Posted on 11/19/2012 11:54:40 AM PST by abb
Public school teachers are “under attack” through so-called education reforms pushed by Gov. Bobby Jindal and others, the president of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers said Monday.
Steve Monaghan, who heads the group, said a series of events going back to the election of a Jindal-friendly state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education last year and the passage of an overhaul of public schools earlier this year shows that the LFT and public education have been targeted.
“We are definitely under attack,” he said.
Monaghan made his comments during the second day of the group’s 48th annual convention.
The gathering follows a year of heated public school debates, and the passage of several bills backed by Jindal and vehemently opposed by teacher unions.
That list includes legislation to expand access to vouchers, which allows some low-income children to attend private and parochial schools at state expense, and a measure that will make it harder for teachers to earn and keep a form of job protection called tenure.
Monaghan said promoters of the changes have used a sledge-hammer approach to pushing their agenda, including blocking some teachers from entering the State Capitol during debates on some of the bills and forcing others into “overflow” committee rooms to follow the proceedings.
He noted that, at one point in a legislative hearing, a teacher was asked whether he was using a sick day to appear at the State Capitol.
“If you don’t think that was a conscious attempt to intimidate, then you are missing the game,” Monaghan said.
Jindal and other backers of the public school overhaul repeatedly noted that 44 percent of public schools were rated D and F by the state last year, and that students and parents needed more options to escape failing public schools.
But Monaghan said that, while Jindal generally enjoys a 9-2 advantage on BESE, attempts to inject LFT views into key debates are often given little notice.
“You can do it right or you can take the battering ram,” he said.
Monaghan said Jindal’s education agenda, which he outlined in January in a speech to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, included a “vilification” of public school teachers.
The LFT leader said that, in the past, teachers were seen as community leaders rather than as obstacles to improving public schools.
Monaghan also disputed criticism of the LFT and other opponents of the bills as defenders of the status quo.
“I would tell you I am not an agent of the status quo because quite frankly the status quo in Louisiana sucks,” he said, adding that it did so before Jindal began his first term in 2008.
The gathering, which began on Sunday, continues through Tuesday.
Teachers, administrators and others plan to debate a wide range of resolutions and hear from local and national speakers.
They will also get an update on the LFT’s legal challenge to key public school overhaul bills, which are set for trial in the 19th Judicial Court District of Baton Rouge later this month.
He is tackling the teacher's union head on.
Maybe the Unionized Teachers will go on strike! May they end up like the Hostess Bakers Union!
So let me get this straight, people who grade students on how well they do the work are whining about having to get graded on how well they do THEIR job?
how ironic
5.56mm
Start by de-certifying their teachers’ union. No collective bargaining. No right to strike. Let them pay for their own off-duty education and if they complete it, then and only then give them an in-grade pay increase. Let them be ordinary government employees without any union. Allow them retirement benefits of ordinary government employees, no more, no less. Stop paying them over the summer months unless they are actually teaching.
"That's because you're the problem," I said.
The role of Unions today:
Maximize membership to maximize the dollar amount funneled to the Mob and the DNC, to the extent you can tell the difference.
Hired as 5th grade teacher.
Won teacher of the year award her 1st year.
2nd year, she was forced to transfer to another school because she didn't have seniority to avoid staff reductions.
“He noted that, at one point in a legislative hearing, a teacher was asked whether he was using a sick day to appear at the State Capitol.”
In both education and ‘public health’ Jindal has done a end run around the status quo oriented legislature and done things to improve the wretched schools in the state and made the ‘public health’ footprint smaller and less costly . Both of these actions strike at some of the most significant institutional sources of strength for the Demorats in Louisiana, public school employees and teachers and state civil service employees.
I hope Jindal will run against Mary Landrieux in 2014 and take the other Senate seat in the Swamp State into the Republican column. Unlike many politicians who get elected as ‘Conservatives’ and over time ‘grow’ in office to be status quo big government hacks, the longer Jindal has been in office the more determined he has become to actually cut down the size and scope of state government.
I hope Jindal will run against Mary Landrieux in 2014 and take the other Senate seat in the Swamp State
Me too: Landrieu has already started TV ads on her accomplishments - running scared? She better be because I will never forget her selling out America for cash for LA. I hope this next election she is done. Her pockets of supporters are not as strong as they used to be. Hopefully we can get rid of her this time.
Yes it was close. This time HAS to be the charm.
squeal, baby, squeal! I love the sound of Stuck union pigs squealing - sounds like victory!
Here’s Landrieu’s 2014 opponent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cassidy
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20121108/ARTICLES/121109680?p=1&tc=pg
Congressman considering Senate race
He should do what Scott Walker and the WI Repubs did. Make union membership voluntary, and make the unions collect their dues directly rather than by payroll deduction.
Well, if could beat Michael Jackson, he’s got to be good:-)
Seriously, he sounds really good. Is he very conservative i.e. tea party or GOP?
He wasn’t one of the 2009 Tea Party leaders, but he’s close enough.
http://www.billcassidy.com/issues
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