public school colleagues.

Not just because she resigned her membership last year in the California Teachers Association, the union that represents most of the state’s public school teachers.

But also because she is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit, Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, that challenges the state’s so-called “agency shop” arrangement, which  forces her to pay dues for the collective bargaining the teachers’ union performs not only behalf of members, but also non-members — whether they like it or not. It is being heard in the District Court of the Central District of California, Southern Division.

Freidrichs would prefer not to pay the CTA $1,000 or so a year for its representation. But what really galls the teacher is the $350 or so of her compulsory union dues that go to support the CTA’s political activities, with which she disagrees.

Indeed, the kindergarten teacher supports school vouchers, which the teachers’ union has used her compulsory dues (and the dues of political dissenters among its rank-and-file) to defeat.

Similarly, she opposes measures — like Proposition 30, the $7 billion tax-increase initiative — for which CTA spent millions in union dues last year to win passage – that confer higher salaries and more generous bemefits upon teachers at the expense of everyday taxpayers.

“I think that is wrong,” said Friedrichs.

Via: California Political Review

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Detroit Teachers Moonlight As ‘Sugar Babies’ To Offset Wage Cuts

DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s back-to-school season and many Detroit teachers are struggling in the wake of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms.

According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the average teacher spent at least $485 on school supplies for their classroom last year.

So, what are some Detroit women doing to offset their struggles in the classroom? Well, they’re becoming “sugar babies” of course —  seeking financial assistance from wealthy men online.

In the Detroit School District alone, 201 teachers are moonlighting as sugar babies to offset wage cuts and job losses, according to dating website SeekingArrangement.com.

Brandon Wade, the website’s founder and CEO, said the average public school teacher registered on the site is between the ages of 28- and 33-years-old, and asks for approximately $3,000 a month in financial assistance from her sugar daddy.

Via: CBS Detroit

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Community in Turmoil after Teachers Support Convicted Child Molester

The small town of Rose City, Michigan is now in the national spotlight. The issue involves a middle school teacher who was convicted of having sexual encounters with a 13-year-old boy. During sentencing, a handful of teachers actually wrote letters supporting the convicted felon, and now members of the community want those teachers fired.

As reported in the Ogemaw County Herald, "Former Rose City Middle School teacher Neal Erickson was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for first-degree criminal sexual conduct July 10."

Erickson, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor during a pretrial in 34th Circuit Court in West Branch May 8.

Erickson was charged with CSC in December 2012 after the findings of a Michigan State Police investigation linked him to the crime. The investigation was started in October of last year, and the findings alleged Erickson and a student who is a minor engaged in sexual conduct from August 2006 to August 2009.

When this case came to light, the town was shocked, but now the feelings have gotten even more intense. The Detroit News reports that members of the community are now demanding the ouster of several teachers who came forward at the sentencing of Erickson to say that he was an admired teacher and great with the kids.

Via: GOP USA

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You won’t believe what teachers plan to tell kids about Trayvon Martin

In the wake of the verdict in the Trayvon Martin shooting, several teachers said they would invoke mob justice, vigilantism and the idea that Florida law allows people to hunt and kill black kids when discussing the case with their students.

The Hairpin, a prominent liberal women’s blog, asked several teachers, counselors and professors to explain how they would talk about the case — which reached its conclusion last week after George Zimmerman was found innocent of Martin’s murder — in their classrooms.

An anonymous English teacher in Alabama said that she would be hesitant to formally “teach” the subject, but nonetheless thought it could be brought up in relation to vigilantism in literature such as “To Kill A Mockingbird” and the works of William Faulkner.

Via: The Daily Caller

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Minnesota Schools Close So Teachers Can Play With Dolls, Learn About Teaching Islam

Each year, Minnesota government schools close for two days (just before the weekend, of course) so teachers’ union members can gather at a conference organized by their union.

It’s meant to “inspire teachers,” EAGnews.org reported, and the conference includes a session titled, “Using Persona Dolls to Promote Social Emotional Intelligence and Acceptance of Diversity.”

The union describes it this way: “Used around the world, persona dolls are lifelike dolls with personalities and stories you create. The dolls become members of your classroom community and children learn by empathizing with the dolls and giving them heartfelt advice on the same kinds of situations they struggle with daily in the classroom and on the playground.”

That’s weird. Teachers are taking time away from the classroom to learn how to play with dolls?

The conference also includes a workshop on how to teach about Islam. The union says about the session:

“An expert panel will present information on teaching about Islam in the context of social studies and world religion. They will share perspectives on how educators can help improve intercultural communication and well-being for immigrant and refugee students and families from Muslim countries.”

That sounds nice. Who’s betting they won’t hear anything about the September 11, 2001 hijackers’ jihad or suicide bombers blowing up American soldiers or Israeli children? And why the focus on only one religion?

And of course no teachers union conference would be complete without a session about the importance of the upcoming presidential election (it will become an Obama rally), and a discussion about how education reform efforts are misguided and dangerous.

Couldn’t the union hold this session during the summer, or on a weekend, when there are no classes to interrupt? They have to annually take time out of the school calendar to hold their union pep rally and play with dolls?

Is it any wonder American students are trailing behind their counterparts in South Korea, Estonia and Luxembourg? Is it too much for union teachers to remain in in the classroom and focus on the basics, instead of cancelling classes to talk about their ideas of “social justice” and promote their union’s political agenda?

Via: Townhall

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VIDEO: Teachers’ Unions in Their Own Words

You may have heard: Chicago teachers are on strike.

Some facts you may not have seen (unless, of course, you’ve been reading the Foundry): the average Chicago teacher makes $71,000 a year before benefits. That’s $24,000 more than the average Chicago resident, and second only to New York City in teachers’ salaries.

Yet unions are demanding a hefty raise – though they’ve backed down from their initial demand for a 30 percent pay hike. And this is in a city where only 15 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading, and only 56 percent actually graduate from high school.

So what is the teachers’ strike about, exactly? In a new Heritage video, we present some statements from the Chicago Teachers Union and other teachers’ unions about what exactly their goals are. Are they on strike for the students? For the schools? For themselves? You might be surprised.

Via: The Foundry

Nearly 40% Of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Their Kids To Private Schools

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 a year and they turned down a 16% pay increase, which amounts to $11,360.  They work nine months out of the year, but say that this strike is benefits oriented.  However, given that ABC World News didn’t even air this story last Sunday and most of the media, with the exception of CBS, failing to mention the compensation statistics in their broadcast – suffice to say that the  media will probably ignore the fact that almost 40% of Chicago’s public school teachers send their kids to private schools.

I’m not against public education, but the fact that these teachers make enough to send their kids to private schools shows that Chicago’s public teachers are aware of the serial failure within the system.  Second, it shows that these teachers have zero confidence in their own respective school district.  Why are the teachers going on strike?  Aren’t the contentious measures they’re squabbling about aimed at enhancing accountability that will make their institutions of learning better for the students?  It appears this strike, like most union strikes, are defined by these three words: give. me. more.

However, given the state of public education and that of Chicago, it’s not alien for public school teachers to ship their kids to private institutions.  According to The Washington Times in September of 2004, they quoted the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which found that:

 More than 1 in 5 public school teachers said their children attend private schools.

In Washington (28 percent), Baltimore (35 percent) and 16 other major cities, the figure is more than 1 in 4. In some cities, nearly half of the children of public school teachers have abandoned public schools.

In Philadelphia, 44 percent of the teachers put their children in private schools; in Cincinnati, 41 percent; Chicago, 39 percent; Rochester, N.Y., 38 percent. The same trends showed up in the San Francisco-Oakland area, where 34 percent of public school teachers chose private schools for their children; 33 percent in New York City and New Jersey suburbs; and 29 percent in Milwaukee and New Orleans.

Via: Hot Air

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Beware of Backfire: Striking Chicago teachers may turn Illinois into Wisconsin

If Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has spent the last 18 months painting a portrait of public-employee unions as intransigent and selfish, the Chicago Teachers Union this week provided him with confirmation. On Monday, 25,000 Chicago teachers (average salary: $76,000 before benefits) walked out of their classrooms, leaving nearly 350,000 schoolchildren and their parents in the lurch. The teachers are fighting to protect their lavish pay and benefit packages and also trying to stave off a new accountability plan that would evaluate their effectiveness using students’ test scores.

The Chicago strike serves as a counterpoint to events in Wisconsin after Walker’s election in 2010. In a protracted, contentious battle, Walker virtually eliminated collective bargaining for public employees, weakening the unions’ power significantly. Illinois is now demonstrating what Wisconsin might have looked like without Walker’s reforms. Those reforms didn’t come easy: for a year and a half, Wisconsin was paralyzed by demonstrations and union disruptions. But the union tantrums in Wisconsin clearly backfired, and in a recall election this past June, Walker won by a greater margin than he had in 2010, against the same opponent. Walker is now a national star on the Republican scene, while public-union membership is plummeting.

There’s no reason to believe that the Chicago teachers’ strike won’t similarly backfire on union loyalists. For one, the teachers’ demands are well beyond what normal citizens consider just. In recent negotiations, the CTU rejected a 16 percent pay increase over the next four years, which in today’s economic climate would seem like a generous deal to virtually anyone who doesn’t work for a public-employee union. Instead, the union demanded a 30 percent pay increase, in part to compensate for an extended school day. And the negotiations addressed only salaries. With new accounting rules in place, the Chicago Public Schools’ unfunded liability for teacher pensions will jump from $231 million to $684 million between 2013 and 2014, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. Next year, pension costs will eat up nearly half of the education funding that Chicago schools receive from the state.

Perhaps most egregious are teachers’ attempts to duck accountability to save union jobs. Under Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan, a public school teaching position would no longer be a sinecure; teachers would have to justify their employment with their students’ test scores. While this makes sense to the public—Barack Obama’s own secretary of education, Arne Duncan, has fought for similar accountability plans nationwide—unions see it as a threat to job security, which, to them, clearly takes precedence over student learning.

Even to those inclined to support unions, these issues are losers. People out of work and parents scrambling to find care for their kids are likely to lose sympathy with teachers quickly as the strike drags on. The fact that Emanuel, a Democrat, is the one getting tough with the CTU is a sign that the union’s demands are out of line even by mainstream liberal standards. (On Monday, Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan issued a statement saying that he “stands with Rahm Emanuel,” which made me check to see if my office was properly ventilated.)\

Via: CA Political Review

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Mooch: “Building Our Economy Starts With The Restaurants”…

(CNSNews.com) - Striking a similar theme to one her husband also struck last week, First Lady Michelle Obama said on Friday that President Barack Obama’s tax plan will help build the economy by building up restaurants.

“So I want you to remind folks that Barack has cut taxes for working families by $3,600, and he has cut taxes for small businesses 18 times--18 times,” Mrs. Obama said in Springfield, Mass. “Because what your president understands is that building our economy starts with the restaurants and the stores and the startups that create two-thirds of all new jobs in this economy. That’s what we need you to do.”

On Thursday at Loudon County High School in Leesburg, Va., President Obama had said that hiring new teachers will help the economy because those new teachers will go out and eat at restaurants.

Via: CNS News

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