I heard from a trusted union leader and she told me that there was a site where one could send money for pizzas that would be delivered to the striking teachers of West Virginia. Teachers in the state are among the lowest paid in the nation.
Stand with them.
I am sending pizzas. I hope you will join me.
Here is the site.
Lauren Peace, the writer of this article, which appeared in the New York Times, is a reporter in Rochester, New York.
Morgantown, W.Va. — The rolling hills of West Virginia, where I grew up, are home to some of my fondest memories. But time and time again, I’ve watched them serve as a backdrop to injustice and negligence by those who lead, often at the expense of a vulnerable population.
This time, it’s our schoolchildren.
At $45,622, West Virginia teachers are the 48th lowest earning in the nation, according to the National Education Association. The minimum salary is just over $32,000. After months of tension over issues including salaries and health insurance costs, the state’s public schoolteachers went on strike Feb. 22.
On Friday, our state legislators refused to take action on a bill that would, over time, give West Virginia teachers a proposed 5 percent raise, and so the statewide work stoppage continued for a seventh day, with 250,000 students out from school as a result.
Despite the loss in critical class time, the fight cannot end prematurely.
As students remain at home, and families struggle to find alternative forms of child care, teachers have to trust that West Virginians will do what West Virginians do best; lean on each other.
We’ve seen it happening already. Students turn to classmates to study for Advanced Placement exams. Neighbors offer up their homes as oases while parents are at work. But it will take more than an internal, neighborly effort to realize what the work stoppage is all about: long-term, systematic change.
It’s easy to feel like West Virginia’s teachers are gaining national momentum when the state’s name has appeared in national headlines this week. But the coverage has merely scratched the surface of a complex issue that predates these school closings. It is rooted in a history of West Virginia politicians putting the interests of outsiders looking to make a quick buck off the state’s beautiful land before the needs of the people who live on it.
We’ve seen it in flimsy safety and environmental regulations, which have resulted in the deaths of countless miners, and in the chemical spills that have plagued surrounding populations, leaving citizens without drinking water and living on poisoned land. We’ve seen it in the opioid crisis, too, where powerful drug companies made sure that pills were plenty, but options for treatment continue to be scarce.
And now we see it in education, where teachers, the single most valuable resource available to children in this state, and therefore the most powerful influence in guiding us toward a prosperous future, were presented with a health insurance plan that amounted to a pay cut, all while senators, who receive hefty checks from gas and energy companies, could have funded education needs had they passed a modest tax increase on these companies.
This isn’t the first time West Virginia teachers have demonstrated statewide unity. In 1990, an 11-day work stoppage over similar issues led to better wages, but the increase was temporary.
That’s why when James C. Justice, our Republican governor, announced Tuesday that he had reached an agreement with union leaders and told teachers to go back to work, with nothing more than a good-faith handshake, those on the ground thought better of it.
Despite top-down orders from their union leaders to return to classes, county by county, teachers got together. They met in public spaces and communicated diligently with their neighbors, and on Wednesday night, the teachers of all 55 counties made the decision, collectively, to extend the work stoppage on their own terms.
They kept schools closed on Thursday and Friday, and say they will continue the strike until the Senate passes the proposed raise; 55 counties united, shouting “this time will be different.”
“Over the course of Wednesday, you saw every single county in the state just clawing to get back together, and we did it,” said Kat Devlin, an English teacher at University High School in Morgantown. “This is the prime example of a grass-roots movement. It’s the teachers and the people on the ground making this happen.”
This is about more than livable wages. It’s about haves and have-nots, it’s about workers’ dignity, and it’s going to set the bar for labor organizers everywhere.
The teachers of West Virginia are leading the way with a conviction that should be a national example for challenging inequity.
When they get back into their classrooms, hopefully sooner rather than later, they must talk to their students about how, under intense pressure, and with little more than the support they found in each other, they fought for what was right, and they were heard.
Lauren Peace (@LaurenMPeace) is a reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester.
Please read this chilling story in the Washington Post about Jesse Osborne, who wanted to go down in history as the school shooter who killed more people than the killers at Columbine or Sandy Hook. You can read it here for free, where it is not behind a paywall.
He spent many hours on the Internet reading about mass murders and idolizing the murderers.
He wanted to use his dad’s semi-automatic but he didn’t have the combination to his dad’s gun safe. So he took his dad’s 40-caliber pistol, killed his dad, and headed to the local elementary school in South Carolina that he had attended, There he killed a six-year-old on the playground, but his gun jammed and he was taken down by a volunteer foreman.
Ironically, his father’s semi-automatic was not locked in the safe. If Jesse had been able to bring it to the elementary school, he would have achieved his goal of being the biggest mass murderer of them all.
Jesse is 16 now. He recently had a hearing. The judge has to decide whether to try him as a juvenile or an adult. If tried as a juvenile, he will be free at the age of 21.
What kind of society breeds such sociopaths?
Think of the mayhem he would have caused if he had been able to get his dad’s semi-automatic. He dreamed of killing scores of people. He wanted to be famous.
If he is ever freed, he should be a keynote speaker at the NRA annual meeting. There’s only one hitch: the NRA does not allow guns into its meetings. Sad.
Johanna Garcia speaks about “The Unconfortable Truth About the Tests.”
The videos were produced by professional videographer Michael Elliott, assisted by Kemala Karmen, on behalf of the Network for Public Education.
Please watch Johanna Garcia and share the videos widely through your social media networks.
Johanna Garcia: The Uncomfortable Truth About the Tests
Johanna Garcia: La Incómoda Verdad Sobre Los Exámenes
Watch here also: https://networkforpubliceducation.org/2018/03/10290/
Betty Casey is an award-winning journalist and blogger in Tulsa.
In this post, she summarizes the multiple failures of the Billionaire reformers, who do not include a single educator in their ranks. The GatesFoundation, the Broad Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation are seeking to transform America’s public schools, yet every one of their big ideas has failed. People line up to take their money because they have so much money.
Casey details the numerous failed Superintendents endorsed by the Btoad Superintendents Academy, and she only scratches the surface. Many communities know by now that hiring a Broadie spells trouble and strife.
She gives a valuable overview of the Lies That Reformers Tell to gain control of entire districts. She warns her fellow Tulsans against taking Gates money.
Dahlia Lithwick writes in Slate about the broad, comprehensive education that prepared students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas gave them the remarkable poise, knowledge, and rationality to meet the historic moment into which they have been thrust.
“The effectiveness of these poised, articulate, well-informed, and seemingly preternaturally mature student leaders of Stoneman Douglas has been vaguely attributed to very specific personalities and talents. Indeed, their words and actions have been so staggeringly powerful, they ended up fueling laughable claims about crisis actors, coaching, and fat checks from George Soros. But there is a more fundamental lesson to be learned in the events of this tragedy: These kids aren’t freaks of nature. Their eloquence and poise also represent the absolute vindication of the extracurricular education they receive at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
“The students of Stoneman Douglas have been the beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America.
”Despite the gradual erosion of the arts and physical education in America’s public schools, the students of Stoneman Douglas have been the beneficiaries of the kind of 1950s-style public education that has all but vanished in America and that is being dismantled with great deliberation as funding for things like the arts, civics, and enrichment are zeroed out. In no small part because the school is more affluent than its counterparts across the country (fewer than 23 percent of its students received free or reduced-price lunches in 2015–16, compared to about 64 percent across Broward County Public Schools) these kids have managed to score the kind of extracurricular education we’ve been eviscerating for decades in the United States. These kids aren’t prodigiously gifted. They’ve just had the gift of the kind of education we no longer value.”
At a time when teachers in Parkland proved that they are braver than armed guards, the Florida Senate struck a blow at the union that represents the state’s teachers. One senses the ugly hands of Jeb Bush and his consigliere, Patricia Levesque, behind the scenes.
“The Senate on Friday narrowly defeated an effort to eliminate part of a major education bill that could force teachers’ unions to disband if they don’t meet new membership standards.
“In a 21-17 vote, the Senate rejected a proposed amendment by Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, that would have removed the controversial provision from the bill (HB 7055). The provision could cause teachers’ unions to lose their state certification if their membership falls below 50 percent of the employees they represent in the collective-bargaining process. If decertified, a union would have to reorganize and seek another majority vote from the members they are seeking to represent.
“Thurston said the provision was singling out teachers among all unions and that there is already a decertification process in state law that would allow teachers to disband a union if they were unhappy with the representation.
“It’s not right that we say teachers are the only ones we are going to punish,” Thurston said.”
Maybe it is time for a statewide teachers strike in Florida.
The articulate students at Parkland should speak out for the teachers who saved their lives. Name the bill for the teachers who lost their lives shielding students.
Start a fund to defeat the senators who voted for this bill. I want to contribute.
This is an outrage.
Don’t be fooled. Another phony organization has set up shop in New York to cut taxes, attack unions, and reduce government services.
It is called Reclaim New York.
It wants to eliminate waste and corruption. So do we all.
The founder, chair, director, and treasurer is Rebekah Mercer, who has been the financial backer of Breitbart and Steve Bannon (she is said to have cut off Bannon after the expose “Fire and Fury” was published, which quotes Bannon extensively about Trump’s flaws). Her father is billionaire Robert Mercer, who bankrolls the alt-right.
Reclaim New York incorporated in 2013 as a tax-exempt nonprofit. Steve Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News and a mastermind behind Trump’s nationalist campaign, was a founding director. Laurence Levy, a longtime associate of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, filed the paperwork.
The stated mission was to be non-partisan. Tax filings show that the Mercer Family Foundation provided about $1.3 million of Reclaim’s $2 million in revenue during its first three years, including the group’s entire $1.25 million in revenue in 2015, the most recent year for which filings are publicly available.
Muir refused to say what Reclaim’s budget is now or who else is funding operations.
In 2016, a related organization called Reclaim New York Initiative incorporated as what’s technically called a “social welfare organization.” Such organizations have earned the moniker “dark money” groups because they can typically shield the names of donors from the public. New York State rules, however, do require some disclosure.
It’s through this entity that Reclaim does its lobbying.
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway was a founding director of Reclaim New York Initiative. Disclosure forms filed with New York state show Robert Mercer provided $70,855 in March last year to launch the lobbying unit.
One of Reclaim’s most visible projects is building a giant, searchable database of government spending. The group says it has filed 2,500 public records requests with government agencies across the state, including tiny villages and school districts, asking for their “checkbooks” — records of all expenditures in a given year.
Reclaim sued 11 local agencies for either denying the requests or not complying quickly enough. When it won, Reclaim fought for lawyers’ fees. One Rockland County village implored the judge to impose what it called “The Mercer Mercy Rule” and not require the cash-strapped village to pay the legal bills for the billionaire’s nonprofit. The judge agreed.
The group also holds workshops across the state in hotel conference rooms, restaurants and other local gathering spots. The events feature a presentation on New York’s “affordability crisis” and training on how to use public-records laws to keep an eye on local officials.
Watch out for Reclaim New York. It wants to destroy our state and local governments.
Trudy Jermanovich writes:
“I’m a retired teacher with 35 years experience teaching all grade levels and several subjects including “gifted” students. Luckily, most of my experience was before high stakes testing destroyed the autonomy of teachers. These state tests are primarily a vehicle for grading and closing some schools, diverting students to privately controlled charter schools, or to private schools through a state voucher system. This practice leads to further economic and racial segregation in our society. The yearly state tests are not indicative of anything except the social class of the parents. To be designated as a “gifted” child, there are a battery of tests and teacher observations which are required so that additional public funding is allocated to that student. Frankly, I would bet that often it is the parents of gifted or high achieving students who see through this farce and choose to have their child “Opt Out” of the yearly standardized state tests. The money and time which has been diverted to the collection of student data is a prime cause of many problems in our public schools. Becoming involved in the “Opt Out” movement is one way that concerned citizens can voice their outrage and help “the system” return to trusting the professionals in the classroom I urge everyone to seek out their state and local Opt Out group and stand up for real public schools before it’s too late. I want to thank all the people around the country who continue their support for this important movement.”
The teachers in West Virginia did it. They organized a statewide teachers strike to protest low pay and soaring healthcare costs.
Will the teachers of Oklahoma be next?
“Oklahoma teachers are fed up with state lawmakers. A public school teacher in Stillwater created the Facebook group “Oklahoma Teacher Walkout – The Time is Now!” two days ago, and it has already gained more than 20,000 members.
“Today, teachers gathered in Moore to discuss the possible statewide strike.”
Some think that the state testing time in April would be ideal.
If the legislators don’t care about educating the kids and paying teachers a living wage, Texas has a teacher shortage.
How much longer will states treat teachers like dirt and get away with it?
Diane Ravitch's blog 