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The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act on February 16, 2012.

The Chicago Teachers Union is asking for raises amounting to 30 percent over the next two years, the opening salvo in heated contract negotiations with school officials who are implementing a longer school day across Chicago Public Schools next school year. Documents obtained by the Tribune show that in the face of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's expansion of the school day, the union has led with an offer seeking a 24 percent raise in the 2012-13 school year and a 5 percent increase the following year, the net effect being 30 percent.

Wear black on Friday, February 17, 2012 to illustrate your collective mourning over the attack that has been launched against Virgnia's teachers and students by legislators with the open disrespect and disdain as demonstrated by eliminating continuing contract status for ...new teachers, an effort to diminish our pension benefits, and general underfunding of our schools resulting in too large class sizes, under resourced schools and classrooms, and salaries that lag embarrassingly below the national average in spite of the fact that Virginia is the 7th wealthiest state in the nation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama today will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned. The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has won the endorsement of one of the state's most powerful labor unions. Two sources said the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union, will announce soon that it is backing Falk in the likely recall election against Gov. Scott Walker. WEAC spokeswoman Christina Brey did not return a call seeking comment. Falk was the first Democrat to get in the race. Kathleen Vinhout, an Alma Democrat, announced Wednesday that she also will be running for governor. Other possible candidates, such as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, have not yet announced if they...

The state’s teacher retirement system continues to increase burdens on taxpayers and local school districts. The costs exploded in the recent years, and without substantial reform there is no reason to expect that trend to change. The explanation isn’t hard to find: Since 1988, the system has been close to “fully-funded” in just three years, all in the high-growth 1990s. Its unfunded liabilities are now $17.6 billion. To put this into perspective, it would take roughly all of the state’s annual tax revenue to fully fund the system. School districts are required to contribute an amount to the retirement system...

A mother and child walk past Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in front of Miramonte Elementary, where an accused teacher is alleged to have given gifts to a student A public meeting called by L.A. school officials to discuss the arrest of two teachers accused of abusing students at a South Los Angeles elementary school turned ugly as angry parents accused the district of a cover-up.

The teacher posts: "Governor Scott Walker AKA Fascist Bastard. What an undemocratic assh*le. Wisconsin, will you please get this horrible excuse of a person out of the fold of office? This man (Walker) is outrageously out of control. He represents no one except himself.Shame on Wisconsin for allowing his election, and further shame if they allow his continuance."

A reading teacher at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach has been accused of screaming at a Haitian student in her class last year, telling him to shut up and calling him a "little chocolate boy" and a "chocolate that nobody wanted." According to the district, Leslie Rainer, 46, of Deerfield Beach, has been spoken to twice before about her remarks to minority students, including an incident in which she allegedly told a student, "I wish they would put you in a boat and send you back where you came from."

Here's another example that shows just how 'accepting' liberals are of people from all walks of life. High School teacher Al Levie refused to accept an MLK award from Rep. Paul Ryan because, well, Paul Ryan is a conservative no matter how Levie tries to frame it. Levie stated that "Paul Ryan has no business being at an MLK event." That's a pretty bigoted action.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A former school superintendent under fire for his $1 million retirement payout is claiming Wayne Township Schools owe him even more money. In a counterclaim filed by his attorneys Wednesday, Terry Thompson said the district breached his 2007 employment contract by prematurely ending his superintendent emeritus consulting job on Jan. 31, 2011, once Call 6 Investigator Kara Kenney broke the news of the payout. Thompson claims the district still owes him for unpaid salary, post-retirement contributions, deferred compensation and severance pay, but the claim does not give an exact dollar figure.

A 12-year-old Klein ISD student is facing one month in an alternative campus as punishment for relieving himself in a water bottle after his teacher refused to let him leave class to use the rest room, according the boys' attorney. On Jan. 13, the seventh-grader repeatedly asked the teacher if he could go to the bathroom and he was denied, said Houston attorney Bill Hawkins. The teacher also told him she would write him up as truant if he left the classroom, he said. "The really outrageous part is that she told him, "I hope you pee on yourself,"" Hawkins...

Continuing Contract Threatened Take Action! Write Your Delegate Today HB 576 denies experience teachers continuing contract, moving them to annual contracts. Thwart this attack on the teaching profession by writing your delegate now!

In the past, the National Education Association has made a point to highlight that many of its members consider themselves “conservative.” Those conservative teachers, however, may raise their eyebrows over some of the organizations their national union financially supports. The Michigan Education Association and NEA conceded that a large percentage of teachers are conservative in their October 2010 magazine. It posted NEA statistics that found 45 percent of teachers under 30 classified themselves as conservative and 63 percent of teachers aged 40 to 49 classified themselves as conservatives. Yet, many of those organizations that received money from the NEA describe...

Mitt Romney is a loser...an election loser. In his 1994 senatorial campaign, he lost by a huge margin (by more than 17 points) in a year when Republicans took over Congress. Despite everyone else’s success, Romney managed to lose. Of all his campaigns he has won only once when he won a single term as governor of Massachusetts, but he quickly tarnished that close victory. After becoming governor in 2002 with Kerry Healey as his running mate, Romney proceeded to mismanage his position so that his approval dropped rapidly into the 40's and then the 30's. He left that mess...

WASHINGTON -- Tensions between the rich and poor are increasing and at their most intense level in nearly a quarter-century, a new survey shows. Americans now see more social conflict over wealth inequality than over the hot-button topics of immigration, race relations and age. The survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center highlights U.S. perceptions of the economic divide, an issue that has moved to the forefront in the 2012 presidential campaign amid stubbornly high unemployment, increasing poverty and protests by the Occupy movement.

Republican presidential contenders brought buckets of cash and sharp rhetoric to South Carolina on Wednesday for an intense 10-day battle that may determine whether anyone can stop front-runner Mitt Romney's march to the party's nomination. Despite fierce attacks from his rivals, the former Massachusetts governor captured New Hampshire's primary 16 percentage points ahead of the rest of the field on Tuesday to go two-for-two at the start of the Republican nomination race after his narrow victory in Iowa's caucuses a week earlier.The New Hampshire victory felt "like Christmas Day," Romney told reporters as his plane left the state for South...

Kindergarten through 2nd grade. That’s the grade at which the National Education Association (NEA), the Future of Sex Education Initiative and a coalition of sex-ed groups want children to start learning the names of body parts and alternative family structures.The recommendations are outlined in the National Sexuality Education Standards released on Monday to school districts nationwide. Although they are non-binding, having the weight of the NEA behind the recommendations could give them the gravitas needed to quickly — and quietly — be implemented around the country.CitizenLink Education Analyst Candi Cushman says it’s important for parents to understand that this is...

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake — and that he’s created an impression that he was echoing Democratic rhetoric. Gingrich conceded the problem when pressed by a Rick Santorum supporter at a book-signing here Wednesday. “I’m here to implore one thing of you. I think you’ve missed the target on the way you’re addressing Romney’s weaknesses. I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuous about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market. I think it’s...

SALINAS, Calif. - Bullying is taking a new form online, but it's not kids attacking other kids. Now, they're turning on their teachers. What kids are doing is they're pushing their teachers over the edge, secretly recording it on their phone and uploading it to Youtube. It's becoming a teachers' worst nightmare. Students are purposely getting them angry so they can capture it all on camera. You can find a number of "Cyberbaiting" videos students are posting on Youtube. In one of them, a teacher is accused of spitting on a student, another one shows a teacher throwing and smashing...

Have a column on Iowa coming soon, but first, a quick but absurd note from the world of high finance. It seems Jim O'Neill, the head of Goldman's Asset Management department, is predicting that the United States stock market may go up "15 to 20 percent." O'Neill apparently believes Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will resort to another round of money-printing, and finally green-light the long-awaited "Qe3," or third round of "Quantitative Easing." The QE programs involve the Fed printing hundreds of billions of dollars and pumping them into the marketplace, where they ostensibly stimulate the economy (although recent...

Anoka-Hennepin teachers want to get rid of the district's controversial policy governing classroom discussions about sexual orientation - and they don't want a proposed new one to replace it. Union representatives of the 2,800-member teaching staff voted Monday against having any policy that would place dictates on classroom conversations about sexual orientation or any other topic deemed controversial, according to Julie Blaha, president of Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota. Those results were presented to the Anoka-Hennepin school board Monday night. "Despite the good intentions of it, it turned out to be more confusing and limiting than helpful," Blaha told board members, referring...

The last two presidential election cycles have revealed a stinking hypocrisy in conservatives: They profess their love of capitalism and entrepreneurship, but when offered a real capitalist and entrepreneur, they go, “Eek, a mouse!” And they tear him down in proud social-democrat fashion. In the off season, they sound like Friedrich Hayek. When the game is on, they sound like Huey Long, Bella Abzug, or Bob Shrum. Last time around, Mike Huckabee said Romney “looks like the guy who laid you off.” Conservatives reacted like this was the greatest mot since Voltaire or something. To me, Romney looked like someone...

As many as 5 million California property-tax payers who have been taking the entire amount they pay off their state income taxes could see a major cut in their deductions when they file next year. Beginning with the 2012 tax bill (the one due in April 2013), the state Franchise Tax Board will require property owners to break down their property taxes into deductible and non-deductible portions. That means property owners who have been deducting their Mello-Roos fees — often running into thousands of dollars — will no longer be able to deduct those or any other special assessments like...

According to the Quinnipiac Poll released Monday, Romney leads the field among Florida Republicans with 36 percent of the vote, followed by Newt Gingrich with 24 percent, then Rick Santorum at 16 percent. Behind them, Ron Paul has the support of 10 percent of Florida Republicans, Rick Perry has five and Jon Huntsman trails with two percent. The poll also found that 54 percent of Florida Republicans say they could change their minds in the coming weeks.

A $409 million tab projected for retiree benefit costs looms for the cash-strapped St. Paul Public Schools. Some on the school board are urging the district to tackle the liability more aggressively. But officials say there's little they can do to put a dent in the costs, which have bumped up tax bills and diverted money from the classroom. St. Paul recently started socking away money to help cover the benefits, slated to sunset in 2014. But the investment came later and started out smaller than planned, and recent market turmoil chipped away at it. "I feel we're throwing a...

Accumulated budget deficits of $15.2 trillion and unfunded entitlement liabilities of $117 trillion cannot dissuade Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and Princeton University professor, from his belief that government must go many trillions more into debt immediately to rescue Barack Obama's presidency. In his latest column extolling the virtues of the late British economist John Maynard Keynes, Mr. Krugman asserts anew that the nearly $800 billion Obama stimulus of 2009 failed to produce 4 million new jobs and keep unemployment under 8 percent simply because it was too small. (He has argued $2.9 trillion of government pump-priming was the...

Innovation is the key driver of competitiveness, wage and job growth, and longterm economic growth. Therefore, one way to approach the question of how to improve the competitiveness of the United States is to look to the past and examine the factors that helped unleash the tremendous innovative potential of the private sector. Among these factors, three pillars have been key: Federal support for basic research, education, and infrastructure. Federally supported research laid the groundwork for the integrated circuit and the subsequent computer industry; the Internet; and advances in chemicals, agriculture, and medical science. Millions of workers can trace their...

Today many in the United States are crying out to President Obama and Government to do more and more to fix our social ills. The notion that Big Government has all of the answers and solutions we need in this very chaotic and unstable world is a fairy tale. It is one that is rooted in the mistaken belief that Fallen Man through and by the efforts of Big Government or Socialism can bring security and comfort to its citizens or constituents. There is no man-made ideology or system that can ever usher in a world Utopia of perfection and...

TAMPA - Two years ago in the midterm elections, the Tea Party dominated the conversation -- and the results at the polls. But this time around, with the presidency at stake, the Tea Party is making very little noise. And that's making some people wonder if the Party's over. With Sarah Palin at the helm, and a legion of newly energized voters, the Tea Party wielded enormous clout in 2010, sending favored sons and daughters like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Nikki Haley of South Carolina to Congress. The defeats of Sharon Angle and Christine O'Donnell show that they didn't...

KEENE, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum called Friday for immediate cuts to Social Security benefits, risking the wrath of older voters and countless others who balk at changes to the entitlement program. "We can't wait 10 years," even though "everybody wants to," Santorum told a crowd while campaigning in New Hampshire and looking to set himself apart from his Republican rivals four days before the New Hampshire primary. Most of his opponents have advocated phasing in a reduction and say immediate cuts would be too big a shock to current and soon-to-be retirees.

Unemployed homeowners will be allowed to suspend or reduce mortgage payments for as long as a year under a new policy announced by mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac on Friday. The new rules take effect on Feb. 1. Freddie Mac will give mortgage servicers the authority to provide six months of forbearance to unemployed borrowers without prior approval, and the agency can approve an additional six months of forbearance after that. Homeowners are still responsible for paying off their full mortgage plus interest after the forbearance period ends. According to a Freddie Mac news release, unemployed borrowers can now avoid...

WEA Trust, a nonprofit health insurer with ties to the state's largest teachers union, wants a federal court to validate its action denying federal funds to Wisconsin school districts that dropped the company. The issue stems from funds received through the federal Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. WEA Trust applied for and received $18 million from the federal program created to offset insurance costs for early retirees, but it only shared the money with districts that still participated in its insurance program, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday ( http://bit.ly/wkLdBP). At least 14 school districts that dropped WEA Trust are considering...

A GREAT QUICK SUMMARY OF HOW TO PULL BACK FROM OBAMA ED. THE TWIN SISTER OF OBAMACARE. A lot of deals were made quickly. Arne Duncan showed up with suitcases of money. Race to the Top? Common Core Curriculum? Excuse me, I've become such a cynic. I don't believe any of this stuff will result in better schools.

Via CBS 19 News: The School Board in Charlottesville is clearly out of line, and not fooling anyone with their lame explanation for how kids came to sing a class warfare song at an assembly. Indoctrinating other people’s children with their political message is a tactic leftists use all the time. Conservatives shouldn’t stand for it, and need to continue to sound the alarm about this story.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) - Struggling to reverse a slide in his standing, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said Sunday he'd been "Romney-boated" in Iowa and suggested his GOP rival would buy the presidency if he could. The sharp words against Mitt Romney, a multimillionaire many times over who is in strong contention to win Iowa, come two days before voters here weigh in on the Republican field. It was part of a stepped-up effort by Gingrich to contrast himself with Romney, and the candidate said he would adopt an even more aggressive strategy when the race moves to New Hampshire,...

GOOD INSIGHTS ON WHY MILLIONS OF KIDS CAN'T READ. (A FOLLOW-UP FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN EARLIER POST TITLED "FAKE READING THEORY IS THE SLAVE TRADE OF OUR ERA.") The country continues to be plagued by illiteracy. The reason is simple. The country continues to be under the heel of some of the most reckless and reprehensible “experts” imaginable. They make little children memorize the SHAPES of words, which most little children simply can’t do. Ergo, these children experience major reading and cognitive problems.  Don Potter, the phonics guru and as well a teacher in Texas, recently sent me this illuminating...

Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, that is rapidly changing. The statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the U.S. middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012. The decline of the middle class is not something that has happened all of a sudden. Rather, there has been a relentless grinding down of the middle class over the last several decades. Millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas, the rate...

By his reasoning, Obama needs to destroy the middle class in order to save it... --snip-- But this isn't just a job killer. It's a middle class killer. "According to EPA's Regulatory Impact Analysis, the final Utility MACT rule will increase electricity rates by up to 6 percent in some regions of the U.S. When combined with CSAPR, electricity rates are expected to increase by up to 23 percent in some areas. National Economic Research Associates projects that Utility MACT and other EPA regulations could increase electricity and other energy prices by $170 billion by 2020." And while your electricity...

The Kindle and Nook may make for not only the most important advance in reading since Gutenberg, but also, quite likely, a major lesson in unintended consequences. Especially for the educational establishment, because for the first time in history, Americans should be able to envision a future without public-school teachers -- indeed, a future without public-school administrators or state departments of education with their rigidly enforced, politically correct social-transformation curriculum. A future without onerous school taxes, "education president(s)," self-preening school boards, or million-dollar classrooms. But most happily, a future without a single supercilious finger wagging in our face as we're...

<p>CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Authorities say nine people were shot when a fight broke out at a Chattanooga nightclub, where some 400 teens and adults were attending a Christmas party. Police say all those shot are expected to survive.</p> <p>Chattanooga police said in a press release Sunday morning that an off-duty officer who had been working at Club Fathom fired shots at a suspect who pointed a gun at him, but the gunman got away. The officer was not wounded.</p>

Dozens of teens and teachers froze as they say 40-year-old Ronette Ricketts began viciously stabbing fellow English teacher Cynthia Glozier. 3 wounds to the head, 2 puncture wounds to the neck, a dozen more to her back and body.

The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System — the worst-funded major pension plan in the U.S. — is pumping more of its assets into higher-risk investments while using accounting methods that some pension experts say understate its funding shortfall. Springfield-based TRS, the state's largest pension provider, plans to allocate about a third of its $37.8-billion portfolio to alternative investments such as private-equity and hedge funds, a four-month Crain's investigation of TRS holdings and practices finds. These unconventional assets typically dangle the potential for higher returns, but only because they also carry greater risks and fees... Gunning for bigger returns exposes the plan...

LAS VEGAS – While the Great Recession has affected almost all Americans, Nevadans may be the hardest hit. The state leads the nation in unemployment (13 percent) and home foreclosures (three times the national average). Because of the faltering economy and slowed tax revenue, the Clark County School District needs to cut $78 million from its budget over the next two years. The district must do this either by freezing teacher pay and finding a more affordable employee health insurance carrier, or by laying off 1,000 educators as early as next month.

With all of the talk of Ron Paul’s foreign policy, we wanted to know what is the most dangerous threat to the United States today. As usual, we go to the finest gathering of conservatives minds found on the internet. We go to Free Republic. We would love to know if Iran is the greatest threat. Is China the greatest threat? Is Barack Obama and the Democrat Party the greatest threat? Or is it the Republican Establishment that’s the greatest threat?

It’s so reassuring to have the intellectual elites in our nation’s teachers unions, like Sandy Hughes of Tennessee, looking out for us rubes. Hughes, a local union president, is pitching the idea that school board membership be limited to people who “have worked in the education field,” because the issues at hand are “so complex” and too complicated for average citizens.

Budget documents from 20 Colorado school districts show taxpayers spent more than $5.8 million over the past five years for the activities of teachers unions ... Some districts pay all or part of the salaries of full-time union leaders, salaries of teachers on leave to attend union-sponsored training and meetings and hiring substitutes for teachers who were attending union events. Critics of the practice say taxpayer money is being used to benefit unions, not children.

A Florida middle school teacher is facing a battery charge after she threw an assortment of food items back through a drive-thru window following a dispute with a McDonald’s employee, according to cops. The incident, which was captured by a restaurant surveillance camera, occurred around 9:45 Saturday morning at a McDonald’s in Lakeland. Simone Paolercio, 39, had ordered about $20 worth of food when she got into a dispute with a worker manning the drive-thru window. The video can be found below. Jessica Balderas, a McDonald’s worker, told cops that “there was a disagreement over two hashbrowns,” according to a...

... Never before have so many of the unemployed owed their job loss, not indirectly at all, but quite obviously directly, to the intentional, conscious directives of their president and his direct appointees, the czars and cabinet secretaries who have launched a direct frontal assault on industry after industry ever since their appointments. Consider: Car Dealers: In 2009, though everyone knew that the problems dooming Chrysler and General Motors were their enormous property and property tax obligations caused by too big, too old, factories, and their utterly unsupportable labor and pension costs, Barack Obama ordered the closure of over 3000...

The latest census shows that 1 in 2 people have slipped in America and are poor. The tax burden has risen and this idea of socialism has amounted to a charity that costs $9 out of $10 to function. It is now government itself that is the beast consuming everything, not the poor who get table scraps. After the Arab riots in Iran and how they used the internet to organize, I warned that those in Washington in the unelected backrooms were shaking in their boots and would eliminate that threat in the USA. The bill was introduced to allow...