Posted on 03/31/2018 10:12:29 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
One-by-one school districts across central Kentucky announced their closure the day before spring break, as Republicans in the House and Senate rammed through a mystery pension reform bill.
The 291 page bill was not made public, and was inserted into a waste-sewage piece of legislation on Thursday, and then sent though the lower and upper chambers with Republicans carrying the bill.
Fayette County schools was among the first to announce a closure on Thursday night, as more than a thousand teachers called in sick from work and there were not enough substitutes to cover the absences.
“All Fayette County Public Schools will be closed on Friday, March 30, 2018 due to having more than a third of our school employees out,“the school district wrote online just after the bill passed the Senate floor.
Clark County, Jessamine County, Scott County and others quickly followed suit. On Friday morning, Jefferson County Public Schools and outlying districts also called off schools as teachers called-in in protest of the General Assembly’s move to slash benefits.
In total more than a dozen schools canceled on Friday.
Teacher’s have come out in mass in recent weeks at the state Capitol to protest the legislation. The teacher’s have promised to vote-out lawmakers voting for the pension bill
(Excerpt) Read more at mycn2.com ...
“Dear Students,
I know how much you were counting on the last day of the semester being on June 5th, but due to a wildcat strike by your teachers you will have to spend an additional day in class. You are encouraged to share your thoughts and feelings with your teachers.
Sincerely,
The Taxpayer
Here in Oklahoma teachers are going to walk out Monday. The legislature passed a $6,000 raise, but the union says they want $10,000, and at this point there are other concerns getting raised, ex. class sizes. The local media stations are all gung-ho, and I have yet to see one negative word broadcast about the strike. We don’t have a tv and just watch online broadcasts and listen to the radio. There seems to be a huge push on to create resources for free food for school aged children. Teacher pay in Oklahoma is in fact low, and it is also a fact states like Texas are raiding Oklahoma for teachers by offering significantly higher salaries. It’s also a fact that OKC and Tulsa public schools are largely F-rated.I don’t have a magical solution. It does appear that Oklahoma, mostly a relatively poor state, may be digging itself into a deeper hole.
Like in the case of florida, when a school administration partners with politics to fudge the numbers for an agenda and in return are rewarded with federal dollars, we have a problem! how much money was gotten for 17 students lives?
I awoke this morning listening to a Louisville radio talk show. Three hosts. One declared that this new Republican-led federal attack on education was by design: keep the young people so uneducated that the powerful can manipulate them to do their bidding. All enthusiastically agreed.
Indeed.
Kentucky’s making a list. Checking it twice. Seeing which “educators” have been naughty or nice. Those 1,000 may receive lumps of coal in 2019!
Same thing here. Exactly the same.
“These are the people teaching our children.”
More like “These are the people BEING PAID to teach our children.”
Hard to see a downside here, with the those kids getting at least a few days off from their brainwashing.
There’s a saying in the lottery business that buying a lottery ticket only very slightly increases one’s chance of winning.
Likewise here. Sending your kids to public school only very slightly increases their chance of learning.
I am glad someone else saw it this way. I understand the need for pension reform but there is also the matter of what the teachers were PROMISED as part of their hire. In any case sneaking the bill through is dishonorable.
“I understand the need for pension reform but there is also the matter of what the teachers were PROMISED as part of their hire.”
Legislatures are sovereign. That means what a previous legislature approved can be undone by a future legislative body. There’s no such thing as a plenary law, promise or agreement.
Thanks I had overlooked that. But to me contracts should mean something. Also though I understand the need for reform the tactics are underhanded and just wrong. It would have been helpful if more people had been more persistent in pointing out how the math of the pensions just would not work.
Good luck in OK, other states are seeing the success the teachers had in WV, and as a result are more aggressive in pushing their agenda.
This state has significant fiscal challenges, time will tell if this works out. I have serious doubts.
It was disheartening to hear little said about the taxpayer throughout the entire process, they were an afterthought at best.
The teachers broke the law and nothing happened, it is the same old story that always seems to occur to progressive/communist associated groups.
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