It's Friday morning September 22, 2023. We just got off the phone with the Evergreen School District HR; Evergreen Teachers Association Union office; Camas School District HR and Battle Ground HR. We contacted Evergreen and Camas to get copies of the newly approved teachers contracts. Neither contract is published and there is no target date for publication. Both districts said that once the teachers have approved the contract the district must then go through a review process to correct any wording and formatting. The proposed final document then goes back to the Union with any revisions and then back to the district, rinse and repeat until it's approved by both parties. In the case of … [Read more...]
School choice foes turn to ballot referendums as states expand voucher programs
The number of states that have added an option to allow some or all of the funds for K-12 education in public schools to follow the children appears to be causing issues with....teachers unions. In the following article from The Washington Examiner they spell out some of the efforts and tactics teachers unions are going to try and stop "choice" Voters in Nebraska are likely to weigh in on the state's school choice program after a group submitted more than 100,000 signatures last week, seeking to force a ballot referendum. The effort seeks to repeal a state law passed this year that established a $25 million tax credit program for donors who give money to a scholarship fund that … [Read more...]
Union Boss Randi Weingarten: Parental Rights Bills Are the ‘Way in Which Wars Start’
An interesting article. The union head of the American Federated Teachers appears to believe that parental involvement is not good? The original article can be read at: Parental Rights - the Way Wars Start. Randi Weingarten, union boss of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said that parental rights bills such as the one recently signed into law in Florida are “the way in which wars start.” “This notion – we’ve been very lucky in America, and we in some ways live in a bubble for a long time,” the president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union said on the April 14 episode of the Rick Smith Show — a left-wing, pro-union talk show. “This is propaganda. This is … [Read more...]
School board, districts and teachers unions testify against SB5334 “Increasing transparency in levy authorization information provided by school districts”
Ever notice that when school districts run levys or bonds that they produce a nice glossy brochure and mail them to all residences and then create a flashy web page that extols the virtues, benefits, value and absolute need to support the money they are requesting? The brochures cost taxpayers thousands of dollars (frequently $3-$5,000) and the postage can run $3-$5,000. Video's custom made can run $2-$5,000. The web page can cost more in time (which means someone at the communications dept is being paid). The ballot measure mailing and counting can cost $50-$75,000 easily. Never in any of those materials is there a single negative word. Not one word or sentence that shows why a taxpayer … [Read more...]
Battle Ground Teachers Union – New Contract – Update Jan 25th
Update January 25th 2021 - Received the teachers contract from the BGSD after filing a Public Record Request. The file is 63mb in size so be ready for a BIG download. Here it is: 2020-23 BGEA Contract Update Jan 20th - If you go digging on the Battle Ground Board Docs portion of the website you can find a copy of what the Board of Directors signed off on. Apparently it's till a the "printer" being cleaned up and finalized. If you want to sift through the contact here it is for your reading pleasure: 2020-23 BGEA Contract Clean up The Battle Ground Teachers contract ran out the end of August 2020. The bargaining process started earlier in the year and then seemed to stall. The … [Read more...]
Left ‘Giddy’ Anticipating More Spending on Schools and Tighter Regulations on Local School Districts
Came across this article and thought it interesting. The original can be found at Breitbart by clicking the link. Teachers unions are powerful.... Teachers’ unions and others on the left are “giddy” anticipating a Biden/Harris administration they expect will greatly increase spending on government schools and tighten regulations on local school districts. According to a report last week at Capital & Main, a news outlet that is financially supported by the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign policy director Stef Feldman told education reporters Biden would “get some big, bold education legislation … [Read more...]
Study: Teachers’ Unions Associated With School Closures
An article published at The Washington Free Beacon written by Chrissy Clark OCTOBER 15, 2020 3:20 PM A new study finds that school districts with strong teachers' unions are more likely to recommend district-wide shutdowns and exclusively online learning. The study from the Annenberg Institute, an education research institute within Brown University, analyzed which factors best predict a school district's decision to return students to the classroom or educate them remotely. It concluded that "mass partisanship and teacher union strength best explain how school boards approached reopening." The conventional understanding of school districts as "localized and non-partisan … [Read more...]
Are teachers unions too powerful in public schools?
At the risk of drawing the ire of teachers unions we need to ask if their influence is such that they drive too many choices. Let's start out making clear that great teachers are worth their weight in gold. Outstanding teachers should not only be paid like superstars they should be treated with respect and revered. Weak or mediocre or poor teachers should be assisted to move on to other endeavors. There in lies the issue...the poor and weak are protected. Every teacher is treated as equal and considered as having the same proficiency and effectiveness if they have X degree(s) and Y years of experience. That's simply impossible. Some people (in every profession and job) are better, faster, … [Read more...]