Category Archive
Broader, bolder education reform advocatedJun 05, 2008
A new bipartisan group of national policy experts is launching a campaign for what it calls a “broader, bolder approach to education.” The recommendations mirror many of the same reform initiatives long backed by the AFT.
Colorado state workers join unionsJun 05, 2008
Some 22,500 Colorado state workers voted to join a coalition of unions that includes the AFT. Ballots went out in mid-May to the majority of the state’s workers, and results were announced June 12.
Labor leaders decry attacks on trade unionists in Zimbabwe, IraqJun 05, 2008
In early May, Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, the respective president and secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), were arrested, interrogated for six hours and jailed on the reported charge of “inciting people to rise against government.”
Windy City assigns grief counselors to teachersJun 05, 2008
Chicago saw 24 public school students killed outside the classroom this school year. To help teachers and students cope, and as part of the new union contract, counselors will be assigned to all 483 Chicago elementary schools beginning in July.
Teachers list favorite education booksJun 05, 2008
Looking for a summer read that will help you in the classroom, too? Teacher Magazine Web moderator Anthony Rubora asked readers to name the one book they considered the single best on teaching. He got a lot of replies.
LA teachers plan boycott over state budget cutsJun 05, 2008
The AFT Los Angeles county affiliate organized a one-hour boycott on June 6, where members stayed outside their schools before signing in and going to class to protest the state’s $353 million shortfall for county schools.
Cal State professors fired for refusing to sign loyalty oathMay 22, 2008
A California State instructor who objected on religious grounds to signing a 1950s-era anti-Communist pledge was fired from her job teaching American Studies at Cal State Fullerton.
U.S. unions aid Burmese tornado victimsMay 22, 2008
The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center has launched an online relief fund, with contributions going not to the military junta but to the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma, which is distributing clothing, medicine and nonperishable food to Burmese workers and their families in the wake of a catastrophic tornado.
West Coast port workers strike for one shift to protest warMay 22, 2008
Cargo traffic at 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle was halted on May 1 as the 25,000-member independent International Longshore and Warehouse Union staged an eight-hour work stoppage to demand the Bush administration end the war in Iraq.
Principal sounds like teachers in how to promote learningMay 22, 2008
A 32-year classroom teacher, central-office administrator and principal in the Boston public schools cited many methods espoused by the UFT as the best ways to evaluate teachers.
D.C. area schools plan larger class sizesMay 22, 2008
With rising costs straining school budgets, some U.S. capital-area school systems want to increase class size in the coming year rather than hire more teachers.
As food costs soar, schools raise lunch pricesMay 22, 2008
School districts nationwide are scrambling to keep up with the rising costs of milk, wheat, eggs and the fuel used to transport them.
Mooney Institute melds unionism with school reformMay 08, 2008
Tom Mooney left a legacy, and not just in the stronger, militant union federation he worked so hard to build, but in instilling a vision that incorporated a professional and social-justice emphasis into the union’s work.
South African longshoremen refuse to unload weapons bound for ZimbabweMay 08, 2008
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe used to be a hero, a liberation fighter and a symbol of freedom worldwide.
Tarnished silver anniversary of ‘Nation at Risk’ reportMay 08, 2008
Twenty-five years ago, the Reagan-appointed National Commission on Excellence in Education issued “A Nation at Risk,” which reported poor academic performance at nearly every school level and warned that the education system was “being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.”
Hunger a fact of life for growing numbers of AmericansMay 08, 2008
With food prices and fuel costs rising, the United States and other developed nations may see hunger and cold, not just poverty and wage inequality, becoming commonplace.
Black college graduation rates can improve if colleges make it a priorityMay 08, 2008
Colleges know how to close gaps in the graduation rates between black and white students, but few are willing to do it, says a report from Education Sector, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
UK teachers strike against below-inflation pay offerMay 08, 2008
A national strike by British teachers — the first in 21 years — left more than 8,000 schools closed on April 24’s “Fightback Thursday” and affected some 2.5 million pupils.
Smaller class sizes no panacea? No kidding.Apr 24, 2008
A Columbia University Teachers College researcher argues that a review of the class-size literature shows that shrinking class size by itself does not improve learning or perform miracles. How do you spell straw horse?
Aramark strikers go international for supportApr 24, 2008
Members of UNITE HERE were in Ireland in April protesting giant food services company Aramark’s shabby treatment of workers in New York, where Aramark workers have been striking Bank of New York-Mellon headquarters for more than a month, pounding a drum within easy earshot of UFT headquarters.
Nevada proposition to fund schools through higher casino taxes on ballot — maybeApr 24, 2008
The Nevada State Education Association, an NEA affiliate, won a big school-funding victory in early April when a Nevada judge found that its petition to place a ballot initiative raising casino taxes may proceed to the next step, collecting signatures.
Led by teacher walkouts, Israel shows labor problems, tooApr 24, 2008
The number of Israeli work days lost to strikes rocketed to 2.5 million in 2007, more than 200 times the number of days lost in 2006, a report by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor says.
Bush administration clueless on student-lending crisisApr 24, 2008
With sources of student lending drying up, even federal Education Secretary Margaret Spellings doesn’t know what the federal government can do beyond being “lender of last resort,” which under current law means underwriting private loans.
College Board to drop four AP subjectsApr 24, 2008
High school students looking to take advanced placement classes and exams after the next school year will see a smaller menu of options.
All the school supervision money can buyApr 24, 2008
They’re called “rock star school superintendents,” the alleged turn-around-artist administrators whom beleaguered school districts look to hire to meet No Child Left Behind mandates and who can take the heat and not break out in a sweat. Oh, yes, and educate kids, too.
Car washers organize in L.A.Apr 10, 2008
The AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers are helping Southern California’s 18,000 car washers — many undocumented workers — at some 1,000 hand car washes form a union.
Midwest governor fights for schoolsApr 10, 2008
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to make it mandatory for all state schools to offer daylong kindergarten.
Report says math teachers need to know more than content area. But what?Apr 10, 2008
Question: What coursework and credentials make for an effective mathematics teacher?
Teachers in France resist job cutsApr 10, 2008
France’s education unions have been mobilizing against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to cut 11,200 teaching jobs at the start of the next school year.
British teachers fight the barely liberal Labour governmentApr 10, 2008
The 255,000 members of Britain’s National Union of Teachers (NUT), the largest of the United Kingdom educator unions, are threatening to strike.
Buying their way into another public school systemApr 10, 2008
In Washington, D.C., where public schools range from the excellent to the execrable, some families are paying as much as $14,000 in tuition for their children to attend public schools in nearby states.
Teachers respond to “bully” ad campaignMar 27, 2008
Newspaper ads and television commercials headlined “The Biggest Bully in Schools? Teacher Unions” began appearing March 11 in major news outlets across the country.
Recession a self-inflicted woundMar 27, 2008
The oncoming recession was avoidable, economists Jared Bernstein and Nancy Cleeland of the labor-union backed Economic Policy Institute say.
Georgia guts public schoolsMar 27, 2008
If there’s a dystopian future for public education modeled anywhere, it’s in Georgia.
Cal. Gov. says budget shortfall means teacher layoffsMar 27, 2008
More than 20,000 California teachers recently received pink slips for next school year as the governor tries to eliminate a projected budget shortfall with a proposed school budget cut of $4.8 billion.
Phys ed builds strong minds, tooMar 27, 2008
Note to the number-crunchers at Tweed: Want to improve school performance? Don’t just stress reading and math alone. Educate the whole child.
Pay gap widens between public school teachers, other professionals; bonus schemes won't narrow gap, report saysMar 13, 2008
A new report found that there's a growing pay gap nationwide for those who choose to become public school teachers, in contrast to the salaries of other similarly educated and credentialed professionals.
Credit crisis hits student loansMar 13, 2008
Many college students will see higher costs for loans this spring, while others at community and for-profit colleges will be turned away as risky investments.
More than half the states need federal fiscal help nowMar 13, 2008
Federal fiscal relief should be targeted to the states that need it, a new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says.
Vegas casinos offer wage hike to stop union organizingMar 13, 2008
Sometimes just the threat of a union coming in to a workplace brings gains to workers.
Slaughterhouse boss calls union organizing ‘racketeering’Mar 13, 2008
Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork-products producer, is acting swinish.
Homework too heavy? Survey says ‘No’Feb 28, 2008
Are students overburdened with homework? Not according to a recent MetLife Inc.-commissioned poll.
AFL-CIO tells Colombia: ‘No trade deal until murders, union-busting stop’Feb 28, 2008
A fact-finding delegation of AFL-CIO leaders to told Columbia President Alvaro Uribe that the U.S. union movement would not support the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement at least until real progress is made protecting the lives and rights of trade union members.
In Florida, teachers work two jobsFeb 28, 2008
“I’m happy, I really am,” said science teacher Randolph Chancey about working for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. “But being happy doesn’t pay the bills.”
Concerns about safety of beef in California schoolsFeb 28, 2008
Allegations that at-risk cattle were slaughtered at one of the California school nutrition program’s top suppliers is sparking congressional calls for an independent investigation.
Life-sciences bill in Mass. a boon for CTE schoolsFeb 28, 2008
High tech has been part of career and technical education curricula for a generation, and a funding bill working its way through the Massachusetts legislature should kick it up a few more notches, too.
Houston school bonuses kept secretFeb 28, 2008
The Houston Independent School District wants the state attorney general to permit the district to keep confidential the names of teachers and administrators receiving bonuses.
Texas study links NCLB model to higher drop-out ratesFeb 28, 2008
A new study of the impact of Texas’s public-school accountability system found that the high-stakes testing system actually contributed to more dropouts and lower graduation rates in large urban districts.
Underpaid and dissed, Puerto Rico’s teachers may walk out in defiance of anti-strike banFeb 14, 2008
After two years of failed negotiations with their Department of Education employers, Puerto Rico’s 32,000 public school teachers in the Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico (FMPR), the commonwealth’s largest union representing the bulk of the island’s 43,000 pedagogues, are mulling a strike.
Union membership grows nationwideFeb 14, 2008
Reversing a 25-year decline, union membership is on a slight upswing, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unions added about 310,000 members last year, raising the unionized share of the workforce to 12.1 percent from 12 percent in 2006.
Day laborers sue Chicago over harassmentFeb 14, 2008
Day laborers in Chicago are suing the city, charging police with systematic harassment and false arrest. The laborers, who gather on street corners where contractors hire them and transport them to jobs at remote locations, allege wrongful detention, violation of First Amendment rights, conspiracy to violate civil rights and malicious prosecution in denying their right to assemble in public places.
Stimulate the economy? Extend benefits to the unemployedFeb 14, 2008
Labor unions and their allies are calling for a number of additions to any stimulus package approved by Washington. Chief among them is a temporary extension of unemployment insurance benefits.
14-week writers strike shows what solidarity can doFeb 14, 2008
Bargainers for the Writers Guild of America, East and West, agreed to a new contract on Feb. 10.
Schools caught up in derivatives lose millionsFeb 14, 2008
When the Erie City School District in Pennsylvania, deep in a financial hole, couldn’t repair its buildings or buy textbooks in the 2003-04 school year, JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest bank in the United States, made it an offer it couldn’t refuse. All the school district had to do was sign papers that would benefit it if interest rates increased in the future.
Even a Democratic Congress listens more to business than laborFeb 01, 2008
A $100 billion economic stimulus package — read corporate and personal tax cuts heavily favored by U.S. corporations — is gaining support on Democratic-dominated Capitol Hill despite unions saying it is not enough.
AFT to monitor impact of recent NCLB court decisionFeb 01, 2008
A Jan. 7 court decision in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association over unfunded federal mandates in NCLB is being closely watched by the AFT.
City HS dropout rate could rise again, report saysFeb 01, 2008
The progress New York City announced in curbing the high school dropout rate “while promising, is limited and might not be lasting,” reports City Limits Investigates in its Winter 2008 issue.
Opposition to property tax cap emerges from upstate ed officialsJan 31, 2008
While a recent Siena College poll of 625 New York State registered voters found almost 3-to-1 support statewide for a property tax cap, school officials are leery.
California’s deficit splits education advocatesJan 31, 2008
With a projected $14.5 billion state revenue shortfall, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in January and proposed 10 percent cuts across the entire state budget.
It’s teachers left behind in modern ChinaJan 31, 2008
Low wages, few legal protections, government-dominated unions and dangerous working conditions are facts of life not only for Chinese industrial workers but for the nation’s classroom teachers, too.
E-Textbooks: The future is now?Jan 17, 2008
They’re the bane of school life. Teachers must stick to the textbook, while 90-pound kids trudge around with 30 pounds of dead weight as if they were in basic training. Now, two products could change that.
Class divide grows between Ivy League, public collegesJan 17, 2008
“Higher education is increasingly a tale of two worlds, with elite schools getting richer and buying up all the talent,” writes Business Week in a survey of college costs and amenities at the “Ivy Plus” colleges.
European Court rules employers can pay foreign workers lessJan 17, 2008
The American model of union-busting has advocates in Europe, too.
Bush’s Labor Board wants to shut down union e-mailJan 17, 2008
In a Grinch-like move, the Bush administration’s NLRB majority ruled 3-to-2 in late December that employers can bar workers from sending union-related e-mails at work.
Chamber of Commerce gets politicalJan 17, 2008
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like the populist tone of some of the 2008 presidential contenders, and it’s planning to spend millions to defeat candidates it deems “anti-business.”
Some states foresee funding squeezeJan 17, 2008
There’s no such thing as permanent school funding.
Teachers in Greece fight pension givebacksDec 10, 2007
Facing plans by the right-wing Greek government to reduce social security benefits, Greek schoolteachers went on strike on Nov. 26, with several thousand marching through Athens and Thessalonica.
Immigrant New Yorkers an economic boon to regionDec 06, 2007
Listen up, Lou Dobbs. Immigrants don’t drain the economy, they help grow the economy, a new report says.
Nurses battle union busting in AppalachiaDec 06, 2007
Nurses fighting for a fair contract at Appalachian Regional Healthcare face more than lost pay or a lost job. They’re facing violence, too.
AFT joins other unions in organizing Colorado state employeesDec 06, 2007
Now that the Colorado governor has issued his long-promised executive order allowing some 32,000 state workers the right to form bargaining groups, the AFT is joining two other unions in a joint effort called Colorado WINS to organize and represent those workers.
D.C. Catholic schools to convert to charter statusDec 06, 2007
Seeking to keep seven of its schools functioning, the Washington, D.C., Roman Catholic Archdiocese wants to convert the schools into public charters for the 2008-09 school year.
California budget woes doom merit payDec 06, 2007
California’s $10 billion deficit is putting a big question mark in front of plans by a blue-ribbon state panel to make individual bonus pay for teachers part of its multibillion-dollar overhaul of state education.
Demonstrators demand shutdown of NLRBDec 06, 2007
Some 1,000 sodden demonstrators slogged in the rain last November to the headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., to demand it shut up and shut down for renovation.
Utah voters turn down vouchers with $8 million spent on referendumNov 15, 2007
Both sides in the voucher debate spent big in Utah’s ballot initiative that voters turned down decisively by a 62-to-38 margin on Nov. 6.
Colorado state workers win bargaining rights: prelude to national labor gains post-2008?Nov 15, 2007
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed a Nov. 2 executive order giving unions for state workers official recognition and bargaining powers.
Pittsburgh teachers vote strike authorizationNov 15, 2007
Nobody calls the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers strike-happy; its members haven’t walked a picket line in 32 years. But last month they authorized their union to strike.
Workers strike in Dubai: goverment to expel 'lawbreakers'Nov 15, 2007
Some 4,000 South Asian construction workers were interned after taking to the streets of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in late October after protesting poor wages, bad living conditions and a lack of transportation to work sites.
Better ed schools yield better trained newbiesNov 15, 2007
Teacher unions stress experience, mentoring and credentials from high-quality institutions as keys to placing and retaining quality teachers in the classroom.
U.S. health care: 'We're Number 7'Nov 15, 2007
Americans pay more for health care, wait longer to be seen by doctors and suffer from a higher rate of medical malpractice than do citizens of six other advanced nations.
Tips for getting the most from the UFT’s optical planNov 15, 2007
The UFT Welfare Fund’s Optical Benefit Program can save you money on your next purchase of eyeglasses.
Some states face education budget squeezeNov 01, 2007
New York State may be adequately funding schools this year, but that is not the case for states such as Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Baltimore debates need for state testing of special ed studentsNov 01, 2007
With thousands of special-education students in Maryland high schools failing the state’s graduation exams, parents and advocates are debating whether all students should still be required to pass high school assessments in English, algebra, biology and American government before graduating.
Students obese? Try clog dancingNov 01, 2007
It may not beat slam dancing for burning calories, but one entrepreneur thinks his passion for heavy-hoofed clogging is the perfect treatment for childhood obesity.
Iowa teacher saves child’s lifeNov 01, 2007
It’s the kind of underreported story that happens a lot in the schools, where teachers don’t just educate students but keep them healthy and safe, too.
Vancouver librarians still out after three monthsNov 01, 2007
While some city workers have agreed to accept a city offer giving them a 17.5 percent raise over five years and a $1,000 signing bonus, Vancouver librarians are standing firm.
French transit workers strike to protect pensionsNov 01, 2007
The biggest transit strike in a decade gripped France after conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy announced planned cuts in retirement benefits.
Bulgarian teachers’ weeks-long strike continues, tooNov 01, 2007
Some three-quarters of Bulgaria’s 100,000 teachers in state schools and nurseries rallied in downtown Sofia on Oct. 11 in the third week of a nationwide strike for higher wages and increased school funding.
Israeli educators go on strikeNov 01, 2007
Secondary school teachers in Israel who went on strike on Oct. 10 in a wage dispute with the national government were later joined by the nation’s university staffs, themselves pursuing a 20 percent pay raise after government delays in providing an extra $75 million in support this year.
Credentials and training matter in student outcomes, report saysOct 18, 2007
A post-2000 policy that phased out uncertified teachers from New York City’s public school classrooms, permitted alternative credentialing programs and recruited high-achieving college graduates through the New York City Teaching Fellows programs and Teach for America significantly contributed to student test-score gains in low-performing schools, a new report says.
Where affirmative action is greenOct 18, 2007
At elite colleges, according an op-ed piece, it’s not low-income applicants of color who are the main beneficiaries of preferential admissions treatment, but rich white kids with cash and connections.
Shocking news about TasersOct 18, 2007
We can supposedly sleep secure in our beds knowing that researchers at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center declared Tasers to be safe and that they can be used without damage in law enforcement.
Say what? Jobs increase in September, but so does the unemployment rateOct 18, 2007
It’s not just young New Yorkers who can’t find affordable housing. In Italy, the housing crunch is so bad that one third of Italian men still live with their mothers.
Young people in Italy have housing woes, tooOct 18, 2007
It’s not just young New Yorkers who can’t find affordable housing. In Italy, the housing crunch is so bad that one third of Italian men still live with their mothers.
SEIU endorses … nobodyOct 18, 2007
While the AFT enthusiastically embraced Hillary Clinton as its choice for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Service Employees International Union is sitting on its hands, the outcome of a standoff between SEIU supporters of Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama.
Fight to rehire union teachers in New Orleans goes onOct 18, 2007
A glowing Sept. 24 profile of New Orleans schools Superintendent Paul G. Vallas in The New York Times left some dark spots unmentioned.
Los Angeles teachers to school district: get the math right!Oct 18, 2007
Members of the United Teachers Los Angeles are picketing 24/7 at Los Angeles United School District headquarters and camping out on district property to protest nine months of payroll snafus.
GM workers back on job after two-day strikeOct 04, 2007
At the core of the settlement of a two-day strike by 73,000 General Motors autoworkers, reached on Sept. 26, is the transfer of retiree health-care payments from GM to the United Auto Workers.
Guns for teachers = school safety?Oct 04, 2007
An Oregon high school teacher took her licensed Glock 9-mm pistol to school every day, until the administration found out.
‘Chocolate War’ war at Chicago schoolOct 04, 2007
Parents living in the same quadrant of Chicago where residents pummeled Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights marchers over integrated housing and jobs in the 1960s are up in arms again.
Wanna be a state worker?Oct 04, 2007
Suburbanites complain about high property taxes for schools, so a Long Island Republican legislator has a solution of sorts: Make the state’s public school teachers state employees.
Spending millions to win less health careOct 04, 2007
As the health-care-for-all fight heats up, the other side — the one that favors all the health care for all you can pay — is stepping up efforts, too.
College admissions offices ignoring SAT writing test?Oct 04, 2007
Is the 25-minute SAT writing sample a waste of time, ink and paper? Many university admissions offices think so.
Florida charter schools ink union contracts with AFTSep 20, 2007
Teachers in the Pembroke Pines, Fla., charter school system ratified a first contract by a 106-2 vote in August.
Celebrating the music of laborSep 20, 2007
Traditional labor songs are together in an omnibus edition, the “Big Red Song Book: 250-Plus IWW Songs,” with more than 200 pages of lyrics and 300 pages of commentary by participants, songwriters and modern commentators.
Union protest infiltrated by provocateursSep 20, 2007
If you’re at a demonstration and a masked man wants you to “off the pig,” ask him to fix your parking ticket instead.
Heat inside school buses hits 116°Sep 20, 2007
Shreveport, La., is hot in the summer, and its school buses sizzle. After measuring temperatures, the Caddo Federation of Teachers and Support Personnel found bus heat spiking to 116 degrees.
Chicago Teachers OK pactSep 20, 2007
The Chicago Teachers Union voted up a tentative agreement with the Chicago public schools that provides more than 20 percent in raises over five years.
Student’s violent essay ruled ‘unprotected speech’Sep 20, 2007
A federal appeals court in Atlanta has ruled that a high school student merited no First Amendment protection for a private essay — in a personal notebook discovered inadvertently — whose main character fantasizes about killing her math teacher.
Disney’s ‘Baby Einstein’ no Einstein, report findsSep 06, 2007
Disney says its “Baby Einstein,” “Baby Mozart” and “Baby Bach” videos are “where discovery begins” in improving a child’s cognitive and linguistic skills. Not so, says a report.
Teacher union president busted at orientationSep 06, 2007
Talk about fighting unionism! Carmen Mayorga, the Aldine (Texas) AFT local president, was busted by school district police as she and others prepared to distribute membership information at a new teacher orientation.
California district’s report card flunksSep 06, 2007
A Bay Area public interest group is suing California’s 41,000-student Oakland Unified School District for leaving out state-mandated data on its school accountability report cards.
Students in debt while lenders live largeSep 06, 2007
Student loan giant Sallie Mae earned $1.3 billion last year, with a return on equity that dwarfs most other companies.
Slack government oversight blamedSep 06, 2007
Like the federal government’s failure to maintain New Orleans’ levee system or respond to Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states, Utah’s Crandall Canyon Mine collapse raises questions about the quality of federal oversight.
Teaching the Bible in schools: pedagogy or dogma?Sep 05, 2007
Distinguishing sectarian preaching from educational instruction seems pretty clear in the abstract. But as values intertwine with ideas, the line separating the two is pretty porous.
Teasing obese kids leads to school absenteeismSep 05, 2007
Obesity is a better predictor of student absenteeism than any other single factor, a new report says, though it’s not related health problems that’s the cause.
It’s not your grandfather’s teacher-union movement, anymoreAug 09, 2007
Teacher union leaders today are just as militant and just as unwilling to cut sweetheart deals with management as were their forbears, though they use a wider variety of tools to represent their members.
Add ‘learning gap’ to those summertime bluesAug 09, 2007
Researchers at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University say that the achievement gap between high- and low-income students increases dramatically over the summer break.
Employee Free Choice Act DOA, thanks to GOP filibusterAug 09, 2007
Senate Republicans prevented the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) from even being considered by the full Senate, despite majority support for the measure in both houses of Congress.
Hurting U.S. automakers seek givebacks from workersAug 09, 2007
Detroit automakers say they lost $16 billion last year and want their workers to bear the losses, too.
Teacher blogger’s interlocutors also know the scoreAug 09, 2007
“Teacherken” is a diarist on Daily Kos, the liberal blog. His slogan is: “Those who can, do.
Iraqi unions fight multinationals’ oil grabsAug 09, 2007
Add one more battle to war-torn Iraq’s list, as oil workers fight to keep the nation’s oil production facilities out of private, foreign hands.
Private-sector pensions from profitable firms disappearing, tooAug 09, 2007
Nearly two-thirds of private employers already offering traditional pensions have closed their plans to new hires, frozen them for all employees, or plan to do so in the next two years, a new study found.
Texas Senate approves Bible classes in public schools — sort ofJun 07, 2007
The Texas State Senate sent to the governor a House-sponsored bill that would allow Bible classes in public high schools.
Despite court order, LA’s disabled still lack access to schoolsJun 07, 2007
The Los Angeles Unified School District recently came under fire for failing to make progress in school accessibility for the disabled.
Arizona teachers want training, materials, smaller classesJun 07, 2007
In Arizona, one of the nation’s 22 right-to-work states, a recent survey of Arizona teachers shows most think their classes are too large to meet the needs of each student.
Ohio governor pledges efforts to reverse drop-out rateJun 07, 2007
Ohio has become the most recent state to tackle the soaring high school dropout rate, which, as in New York, disproportionately affects black teenage boys.
New Jersey court lets Wal-Mart suit proceedJun 07, 2007
The New Jersey Supreme Court is allowing a lawsuit claiming Wal-Mart managers forced employees to work off-the-clock to proceed as a class action on behalf of nearly 80,000 current and former hourly Wal-Mart employees.
Albuquerque teachers’ union files grade protestJun 07, 2007
When Anita Forte, a nine-year veteran English teacher at New Mexico’s Rio Grande HS refused to change the failing grade of a student so he could graduate with his classmates, a school district administrator did it for her.
Private management of Philly schools a failure, report showsJun 07, 2007
A new report on the performance of the six private groups hired to manage 41 Philadelphia public schools shows that none of the six outside managers did better at educating students than did traditional public school districts.
Surprise! South leads in early childhood educationMay 24, 2007
A recent report by the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation shows the Southeast leading the nation in state-funded early childhood education.
CTE programs keep students hooked on schoolMay 24, 2007
A California state senator and career educator said he caught the blue-collar blues when his daughter announced she was marrying a commercial fisherman.
Schools, race and class: Still separate after all these yearsMay 24, 2007
More than five decades after the Supreme Court’s Brown decision struck down school segregation as “inherently unequal,” the decision itself is under threat from the Bush Supreme Court.
W. Va. educators foresee teacherMay 24, 2007
With some 10,500 baby boomers retiring in June, West Virginia’s teachers unions say that there will not be enough future teachers or in-state college graduates to fill those open spots.
Rutgers University clericals join AFTMay 24, 2007
A majority of some 2,000 administrative workers at Rutgers University have signed cards seeking representation as the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT.
Egyptian strikers challenge global capitalMay 24, 2007
The world’s longest and most massive strike wave in more than 60 years is pitting Egyptian workers against their own government and its plans to make the Egyptian economy “competitive.”
After reports of cheating, schools ban iPodMay 10, 2007
Forget crib sheets. Now, schools across the country are targeting digital media players as potential cheating devices.
Card check no golden mean when employers resistMay 10, 2007
In Portland, Ore., the National Labor Relations Board ordered a Service Employees International Union local to suspend organizing anybody anywhere for six months after what it declared was a card-check violation.
California teachers end 10-day strike with contract gainsMay 10, 2007
A two-week strike of Hayward, Calif. public school teachers ended April 26 with the 1,300-member NEA local approving a new salary package by a nearly 9-to-1 vote.
R.I. adjunct faculty vote AFTMay 10, 2007
If there is a beaten-down sector of the work force among the university literati (besides the graduate assistants), it’s the adjunct faculty
Globalism: Can unions play, too?May 10, 2007
The United Steelworkers, battered by steel industry downsizing, wants to merge with two of Britain’s largest unions to form the first significant multinational trade union since the Industrial Workers of the World declined in the 1920s.
Mass. risks federal money by rejecting abstinence-only classesMay 10, 2007
Massachusetts is joining at least six other states in rejecting federal mandates that say sex-education dollars must be spent on abstinence-only sex education.
Why teachers quitMay 10, 2007
A former classroom teacher turned education policy analyst told researchers she threw in her teaching towel because “it was a constant battle with the administration.” She was just one of the 2,653 former teachers citing stifling bureaucracy, overwhelming workloads and generally bad working conditions as their reasons for quitting in a follow-up study of 7,000 current and former teachers conducted earlier this year by the federal National Center for Education Statistics.
Teachers’ workday: the long and the short of itApr 26, 2007
Unrecognized and uncompensated, do teachers work hard and many hours outside the school day, as the UFT insists? Or are they well paid but work too little, as union critics charge?
Job security, Texas styleApr 26, 2007
The UFT opposes using student test scores as the basis for tenure decisions. Looking at Texas, you’ll know why.
Job losses blamed on labor’s declining powerApr 26, 2007
Circuit City announced in March that it was laying off 3,400 of its most experienced salesclerks and replacing them with new employees earning starting salaries.
Private city universities hike tuition, fees againApr 26, 2007
Tuition and fees are going up — again — at New York area private colleges.
Workers in control? You decideApr 26, 2007
NetFlix is one employer who thinks limiting vacations and demanding face time at work are “relics of the industrial age.”
Farm labor organizer’s murder a warning to union?Apr 26, 2007
Santiago Rafael Cruz, 29, an organizer for the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, was found murdered in the union’s Monterrey, Mexico, office on April 9.
Layoffs hit newspapers hardApr 26, 2007
Not too long ago, cash-strapped newspapers relied on attrition and buy-outs to trim costs, but the new owners are going for cost cutting and staff reductions.
Long Island teachers escalate contract fightApr 12, 2007
Nassau’s East Meadow School District is playing hardball with its teachers, and the contest is in extra innings.
High housing costs, low pay plague teachers, AFT saysApr 12, 2007
Slow growth in teacher salaries nationwide makes it difficult for educators, especially new ones, to find affordable housing in their communities and to pay off student loan debts.
Study: Private schooling gives no score boostApr 12, 2007
New research based on high school achievement data shows that private school attendees do not outperform their public school peers.
Teacher attitudes toward schools varyApr 12, 2007
While a survey found most teachers and administrators had high expectations for students, there was a sizeable minority who did not.
Blinder’s Blinders BlownApr 12, 2007
Former Federal Reserve Board vice chair Alan Blinder was a “free trade” booster when he advised Bill Clinton to back NAFTA and other corporate-friendly trade agreements. No more.
Winning domestic partner benefits when the court says “no”Apr 12, 2007
The University of Michigan’s Graduate Employees Organization launched a “Benefits for All” campaign, presssing for a “designated beneficiaries” plan that extends health coverage to another adult and that adult’s dependent children.
Troubles for breakaway union confederationApr 12, 2007
Two years after five unions left the AFL-CIO to form Change to Win, one of the breakaway group’s leaders says Change to Win is neither changing, winning, nor cooperating much.
Supreme Court hearing student free speech caseMar 29, 2007
The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding what to do about a high school student who carried off-campus a 14-foot banner proclaiming “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.”
Popular opinion shifts left, poll saysMar 29, 2007
If polling by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press is right, the long reign of the right wing may soon be over.
Report shows children get declining shareMar 29, 2007
A report by the nonpartisan Urban Institute showed that the share of federal dollars spent on children is on the decline.
In general strike, Israeli unionMar 29, 2007
Protesting the failure of local authorities to pay the salaries of thousands of workers, Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union, called a nationwide general strike on March 21 that shut down the country.
AFT inaugurates presidential "You decide 2008"Mar 29, 2007
“It’s your vote. It’s your voice. You decide” is the motto of a new AFT program that wants members to air their views and voice their concerns about the 2008 U.S. presidency.
Pushed by statesMar 29, 2007
New York isn’t the only state moving ahead in making pre-K widely available.
Iranian teachers jailedMar 29, 2007
Iranian teachers protesting low pay were attacked by state police on March 14, with some 1,000 arrested.
New Jersey’s high graduation rates don’t figureMar 15, 2007
While New Jersey boasts the Data released by the New Jersey Department of Education in the state’s annual School Report Card show one in five recent state public high school diploma graduates failed the state graduation test at least three times.
U.S. lags in granting degrees — and money may be a reasonMar 15, 2007
The share of U.S. high school graduates with a college degree is shrinking in comparison to other developed nations, says Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based research organization.
Missouri House votes down private school tax creditsMar 15, 2007
The Republican-led Missouri House defied its own leaders, including the governor, in killing a tax credit bill that would send thousands of urban children to private school.
House says, ‘Card check, please’Mar 15, 2007
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1 in what organized labor believes is the first significant piece of pro-labor legislation in almost a generation.
AFL-CIO to open up presidential endorsement processMar 15, 2007
The AFL-CIO announced plans for an intensive six-month program that it says will involve union members and their families in selecting the next president.
Boston teachers fined for talking strikeMar 15, 2007
The Boston Teachers Union reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with the city after resolving disagreements over class size and salaries.
Aspen Institute in the clouds on NCLBMar 01, 2007
Many of the 75 recommendations made by the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind, which comes up for renewal this year, would not pass muster on the ground if implemented in actually existing schools.
Universal pre-K great! But mandatoryMar 01, 2007
Despite Gov. Spitzer’s proposal to add $99 million in pre-K categorical funding in next year’s budget, few state school districts are expected to develop their own pre-K programs by next year.
SEIU and Wal-Mart join in health-care callMar 01, 2007
The nation’s biggest union has joined the nation’s largest and still fiercely anti-labor private employer in calling for affordable health coverage for all Americans by 2012.
AFT blasts Bush education proposalsMar 01, 2007
President Bush’s Feb. 5 education budget recommendations for Fiscal Year 2008 “continue his pattern of ignoring the needs of the vast majority in favor of lining the pockets of the ultra-rich,” AFT President Edward J. McElroy said.
Apple founder blames teachersMar 01, 2007
There’s a worm in the Apple, after Apple founder Steve Jobs told a Texas education reform conference that it’s the teachers who are “what’s wrong with our schools.”
Card check legislation moves through CongressMar 01, 2007
Congressional passage of the Employee Free Choice Act would be the first shot in the battle for American workers to reclaim ground lost in the past 30 years.
House moves to hike funding for key education programsFeb 15, 2007
In politics, money doesn’t just talk, it barks orders
Feb 15, 2007
‘Neutrality’ in Rutgers union fight
Feb 15, 2007
Florida charter schools vote union
Feb 15, 2007
Houston bonus payments slammed
Feb 15, 2007
Houston bonus system leaving many deserving out in the cold
Union membership still falling, Labor Department findsFeb 15, 2007
Union membership down in 2005 as a result of Employer resistance and anti-union laws in almost half of the states.
Researchers debunk as myth U.S. students’ performance lagFeb 15, 2007
Students say Orleans’ new school system all wet after Katrina
Feb 02, 2007
Both the quality of learning and the state of the buildings have sunk since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August 2005, a sample of Orleans Parish public and private school students said.
Cure for the dropout plague? California says it’s CTEFeb 02, 2007
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself a vocational high school program graduate in his native Austria, told the state Legislature in his State of the State message, “We must also continue to reinvigorate career tech education. I love career tech, love it.’’
Klein and Bloomberg: modelers of school governance for nation?Feb 02, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg has a cheering section at The Economist, which headlined its story “Teach us, Mr. Mayor” and “As mayors become leaders of school reform, cities look to New York.”
Virginia challenges federal mandate on ELA testing for immigrantsFeb 02, 2007
The school board in Fairfax County, Va., a Washington, D.C., bedroom community, is going mano a mano with the U.S. Department of Education over testing requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
In call for good-faith bargaining, Boston teachers picket schoolsFeb 02, 2007
The Boston Teachers Union on Jan. 19 held informational picketing in the early morning before school by thousands of teachers and paraprofessionals despite cold, wet weather.
Help on way for sleepy scholarsFeb 02, 2007
Experts say teenagers need nine hours of sleep each night, but are not getting it. So some school districts are starting the high school day later.
Unions, GOP unite on environmentFeb 02, 2007
It may be an odd coupling, but 20 labor unions with nearly 5 million members just formed an alliance with the Republican-leaning Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
Now it’s performance pay for students, tooFeb 02, 2007
If the words of the apostle Timothy are correct that the love of money is the root of all evil, then there might be the potential for some evil doings in one mid-Ohio school district.
Role of unions in education debatedJan 18, 2007
The National Governors Association billed its Dec. 10-11 education parley in Rhode Island as the first of its kind: an open-ended discussion of how and whether collective bargaining helps or harms schooling.
Eligibility eased for D.C. vouchersJan 18, 2007
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who earned a zero voting record from the AFT in last year’s Congress and who descends from one of his state’s wealthiest families, wants to be thought of as a friend of the poor.
Minimum wage hike just the beginning, advocates sayJan 18, 2007
New York State’s minimum wage grew to $7.15 an hour on Jan. 1, and while business groups say the rise will increase costs for small businesses — leading to layoffs or higher prices — advocates for the poor say it doesn’t go far enough.
Wal-Mart expands upstateJan 18, 2007
Thanks to union and community efforts, Wal-Mart, the anti-union, subsistence-wage-paying mega retailer can’t gain a foothold in New York City. But it’s a different story upstate.
Tax breaks for educators extendedJan 18, 2007
The modest $250 federal tax deduction for K-12 educators who buy school supplies for their students will be retained in this year’s tax regulations.
Colorado’s new ethics rules snare prize money, scholarshipsJan 18, 2007
A successful state referendum meant to curb government favoritism by prohibiting Colorado state officials from accepting gifts is being construed as barring professors at public universities from accepting monetary awards for past research.
Spitzer: Lift cap on charters, but...Jan 18, 2007
Charter school enthusiasts want the cap on the number of charter schools —presently limited to 100 statewide — raised, and Gov. Spitzer seems willing to oblige. But he wants to hold school districts fiscally harmless.
New BriefsNov 16, 2006
Summaries of reports on a performance pay grant for Chicago, an update on former NYC Deputy Chancellor Carmen Fariña update, the organization of janitors in Texas, and the denial of efforts to unionize by Massachusettes day-care providers.
Suburban voter trends seen as boost to Menendez, other DemsNov 02, 2006
If UFT-endorsed Sen. Bob Menendez is re-elected in New Jersey, it won’t just be because he turned out his union and civil rights base.
Loyal workers get layoff noticesNov 02, 2006
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the largest U.S. tire producer, idled its Ashboro, N.C., steel wire plant and its 330 hourly workers in early October after 15,000 steelworkers struck 16 other Goodyear plants in the United States and Canada.
Only billionaires need applyNov 02, 2006
Some 10,000 workers were fired for their union activities in 2005, according to an annual survey of union rights violations compiled by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
10,000 workers fired, some murdered, for union activitiesNov 02, 2006
Some 10,000 workers were fired for their union activities in 2005, according to an annual survey of union rights violations compiled by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
Bush pumping $$ into merit payNov 02, 2006
The Bush administration is proceeding with a national teacher-pay plan based exclusively on student test scores.
Big business lobbies to retain No Child Left BehindNov 02, 2006
As Congress gears up to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, two business groups — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable — announced the formation of a coalition to defend the nearly 5-year-old education law.
Court to hear challenge to union right to use agency fees for political actionOct 19, 2006
The U.S. Supreme Court will review a Washington State law that requires non-union members to “affirmatively consent,” or opt in, before a union may spend money from fees collected on political efforts.
More bad ink for ‘Reading First’Oct 19, 2006
Since President Bush four years ago established Reading First as the centerpiece of his No Child Left Behind Act, the $1 billion-a-year literacy program has been making headlines. But most of them are not what the Bush administration had in mind.
… and lose fight in VermontOct 19, 2006
The AFT’s two-year campaign to win bargaining rights for part-time instructors at the all-adjunct-staffed Community College of Vermont failed.
Teachers win contract in Indiana...Oct 19, 2006
Members of the AFT-affiliated Gary Teachers Union won a three-year agreement and ended their nine-day strike in this northwest Indiana steel-mill town that kept 16,000 students out of school.
NLRB ruling makes many workers ineligible for union protectionOct 18, 2006
The National Labor Relations Board expanded the definition of supervisor to include any employee who uses “independent judgment” on the job, makes “staff assignments” and is “responsible” for the performance of others.
Pharmaceutical firms big winner in Medicare drug planOct 05, 2006
No one is more pleased with the new Medicare drug plan than the pharmaceutical industry, which wrote the bill and then spent millions lobbying Congress for it.
After 15 years, Pan Am workers get back payOct 05, 2006
Some 15,000 former employees of Pan Am, the airline that crashed and burned in 1991, will finally be receiving monies due them following the airline’s final liquidation.
Pizza delivery workers organizeOct 05, 2006
The American Union of Pizza Delivery Drivers is the latest effort by fast-food workers to organize their giant-chain employers.
Report says Senate bill to combat shortage of nurses misses pointOct 05, 2006
The U.S. Senate’s new immigration bill is about more than just strengthening border security, setting up a guest worker program and providing some limited form of amnesty for the undocumented.
Carolina district pays bonus to attract math teachersOct 05, 2006
The Guilford County school district in North Carolina has joined the growing number of districts across the nation who are using lucrative incentives to lure scarce mathematics teachers to low-performing schools.
Stingy housing incentive to attract teachers back to New OrleansOct 05, 2006
Louisiana state officials thought they had a great idea: entice estranged New Orleans school teachers back to the city by offering as many as 250 rent-free two-bedroom, fully furnished modular units as living quarters.
Flight attendants say bankruptcy filing no excuse to tear up contractOct 05, 2006
Flight attendants at bankrupt Northwest Airlines are fighting a federal judge over their right to strike.
Beneficiaries, credit, TDA, pension clinics: things to do this yearSep 21, 2006
Retirement may be only a distant dream for many UFTers, but making sure it’s a financially secure retirement should be an important priority for even the newest member.
Detroit teachers reach agreementSep 21, 2006
Detroit’s 7,000 active public school teachers ended a 16-day strike and agreed to a new contract at a Sept. 13 mass ratification meeting.
Gray Lady takes mayor, chancellor to woodshedSep 21, 2006
The Department of Education’s award of $15.8 billion in taxpayer dollars for an 18-month no-bid contract to re-jigger the school system’s financial workings got a slap-down from The New York Times.
U.S. losing world education edgeSep 21, 2006
The rate of high educational attainment for younger people is falling in the United States even as it advances in other industrial nations.
Upstaters want CFE dollars, tooSep 21, 2006
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) and the Alliance for Quality Education are bringing the fight to increase school funding — a legal battle begun in New York City in 1993 — upstate.
NYU breaks strike — but not spirit of graduate assistantsSep 21, 2006
NYU won the battle, but the war to organize graduate student workers at private universities goes on.
Bush uses ed law to slam unionsSep 21, 2006
Newly revised U.S. Department of Education guidelines for local school district implementation of the NCLB law say the law can override school district collective-bargaining agreements. The AFT says that’s rot.
Wal-Mart’s not comingSep 07, 2006
The world’s largest employer, which offers discounts to shoppers by relentlessly squeezing its own work force, announced in August it was dropping plans to build its first New York City store in Staten Island.
Real wages falling as economy growsSep 07, 2006
When the economy expands, wages are supposed to go up. Not anymore!
DOE inks no-bid million-dollar dealSep 07, 2006
How does the New York City Department of Education go about slimming down its own bureaucracy? By issuing a larded, no-bid contract to a politically connected local firm.
Poll shows Americans believe in public schoolsSep 07, 2006
A Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll on public attitudes toward the public schools found that more than seven out of 10 Americans believe the public school system is viable.
Detroit teachers strike over cutbacksSep 07, 2006
Teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan, but the 7,000-member AFT affiliate in Detroit walked out anyway on Aug. 28.
Federal study: public schools equal or surpass privatesAug 17, 2006
Contrary to myth, private schools do not do a better job of educating students, a new federal report shows.
Chancellor attacks the school contract he himself negotiatedAug 17, 2006
While many teachers are on holiday, teaching summer school or taking professional development classes, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has been busy stirring the pot.
Banned book back on shelvesAug 17, 2006
A book pulled from circulation after critics said it gives an inaccurate and too favorable view of life in Cuba today was ordered back on the Miami school library shelves by a federal judge.
Use ‘independent judgment’ at work and risk losing union protection, Bush labor board set to declareAug 17, 2006
The old saying that workers aren’t hired for their brains is taking on new meaning.
NY, Chicago parents to LA: ‘You don’t want mayoral school control’Jun 08, 2006
Los Angeles mayor and former union organizer Antonio Villaraigosa is getting deserved tri-coastal flack for backing a measure to assume control of the giant Los Angeles Unified School District.
Does Milwaukee’s pioneer voucher plan really work? Nobody knowsJun 08, 2006
Milwaukee’s school voucher program is 16 years old. So how’s it doing? And who do you trust to tell you?
Q: How many states meet NCLB Teacher provisions? A: NoneJun 08, 2006
Federal education officials say the requirement for putting a “highly qualified” teacher in every core-subject classroom is not being met in any of the 50 states.
Fired up California state workers threaten walkoutsJun 08, 2006
Just like in New York, the governor says it’s illegal for California state workers to strike. Or is it? Unlike the Taylor law, it’s not so clear.
Now even homework help is being outsourcedJun 08, 2006
No, the UFT’s Dial-A-Teacher is NOT moving to Bangalore. But a lot of for-profit homework support services are going overseas.
New insights on old problemsMay 25, 2006
Two pieces in the spring issue of Dissent offer interesting takes on 21st-century economics.
As states exceed revenue projections, some schools benefitMay 25, 2006
Forty-four states this year were awash in unexpected billion-dollar budget surpluses. In some, including New York State, that has meant more support for schools, while in others lawmakers are spending the money elsewhere.
How to boost teacher income? He says eliminate their federal taxes!May 25, 2006
Billionaire Leo Hendrey has the right idea: give all K-12 teachers a permanent federal tax holiday.
Strengthened ‘right’ to organize not enoughMay 25, 2006
At a recent panel debating labor’s future at AFL-CIO headquarters, Georgetown University historian Joseph McCartin argued that the biggest problem plaguing American unions was the inability to adapt to changes in the global economy.
'I want my hip'May 11, 2006
In a scene out of Lourdes or Sainte Anne de Beaupre, Detroit auto workers and their families, fearful of losing their comprehensive health benefits, are queuing up for elective operating procedures while the company still picks up most of the bill.
Iraq labor leaders film a must-seeMay 11, 2006
Things are nowhere more fraught with danger in Iraq than for the country’s labor leaders, whose unions were illegal under Saddam and remain unrecognized under the U.S. “coalition of the willing.”
SEC alleges charter school scamMay 11, 2006
Beginning in July 2003, Washington, D.C., officials entrusted some $21 million in public charter school funds to a newly formed Maryland firm it knew had no operating history.
New, small schools still give older, bigger schools agitaMay 11, 2006
In both Chicago and New York, closing unsuccessful schools and replacing them with small schools is garnering criticism that the effort has a debilitating side effect: if done wrong, it can destabilize other schools.
Happy birthday, Rethinking SchoolsMay 11, 2006
Rethinking Schools turns 20 this month.
Monkey see, monkey do: L.A. mayor wants control of schoolsMay 11, 2006
Republican Bloomie did it in New York. It’s the way things work in Boston, Providence and Chicago, too. Now, the new Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, wants a taste.
What’s 65 percent of not enough?Apr 27, 2006
Look no further than Texas to see what’s wrong with the much-touted “65 percent solution” for funding classrooms.
CFE: It’s an order, not a recommendationApr 27, 2006
If the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case were a Jewish child, it would be having its bar or bat mitzvah about now.
Save defined benefit pensions: expand them to all workersApr 27, 2006
How do unions defend pensions when most workers don’t have one? If business-world gurus are to be believed, you can’t and you shouldn’t.
Immigration reform: Oppose HR 4437, but support what?Apr 27, 2006
The city’s huge April 10 immigration rally, which shut down Broadway from City Hall Park up to Soho, spoke with one voice in opposing some bad federal legislation. Marchers, though, were less in synch about what constitutes better immigration policy.
Teachers in three major cities hang tough in contract fightsApr 13, 2006
Even as UFT members are getting an early start in preparing for their next contract negotiations with the Bloomberg administration when the current pact expires in October 2007, teachers in Detroit, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., are on red alert now.
Report says NCLB forcing cuts in everything but reading and mathApr 13, 2006
There's now quantitative evidence demonstrating how the No Child Left Behind Act forces schools to shortchange students in almost every area but reading and math, the subjects tested under the now 4-year-old federal law.
Pioneer union seen taking lickingApr 13, 2006
Is the sun setting on the auto workers, once the nation’s most powerful industrial union? Business Week thinks so.
Neo-Conservatives to Klein: Let’s you and her fightApr 13, 2006
Things are contentious enough between Tweed and the union it loves to disrespect without a couple of out-of-town bear baiters adding to the pain and suffering.
New report says Wal-Mart ‘steals’ from public to pay PaulMar 30, 2006
Still smarting from efforts by the state’s governor to pass anti-labor initiatives he put onto last November’s ballot, California unions are slamming movie-star governor.
Labor stalks SchwarzeneggerMar 30, 2006
Still smarting from efforts by the state’s governor to pass anti-labor initiatives he put onto last November’s ballot, California unions are slamming movie-star governor.
State taxes tale of two chambersMar 30, 2006
In a surprising move, the Daily News looked at who benefits from which tax cuts, and who does not.
Unions launch national campaign to organize charter schoolsMar 30, 2006
Courts say ‘War on Terror’ doesn’t require war on unions
Mar 30, 2006
The Bush administration says that it’s fighting a war for democracy abroad even as it denies democracy to its own employees at home.
Counting the cost of Albany’s dueling tax credit proposalsMar 16, 2006
Three dueling tax credit proposals are making the Albany rounds.
Florida institutes merit payMar 16, 2006
Florida’s state Board of Education unanimously approved a sweeping plan to tie public school teachers’ pay to their students’ performance as measured on standardized tests.
Full-time jobs dying breed in education, global economyMar 16, 2006
It’s not just union jobs that are at risk. Full-time jobs are endangered, too, as a contingent work force becomes part of the just-in-time strategy in education as in every aspect of work.
Who’s a worker? Nobody, these days, says the NLRBMar 16, 2006
Quinnipiac University in Connecticut wants the National Labor Relations Board to rule it can dump the faculty union because the profs are not workers but bosses.
Human rights icon Young now shilling for Wal-MartMar 16, 2006
Andrew Young — the former member of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle, a three-term congressman, UN ambassador, ordained minister and two-term Atlanta mayor — has a new job.
8 nurses unions join forces to take on NLRB, increase cooperationMar 16, 2006
In what could foreshadow greater union cooperation in every industry, nurses from eight AFL-CIO unions are banding together in hopes of increasing their political and organizing strength.
True story! IBM encouraging employees to be teachersMar 02, 2006
We missed this one the first time around, so thanks to Crain’s New York Business for giving it legs by naming it one of the top 10 news stories of 2005.
Cingular Wireless: Raising the bar, not lowering the boomMar 02, 2006
In the fang-and-claw world of wireless telecom competition, where unions are an endangered species, Cingular is, well, singular.
AFL-CIO set to extend labor affiliation to NEA localsMar 02, 2006
One big union of teachers coast to coast. That’s a goal that has not been reached despite the best efforts of generations of teacher unionists, though it may be inching closer to reality.
Illinois governor wants huge $$ boost for schoolsMar 02, 2006
With state revenues up across much of the nation, a state-by-state debate is shaping up over whether to squirrel the money away or spend it on public needs. Illinois is one state whose governor wants to put that surplus cash into education now.
Education Week reports favorably on UFT charter-school effortMar 02, 2006
Kudos to Education Week, the school-industry bible, for its fair and accurate story on the UFT Elementary Charter School in East New York.
Storm-battered schools still closed, students still scatteredFeb 16, 2006
Louisiana estimates some 105,000 students attending schools in the state are not attending their home schools.
Small Big Apple sneaker chain wears the union labelFeb 16, 2006
The New York Times is one of the few media outlets that maintains a labor beat, and reporter Steve Greenhouse earned his salary last week with an encouraging story about a successful if modest organizing drive by 95 workers at Footco.
Looking to shrink deficit, Congress cuts aid to poorFeb 16, 2006
While New York City and state budgets boast multi-billion-dollar surpluses, with no cuts expected in jobs or public services, it’s still slash-and-burn time on Capitol Hill.
Stop the presses! The rich get richerFeb 16, 2006
An analysis of Congressional Budget Office tax data shows that the slices of stock-and-real-estate pie are getting bigger for the richest few and far smaller for the rest of us.
Council set to override Bloomberg language translation vetoFeb 16, 2006
A UFT-supported City Council bill, vetoed by the mayor in January but soon to be reintroduced for a veto-override, would help thousands of parents with limited English who are unable to communicate with school officials.
Pension pain for Md. educatorsFeb 02, 2006
In Maryland, teachers can retire with pensions that pay 38 percent of their pre-retirement salaries — the lowest in the nation. No wonder one in every two teachers leaves the state system before completing their fifth year.
No matter how you spin it, bad news for workersFeb 02, 2006
A recent Wall Street Journal issue reads as if it was edited by Debbie Downer of “Saturday Night Live.”
Education dolt of the month award: And the envelope, please.Feb 02, 2006
Choosing the big winner this month is a no-brainer. It’s Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who told his state’s Board of Education that achievement gaps between inner-city black students and their suburban white counterparts could only be bridged when minority leaders realize their longstanding political alliance with teachers unions is counterproductive.
Big Brother is watchingFeb 02, 2006
When anti-military recruitment protests were held at eight colleges, they made a chilling Pentagon watch list of “suspicious incidents.”
States have the money to pay teachers; do they have the will?Feb 02, 2006
The national climate for boosting teacher wages and school spending may be heating up as some 40 states throughout the nation — including New York — claim budget surpluses and boast the best fiscal picture they’ve seen since 2001.
Denver police now can collar deadbeat employersFeb 02, 2006
Call it the “deadbeat bosses law,” but there is some economic justice after all. Denver recently became the third U.S. city (the others are Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, Mo.) where nonpayment by employers of even relatively small amounts of wages is a crime.
Hold the front page! Congress cuts federal education spendingJan 19, 2006
As Education Week reported on Congress’s pre-holiday budget work, “lawmakers essentially froze all discretionary spending and then heaped a 1 percent cut on top of that as they scrambled to approve an overdue school spending measure.”
Computers for public school kids, sure, but who pays?Jan 19, 2006
Parents in a Los Angeles suburb have been told they must pay the nearly $1,500 cost of laptops their children are required to use in class and at home.
Unconstitutional! Court strikes down Florida’s voucher planJan 19, 2006
Florida’s highest court recently handed public school supporters a decisive victory, striking down a Florida program that gives students taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers to private schools.
Charters float as New Orleans public schools sink in flood watersJan 19, 2006
Big, bold plans may be afoot to rebuild New Orleans’ commercial and residential housing stock, but similar efforts to revive the schools are small and timid.
New Wal-Mart film a must-seeDec 08, 2005
Robert Greenwald’s gut-punching new documentary, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices,” has its critics. No surprise.
Labor group monitors U.S. jobs going overseasDec 08, 2005
Just how big a problem is the outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries? And how do you get the information if you’re not a numbers cruncher?
Bush policies perpetuate poverty, labor research group reportsDec 08, 2005
A new report demonstrates how policies that cut education and basic anti-poverty programs in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy have exacerbated sharp differences in job opportunities for white and black workers.
Voucher king Whittle imagines a better future — but whose?Dec 08, 2005
A new book by private education guru Chris Whittle, “Crash Course: Imagining a Better Future for Public Education” (New York: Riverhead), got a pasting in a scholarly online publication this month.
No Child Left Behind withstands initial court challengeDec 08, 2005
A federal judge in Michigan rejected school district challenges to the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind initiative, saying the federal government acted properly in telling states to spend their own money to comply with the law.
Failing schools cost plenty in the long run, tooNov 17, 2005
What does it cost society when schools fail? Does $200 billion in economic losses to the nation seem like a lot?
Feds give states extra year to prove teachers highly qualifiedNov 17, 2005
States are going to get more breathing room to meet the federal mandate that teachers be “highly qualified,” but the extension comes with a catch.
Big labor win in ColoradoNov 17, 2005
The AFT is celebrating its most significant victory against the anti-government establishment to date: suspension of Colorado’s so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), a 1992 law that drastically restricted the growth of spending on public services and required any “excess” revenue to be returned to taxpayers.
Do tests gauge student gain? Don't bet your paycheck on itNov 17, 2005
Even as Denver became the largest school district in the nation to switch to basing a portion of its teachers’ salaries on student achievement as measured on tests, a comparison of federal and state test results shows wide disparities in evaluations of proficiency in federal and state tests.
Many Milwaukee voucher schools failing studentsNov 17, 2005
Milwaukee, where the school-voucher movement started 15 years ago, is seeing the overall quality of voucher schools collapse.
Uncle Sam’s garnishing WHAT?Nov 17, 2005
James Lockhart is a 67-year-old disabled man with big medical expenses. He survives on a monthly income of $874 in Social Security disability benefits, plus $10 in food stamps. The federal government does not care. It’s still deducting $93 a month from his Social Security checks to cover decades-old student-loan debts.
New ‘storm’ set to hit New Orleans schools<