This is something new. The state of Arizona is building tiny homes for teachers since teachers in many districts can’t afford to buy or rent a home in the district where they teach.
Some charter-friendly districts have built “teachers’ villages” to house teachers from Teach for America.
But this is the first I have heard of tiny homes. A tiny home is 400 square feet. It includes a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. No living room. A tiny home for teachers who don’t expect much in life.
Here is the voice of a genuine progressive.
Kelda Roys is running for the Democratic nomination for Governor so she can run against Scott Walker.
The primary is August 14.
She released this letter to teachers.
She really gets it. She speaks to the hearts and minds of all who have suffered the insufferable Walker, who has walked all over teachers, students, and public schools. He has bulldozed the Wisconsin Idea.
Wisconsin needs Kelda Roys.
She writes:
This is a message of hope. A promise to you of what kind of governor I will be, and a heartfelt statement to demonstrate that I hear what you’ve been saying and empathize with what you’ve been experiencing.
Throughout the past eight years, you, your pocketbook, and your profession have been under attack.
You are constantly asked to “do more with less” as a result of the historic budget cuts to your classrooms. Without proper funding, the schools you work in, especially in rural communities, continue to close. You are often forced to “‘teach for the test” as opposed to engaging young minds in the joy of learning and helping develop students’ whole selves. Your class sizes are going up, but your professional autonomy is being ratcheted down.
As a result of Act 10, your collective bargaining rights were eliminated, compensation reduced, and work devalued. Your median salaries have continued to fall: as of the 2015-26 school year, your average pay was more than $10,000 lower than it was before the passage of Act 10. The policies of the Walker administration have done serious harm to Wisconsin’s once-great public education system. A record number of your colleagues have left the profession altogether.
In the numbers-driven, high-stakes testing approach that many school districts are taking, your autonomy is lost. This is bad for you and even worse for students. In the ever-expanding push for “accountability,” teachers are too often punished — never administrators, or politicians who fail to remedy the social and economic injustice that follows students into the classroom. Rather than addressing the teacher retention and pipeline problem by increasing pay and restoring joy to the profession, Walker and the DPI are undermining teacher qualifications by enabling fast-track “alternative” licensing for people without teaching degrees. And the expansion of privatization, from the voucher programs to so-called “independent” charters, steals resources away from our public schools and the kids you serve. It’s no wonder so many teachers feel demoralized and are leaving — your ability to practice the profession you love and teach your students is constantly questioned, challenged, and denied by the very people who should be supporting you.
Despite all this, I am asking you to not to leave.
As a small-business owner, as a mother, and as a proud graduate of Wisconsin’s public schools, I know how critical you are to our state and our future. To attract and retain the best teachers, Wisconsin must become a better state in which to be a teacher — we must invest in public schools and educators.
As governor, I pledge I will do everything in my power to restore the funding our schools deserve, the rights, wages, and benefits you lost, and the autonomy and respect you deserve.
Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy High School for the Liberal Arts may have set a record: 70% of its Faculty left in one year.
Mercedes Schneider cites a story in the Wall Street Journal that says only 20 of 67 staff members will return in the fall. Of course, it’s not yet August, so that number could get worse when school opens.
Some of those who left complained about the “punitive culture.” Or the “rigid discipline” or “harsh policies.” Some first-year teachers quit teaching altogether.
Schneider notes:
“In June 2018, Moskowitz’s high school graduated 16 students, or 22% of the original 73 first graders from 2007.
“Maybe some of the remaining 2007 first graders were moved back a grade midyear (can you imagine??), so maybe, like some of those exiting SA high school teachers, they are technically still tethered to Eva’s World.
“Bright spot, though: At least the percentage of returning SA high school teachers is higher than the percentage of students who made it all the way through from first grade to high school graduation in 2018.”
When you read this, you can see why Eva needs to train her own teachers. Her methods are different from that of other schools. And with this kind of turnover, she must face a perennial teacher shortage.
Negotiations in Los Angeles between LAUSD and its teachers union UTLA are at a critical point. UTLA issued this statement:
We demand a 48-hour response from LAUSD
When UTLA declared impasse earlier this month, LAUSD officials said they would bring significant proposals to today’s bargaining. Instead, they brought a previously proposed 2% ongoing salary increase, an additional one-time 2% bonus and a $500 stipend for materials and supplies. The UTLA bargaining team deemed this insulting, quickly reaffirmed negotiations are at a deadlock and gave the district 48 hours to respond to UTLA’s package proposal in a last, best and final offer.
“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. We must continue to fight for a sustainable future, yet we don’t have a partner in the very school district we are trying to save,” said Arlene Inouye, Chair of UTLA’s Bargaining Team. “We have been pushing for real change, they are keeping the status quo.”
Some outstanding key issues:
Class Size Matters. LAUSD gave no proposals to reduce class size. LAUSD has some of the highest class sizes in the nation, yet refuses to eliminate section 1.5 of the contract, which allows the district to ignore class size caps.
Fund Our Schools. LAUSD gave no proposals to address funding issues. California is the richest state in the nation, yet ranks 43 out of 50 in per-pupil funding.
Support Community Schools. LAUSD gave no proposals to fund Community Schools. Community schools meet the needs in the surrounding community, including wrap-around services, broadened curriculum and parent engagement.
Less Testing & More Teaching. LAUSD gave no proposals to address overtesting. Our kids are being overtested. Their teachers should have more discretion over what and when standardized assessments are given.
End the Privatization Drain. LAUSD gave no proposals for reasonable charter accountability and co-location measures. LAUSD refuses to address the $590 million lost to the unchecked expansion of charter schools each year.
Despite the need to look at factors that impact student health, safety and well-being, LAUSD has refused to address our common good proposals. In recognition of legal constraints tied to the “scope of bargaining,” UTLA has withdrawn proposals that are not mandatory subjects of bargaining. Nonetheless, we will continue to work diligently with parents and students for these improvements we think are vital to overall student success.
Last Thursday, July 19, LAUSD Supt. Austin Beutner told a room of business leaders at a Valley Industry and Commerce Association forum at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City that if things don’t change, ‘by 2021 we will be no more.’ Read the entire LA Daily News story here.
Beutner also said the loss of $590 million to charter school expansion is a “distracting shiny ball” and not a real concern. That amounts to $4,950 per student per year.
“That is much, much more than a ‘distracting shiny ball,’” said UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl. “It amounts to robbing our students of educational resources and programs. That funding could mean more nurses, more librarians, more counselors, more arts, sports and music programs.”
“The real ‘distraction’ is that anti-union, pro-privatization ideologues are currently running the school district, and they are setting us up for failure, not success,” Caputo-Pearl said. “Regardless, UTLA remains steadfast in our fight for a better future for all students. We continue to fight for the heart and soul of public education in LA.”
Click here for more info on bargaining proposals. https://www.utla.net/members/bargaining
UTLA, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union local, represents more than 35,000 teachers and health & human services professionals in district and charter schools in LAUSD.
From Politico Morning Education:
PUERTO RICO SCHOOL CLOSURES DEBATE HEATS UP: School closures will move ahead in Puerto Rico as tensions between the territory’s Education Department and teachers union escalate. Earlier this week, the Tribunal Supremo of Puerto Rico ruled that a plan to close dozens of schools in Puerto Rico does not “directly and substantially interfere with the right to an education,” el Vocero de Puerto Rico reports.
— Officials there celebrated the victory, even as teachers unions and civil rights advocates continue to oppose the plan. The Puerto Rican civil rights commission this week called for a one-year moratorium on the closures, calling the process “disorganized” and “directionless,” according to El Nuevo Dia. Education Secretary Julia Keleher issued a statement in response, saying that “the process was based on data … and responded to the urgent need to address the consistent decline in school enrollment.”
— The ruling only exacerbated tensions between Keleher and the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the largest teachers union in the island. During a press conference earlier this week, union President Aida Díaz decried the ruling as harmful to displaced students and teachers, and called Keleher “machiavellian.”
Would Puerto Rico be a nice destination for recruits from TFA? Especially if they don’t have to be there for the hot summer months.
Peter Greene writes here about the mass email that went to teachers in many states, advising them about their right to stop paying union dues and have no collective bargaining on their behalf.
Teachers have been targeted by the rightwing Mackinac Center in Michigan, which has never before shown any interest in teachers’ wellbeing.
But there they are, ready to help you kill off your union.
And, wow– it sure is inspiring to see the one percenters so deeply concerned about teacher freedom of speech. I mean, to devote all this time and money just because they want to make sure that every teacher has a chance to exercise her rights. It’s inspiring. Just like all those other times they were out there in the schools making sure that teachers were free to express their opinions and stand up for students and advocate for better education without fear of losing their jobs and– oh, no, wait. They DeVos’s and Koch’s were the ones agitating for the end of job protections so that teachers could be fired at any time, including for speaking up and exercising their First Amendment rights. In fact, the number of times that groups like Mackinac have been out there standing up for teachers’ rights, First Amendment and otherwise, would be, by my rough count, zero. None.
It’s almost as if this whole thing isn’t about teachers’ First Amendment right at all.
It’s almost as if this was just a ploy to bust up the unions and make sure that teachers had even less voice in the world of education. It’s almost as if this was a way to drain funds from the Democratic Party.
Do you think the Koch brothers and the DeVos care about you? Don’t be fooled.
The privatized charter sector has spawned a mutual protection society.
Eva Moskowitz’s Success Academy needs teachers. Despite the charter chain’s glorious test scores, the work environment is not good. Teachers drop like flies under the pressure of imposing rigid discipline on children of color.
So SA teamed up with The New Teachers Project, now known as TNTP, which was originally created by Michelle Rhee (although some say Wendy Kopp was the real brains behind the startup).
The two organizations need one another. SA needs teachers, TNTP has a desperate need for revenue.
A happy marriage.
After the massive teacher walkout in Oklahoma, the governor and legislature pledged to raise taxes to pay for higher teacher salaries.
Now former Senator Tom Coburn is leading an anti-tax group demanding a referendum to roll back the taxes. Coburn contends that the state can pay raises without raising taxes. If his group Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! can collect 42,000 signatures by July 18, there will be a referendum. Meanwhile there are legal challenges to the referendum.
Oklahoma Republicans live in a dream world where public services can be funded while the richest individuals and industries in the state get tax cuts.
That’s why some schools in the state operate on a four-day week. The oligarchs of Oklahoma don’t want the children of the state to have a good education. They want teachers who will work for the lowest wages in the nation to teach their children four days a week.
The future will take care of itself as long as the oil and gas industries pay low taxes. Right?
It is no secret that the DeVos family controls state education policy in Michigan. As Betsy DeVos has acknowledged, when they make campaign contributions, they expect to see the changes they want.
Since DeVos took control, education in Michigan has been in decline. The state has hundreds of charter schools. Accountability is minimal. DeVos likes it that way. Michigan is the only state where 80% of charters operate for profit. That means less money for instruction because investors come first in a for-profit business.
Last year, the New York Times Magazine ran a very good article about the charter mess in Michigan. It points out that 70% of the charters are in the bottom half of state performance. So much for “saving poor kids from failing schools,” more like privatizing schools for profit without regard to the kids.
“The results have been stark. The 2016 report by the Education Trust-Midwest noted:
Michigan’s K-12 system is among the weakest in the country and getting worse. In little more than a decade, Michigan has gone from being a fairly average state in elementary reading and math achievement to the bottom 10 states. It’s a devastating fall. Indeed, new national assessment data suggest Michigan is witnessing systemic decline across the K-12 spectrum. White, black, brown, higher-income, low-income — it doesn’t matter who they are or where they live.
You will not be surprised to learn that Michigan is systematically underinvesting in its school. Choice is a replacement for adequate funding.
You will also not be surprised to learn that Michigan has a major teacher shortage.
New teachers don’t want to teach in Michigan.
This is why Betsy DeVos, when asked about her home state of Michigan, changes the subject to Florida.
One of the psychic rewards of teaching is discovering that students remember you as the person who changed their life. They probably never knew the name of the superintendent, forgot the name of the mayor and the governor, but they never forgot that one extraordinary teacher.
This recently happened to a sixth-grade teacher in Arizona. She wrote an encouraging note to one of her students and told the student to invite her to her graduation from Harvard. Sixth grade!
Twenty one years later, that student invited teacher Judith Toensing to Harvard to see her receive a doctorate of public health.
“Judith Toensing didn’t just teach her students, she inspired them.
“A sixth-grade teacher from Yuma, Arizona, Toensing made a strong impact on one of her students 21 years ago.
“At the end of the school year in 1997, Mrs. Toensing, wrote a note on the student’s report card: “It has been a joy to have you in class. Keep up the good work! Invite me to your Harvard graduation!.”
“This week, the student, Christin Gilmer graduated from Harvard as a doctor of public health.”
Gilmer saved her teacher’s note all these years. She invited her teacher to the graduation ceremony.
“Dean Michelle Williams thanked Toensing — and all public school teachers — for the “immeasurably important” work they do.
“You don’t just teach young people. You inspire them, and you propel them along a path of fulfillment and service to others. Your work is what makes our work possible,” Dean Williams said.”
Teachers matter.
Diane Ravitch's blog 