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The teachers union has been handing out thousands of Barack Obama campaign buttons to its members, sparking a clampdown by education brass. The Department of Education - which has a long-standing policy barring teachers from wearing campaign buttons in schools - is set to send out an e-mail this week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laying down the law. MORE: Bellwether-state polls ringing for Obama MORE: Ifill Awful: Foes MORE: Bam's plans for tax cuts don't add up HURT: What Sarah & Joe must do to score a knockout "Schools are not a place for politics and not a place...

Unsigned fliers in city schools urge 'job actions' . Not a single classroom teacher showed up for work at a northwest Denver school on Tuesday, an apparent "sickout" staged by teachers upset over stalled contract talks. All 16 classroom teachers plus the music teacher and a librarian called in sick... "I didn't have any warning," Kraft said. "I don't know what the goal is, so I can't really speak to whether or not that accomplished their goal. . . . (But) I'm not sure if leaving your students without a teacher is a way to address contract negotiations." DPS Superintendent...

That $13.2 million grant Washington state won last year to enhance the teaching of Advanced Placement courses in math and science is history. It’s lost because of the financial incentives it would have provided for teachers who improve test scores. The Washington Education Association didn’t much like the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance on exams. Neither did the teachers union like the involvement of an outside party, the grant provider, in teacher-pay decisions.

In the tiny Hockinson School District, the budget gap is $250,000. For Vancouver Public Schools, the shortfall is more like $4 million, officials say. In the Evergreen district, it’s at least $1.6 million. Across Clark County and Washington state, school districts are feeling the pinch of a large cost-of-living pay hike for teachers and other workers, approved by state legislators earlier this year.

Two Seattle high schools are among seven statewide that will lose a chance to add and strengthen Advanced Placement courses in math and science because a $13.2 million grant that Washington state won last year has been scrapped. The National Math & Science Initiative (NMSI), based in Dallas, announced that it will end Washington's grant because NMSI was unable to reach agreement with Washington's schools on the terms of the contract. NMSI declined to give any specifics, but state Rep. Bill Fromhold, who resigned his legislative post as of next year so he could help administer Washington's grant, said it...

<p>Woops, an errant email advisory sent to House Democratic members by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office had some unique suggested talking points for the upcoming "Read Across America" day. Basically, it said, just tell the kids and their teachers: blah, blah, blah.</p> <p>"Blah, blah, blah, blah Blah, blah, blah."</p>

Sen. Reid a no comment on caucus lawsuit (UPDATED)By J. Patrick Coolican January 12, 2008 · 4:01 PM Sen. Harry Reid declined to comment on a lawsuit brought to eliminate the at-large caucus sites that are designed to allow Strip casino workers to attend the caucus on Jan. 19. In an e-mail, his spokesman said Reid would leave it to the courts. The statement comes as a surprise, given that Reid is the public face of a contest meant to insure minority and labor representation like that of Strip casino workers, and the lawsuit would seem to undermine the legitimacy...

This time each year vir tually every school in New Jersey shuts down for at least two days so a fraction of the state's 176,735 public school teachers can go to Atlantic City for the annual New Jersey Education Association convention. This has to rank among the biggest scams perpetrated on the public. Name one other profession in which people are given time off from work for professional development but are free to go nowhere near the convention. Yet, since 1920, state law has dictated that teachers must be permitted to attend the convention without using a personal, vacation or...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill on Sunday, as he previously said he would, to bar the two biggest U.S. public pension funds from investing in companies doing business in Iran. The bill, which affects the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran. Schwarzenegger's office had issued an announcement last month stating he would sign the bill while he was in New York as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was appearing at Columbia University. "I couldn't be more proud to sign this bill," Schwarzenegger echoed...

Teachers Protest in Front of Parliament Parisa Hatami 2007.08.30 For the second day yesterday, a group of unhappy teachers held a protest in front of the Majlis building, as representatives from the Iranian Teachers Union [“Kanun-e Senfiy-e Mo’aleman”] wrote a letter to the head of judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi. In their letter, teachers requested to meet with the cleric and asked for his help in putting an end to violent confrontations and imprisonment of activist teachers. Meanwhile, the reformist Participation Front [“Hezb-e Mosharekat”] released a statement condemning the recent treatment of teachers and calling on courts to reverse the convictions of...

Focus On: Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered Persons ( 825 KB, 2pp) Teaching Tolerance or Attacking Religion: How far can schools go in teaching tolerance for gays and lesbians? Safe Schools for Everyone: An interview with Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) School Employee's Guide to GLBT Issues The Safe Zone: Links to bullying resources, a brief glossary of bias terms, and a downloadable poster NEA believes that a great public school is a fundamental right of every child—free from intimidation and harassment, and safe for all students, including those who identify as...

What effect a pro-life protest at the National Education Association's annual convention is having depends on who answers the question. Some teachers and educators attending the convention agree with the pro-life advocates who say the teacher's union should take no position on abortion, others don't. Many delegates openly expressed disbelief, skepticism, and even shock, at the revelation that NEA supports abortion. But others refused to accept the fact that the NEA is one of Planned Parenthood's primary advocates and co-sponsored huge pro-abortion rallies in Washington in April 2004 and other years. Bob Pawson, the coordinator of Pro-Life Educators and Students...

The National Education Association (NEA), which gathers this week for its annual meeting in Philadelphia, has just been brought up short by an Ohio court ruling that an individual teacher’s union dues may not be used to fund pro-abortion activities, if that teacher objects for religious reasons.  But many teachers may not be aware that NEA and its state affiliates also fund pro-homosexual activities, including groups advocating the full expression of homosexuality and “transgendered” behaviors by children and teachers at school.The teachers’ union also sponsors training on “GLBT issues.” Its NEA-GLBT Caucus will hold a workshop on June 29 for...

House lawmakers in Delaware approved a bill yesterday that eliminated the two-year statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse, but it does not apply to public school teachers. An attempt by Rep. Greg Lavelle to pass an amendment waiving immunity for government workers failed (he will try again). The bill now goes back to the Senate. Leading the charge to protect the teachers is Sen. Karen Peterson. Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented as follows: “The degree of corruption in the Delaware legislature is matched only by the selective indignation its lawmakers have for child rape. The legislators...

Scotland's biggest teaching union has voted by a clear majority to call for a ban on the armed forces targeting recruitment campaigns at schools. The move follows an emotional debate at the EIS annual conference in Perth. Supporters of the motion claimed the military was tackling a shortage of recruits by targeting impressionable teenagers in deprived areas. An Army spokesman said they were disappointed and would go into schools when invited by headteachers. Supporters of the ban claimed the military targeted teenagers with t-shirts, pictures of helicopters and even Christmas cards from the recruiting officers. Opponents at the conference...

Some help students during standards test - or fix answers later - and California's safeguards may leave more breaches unreported and California's safeguards may leave more breaches unreported Teachers have helped students cheat on California's high-stakes achievement tests -- or blundered badly enough to compromise their validity -- in at least 123 public schools since 2004, a Chronicle review of documents shows. Schools admitted outright cheating in about two-thirds of the cases. And while the number reporting problems represents a small fraction of the state's 9,468 public schools, some experts think the practice of cooking the test results is...

Locke High seeks to leave L.A. Unified Its teachers have signed petitions urging control be given to Green Dot charter schools. The loss would be a blow to the district and union. By Joel Rubin, Times Staff Writer May 10, 2007 Challenging the balance of power in the city's public school system, a leading charter school organization is poised to wrest control of a failing high school from the elected Los Angeles Board of Education. Green Dot Public Schools, which has clashed frequently with the board in its aggressive push to expand, has quietly overseen the collection of signatures of...

Veteran GOP Sen. Ken Kester denounced an unsuccessful advertising campaign against him by the Colorado Education Association, charging it "twists and turns" his opposition to a pending statewide property tax hike. A spokeswoman for the teachers union, meanwhile, confirmed that the Colorado Campaign for Children and Public Schools, named at the bottom of the newspaper ad as its sponsor, is the CEA's "527" political-spending arm. Records with the Secretary of State's Office show prominent Democrat lawyer Mark Grueskin filed the group's paperwork. The property-tax hike -- on its way to the governor for his likely signature -- would freeze the...

April 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The head of Iran's Teachers Union, Ali Akbar Baghani, was today arrested in Tehran while he was teaching. Baghani had also been detained in March and released after spending about two weeks in jail. The Teachers Union has been involved in organizing peaceful demonstrations against low wages. In recent weeks a number of teachers involved in these protests have been detained. Most of the detainees have been released. Human Rights groups have criticized the Iranian government for detaining and summoning teachers who have staged the protests.

LOS ANGELES — There are times when, much as I love my adopted city of Los Angeles, I can only shake my head and think, “This couldn’t happen in a real city.” By real, I don’t mean to be measuring tinsel content, but civic engagement. People don’t pay attention to politics here the way they do in other cities, the media doesn’t cover it the same way (don’t even get me started on that), and the result is that politicians get away with murder. Or worse. Watts is a place that most people who don’t live in don’t set foot...

NEWARK, N.J. (March 27) - The head of the city's teachers union said it won't take down "Stop the killings" billboards despite complaints from business owners and the new mayor that they're driving away business. Mayor Cory Booker, who campaigned last year on a promise of reducing crime, says the signs fuel a negative image of the city, where a record 106 people were killed last year - the highest number in a decade. "I know if I had tens of thousands of dollars, I wouldn't use them on billboards," Booker said. "I would use them for after-school programs. I...

Seven students who were led out of Simmons Middle School in handcuffs Friday face mob action charges for staging a sit- in to protest teacher cuts -- which include the chaperone for an annual trip to Six Flags Great America. Ridgeland District 122 officials called police to the Oak Lawn school after students refused to disburse from a hallway where they sat chanting, "Save our teachers, save our schools." "They were given every opportunity to return to class," police Chief Bill Villanova said. When the kids weren't responding to the orders ... we took the steps we thought were necessary,"...

Spending at least $1.6 million in taxpayer funds on professional artwork instead of building or repairing city schools is raising questions about the school district's spending decisions. Spending bond money on art is not illegal but unusual. School officials in Chicago, Philadelphia and other large cities say they don't spend large sums on art for their schools... Most of the Detroit art was purchased under former schools chief Kenneth Burnley, but the payments continued after William Coleman was named superintendent in July 2005. It's unclear how many art pieces were bought. The money was a sliver of the $1.5 billion...

The California Federation of Teachers has invited Apple CEO Steve Jobs to either attend an annual CFT convention next month or offer a public apology for his "insulting comments" to California's teachers. Should Jobs fail to apologize or neglect to attend the conference, where he is encouraged to speak with the people who educate California's children and hear from them what the situation is like, the CFT will create a new award specifically for Apple's chief. "We'll call it the Rotten Apple, for the individual who best personifies the need to think differently about public education and teacher unions," California...

Numerous studies have shown that millions of Americans cannot read or write well enough to conduct basic transactions of life, according to The Washington Post: † Low health literacy affects up to 90 million Americans, according to a 2004 report by the Institute of Medicine. These adults are unable to “obtain and understand basic health information and services needed to make informed decisions.” … [A] surprisingly large number of adults were perplexed by the meaning of the term “orally,” didn't know the difference between a teaspoon and tablespoon and were unable to calculate the proper dose of medicine. † Forty-three...

Chris Romer is a freshman Colorado Senator. He's a bright fellow with a degree from Stanford in economics and more than 20 years of experience in the private sector as a public finance investment banker, specializing in municipal and state budgets. The son of former Gov. Roy Romer, he has a good political pedigree. He describes himself as a "lifelong Democrat," but I don't necessarily hold that against him. After all, Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat. Romer was awarded a seat on the Education Committee. Since Colorado governments - at all levels, combined - spend more money on education...

1) Mandate high school graduation or equivalency as compulsory for everyone below the age of 21. Just as we established compulsory attendance to the age of 16 or 17 in the beginning of the 20th century, it is appropriate and critical to eradicate the idea of "dropping out" before achieving a diploma. To compete in the 21st century, all of our citizens, at minimum, need a high school education. 2) Establish high school graduation centers for students 19-21 years old to provide specialized instruction and counseling to all students in this older age group who would be more effectively addressed...

(snip)A recent article in 5280 Magazine extolled the fine efforts of Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to turn around this underperforming district. As a demonstration of the difficulty of his task, we saw a paper submitted by a 10th grader at a DPS high school who was assigned to "write down five things the U.S. government is currently doing that might be unconstitutional." The student offered two: "1. Bushe cold have help the Katrina people whin it hapin. 2. Bushe should't be tipin in to people's phone."(bold added)

Aren't these the same people who always want higher taxes, er, investments....to more fully fund the public schools??????? October 20, 2006 Congress Prepares To Raise Teacher Taxes; Elected Officials Need to Hear From Us NOW Teachers and paraprofessionals will be socked with a $250 tax increase if Congress continues to fail to renew a tax deduction for educators’ out-of-pocket classroom supply expenses. That’s why we must send every member of Congress a clear message: Congress should do the right thing and renew the tax deduction for teachers and paraprofessionals who reach into their own pockets so that their students and...

American Federation of the Totally Clueless by: Malcolm A. Kline, October 19, 2006 Recently, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) took sideswipes at two friends of mine—Candace de Russy and David Horowitz. What AFT editor Barbara McKenna did was to set up a quote from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then ask whether it was said by Candace, David or Mahmoud. “A) is a good guess, since conservative reformer de Russy has been on a two-year tear to implement an academic bill of rights at [the State University of New York] SUNY, as Free Exchange on Campus has reported” McKenna...

 The United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) might finally be learning that bashing Israel isn’t a job for teachers. It is no secret that the teachers union did everything in its power to defeat Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his educational reforms during last year’s special election in California.  What wasn’t as widely known until this month was that UTLA has also been doing its part to bring Israel, a country many of UTLA’s radical leaders detest, to her knees.   Not until it was bombarded by complaints from concerned citizens did UTLA cancel its decision to host a meeting sponsored by the...

Gates Foundation Is Giving $1.3 Million to L.A. Schools By Howard Blume, Times Staff Writer September 14, 2006 The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today will announce a $1.3-million grant to Los Angeles schools to improve the teaching of algebra and other college-prep courses. The investment is modest compared to other Gates grants and even other school district initiatives, but marks a growing partnership between the nation's second-largest school system and perhaps the world's largest private philanthropic fund. The one-year grant will pay for teacher training and curriculum design. The hope is to build on documented achievement gains at the...

This week's back-to-school ads offer amazing bargains on lightweight backpacks and nifty school supplies. All those businesses scramble to offer us good stuff at low prices. It's amazing what competition does for consumers. The power to say no to one business and yes to another is awesome. Too bad we don't apply that idea to schools themselves. Education bureaucrats and teachers unions are against it. They insist they must dictate where kids go to school, what they study, and when. When I went on TV to say that it's a myth that a government monopoly can educate kids effectively, hundreds...

Beaumont Police Detectives are investigating allegations that there was a secret sex club at Ozen High School that involved students, alumni and possibly even an employee of the school. A Jefferson County Grand Jury has indicted a current Ozen employee, 42-year-old Tommy Floyd Granger for indecency with a child. A former student, 25-year-old Byron Aaron Bell was also indicted for sexual assault. The accuser is coming forward 5 years after she says the assault took place. She claims she was part of a group known as "3K" made up of 9th and 10th grade girls who would perform sexual favors...

Frustrated teachers and administrators are being lured by independent schools with the promise of more support and freedom. Amid the continuing growth of charter schools in Los Angeles, hundreds of teachers and administrators have left the city's school system to take jobs at the independently run campuses. In the latest wave of departures, dozens of frustrated Los Angeles Unified School District staffers have been courted away by Green Dot Public Schools — one of the city's leading charter operators. Others who are choosing to leave the district for Green Dot or other charters echo Funes' concerns. Working within the nation's...

NEA Delegates Accept Resolution Endorsing Same-Sex 'Marriage' (AgapePress) - The National Education Association (NEA) has voted overwhelmingly to endorse legal civil unions and same-sex "marriages." The president of the Alabama Education Association had asked that the resolution supporting legal homosexual unions be referred back to the Resolutions Committee. The NEA Resolutions Committee earlier had deleted a controversial amendment to its "Diversity" policy (known as B-8), which would have comprehensively endorsed same-sex marriage. Consequently, the Alabama delegate's request would have left the union without a homosexual marriage resolution for the upcoming school year. But NEA delegates voted not to refer the...

The National Education Association (NEA) has dropped an amendment that was going to ask its convention delegates to support homosexual marriage and civil unions in all 50 states. Cybercast News Service has learned that an NEA delegate earlier this month leaked the language of the amendment to conservative groups and the resulting protest apparently prompted the NEA to substitute it with a weaker version. Instead of asking delegates to endorse homosexual marriage and civil unions across the board, the substitute asks convention delegates to endorse homosexual domestic partnerships, civil unions and marriage in states that already "legally recognize" the relationships....

Teacher's union begins plans to promote homosexual marriage in public schools The National Education Association is set to endorse homosexual marriage at their convention coming up in Orlando June 29 through July 6. The new NEA proposal essentially says schools should support and actively promote homosexual marriage and other forms of marriage (two men and one woman, three women, two women and three men, etc.) in their local schools. The new proposal, expected to pass overwhelmingly, is found under the B-8 Diversity paragraph: The Association... believes in the importance of observances, programs and curricula that accurately portray and recognize the...

National Education Association Set to Endorse Homosexual Marriage Teacher's union begins plans to promote homosexual marriage in public schools Dear xxxxxx, The National Education Association is set to endorse homosexual marriage at their convention coming up in Orlando June 29 through July 6. The new NEA proposal essentially says schools should support and actively promote homosexual marriage and other forms of marriage (two men and one woman, three women, two women and three men, etc.) in their local schools. The new proposal, expected to pass overwhelmingly, is found under the B-8 Diversity paragraph: The Association... believes in the importance of...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A judge Friday suspended California's high school exit exam _ denounced as discriminatory by critics _ in a ruling that could allow thousands of students who failed the test to get their diplomas anyway. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by 10 students and their parents, who claim the exam discriminates against poor students and those who are learning English. "There is evidence in the record that shows that students in economically challenged communities have not had an equal opportunity to learn the materials tested," Freedman wrote. The argued that the six students...

Of every 100 freshmen entering a Chicago public high school, only about six will earn a bachelor's degree by the time they're in their mid-20s... The prospects are even worse for African-American and Latino male freshmen, who only have about a 3 percent chance of obtaining a bachelor's degree by the time they're 25. The study, which tracked Chicago high school students who graduated in 1998 and 1999, also found that making it to college doesn't ensure success: Of the city public school students who went to a four-year college, only about 35 percent earned a bachelor's degree within six...

States are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting the No Child Left Behind law's requirement that students of all races must show annual academic progress. With the federal government's permission, schools aren't counting the test scores of nearly 2 million students when they report progress by racial groups, an Associated Press computer analysis found.

Article Launched: 3/10/2006 01:43 PM Controversial teacher keeps job By DenverPost.com A Cherry Creek social studies teacher will not lose his job, after a student went public with a tape recording of controversial comments the teacher had made in class. Superintendent Monte C. Moses said Jay Bennish will be reinstated to his job at Overland High School, and will be teaching on Monday. At a news conference this afternoon, Moses said Bennish doesn't deserve to be praised, nor does he deserve to be fired. "Jay Bennish has promise as a teacher, but his practice and deportment need growth and refinement,"...

Jay Bennish is a teacher who collects paychecks for teaching Colorado high school students about geography. Here is a sample from one of Bennish’s classes: “Do you see how this economic system [capitalism] is at odds with humanity? At odds with caring and compassion? It is at odds with human rights. Anytime you have a system that’s designed to procure profit, when profit is the bottom motive, money, that means money is going to become more important potentially than what? Safety, human lives, etcetera.” According to Tustin Amole, Public Information Officer for the Cherry Creek School District, the above statement...

Teachers unions are mad at me. The New York State United Teachers demands I apologize for my "gutter level" journalism, "an irresponsible assault on public school students and teachers." This is because I hosted an ABC News TV special titled "Stupid in America," which pointed out: -- American fourth graders do well on international tests, but by high school, Americans have fallen behind kids in most other countries. -- The constant refrain that "public schools need more money" is nonsense. Many countries that spend significantly less on education do better than we do. School spending in America (adjusted for inflation)...

A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think. "My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society," Jay Bennish said on NBC's "Today Show." Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora, Colo., while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints...

The Associated Press reached a new level of incompetence, and the "news" industry they serve doesn’t seem to care. If you want political opinion, you’ll find it in Associated Press dispatches. If you want news, you might have to read conservative opinion columns. On February 22nd, Walter Williams, a Townhall.com columnist, scooped the mainstream media. Williams reported that high school teacher Jay Bennish lectured his geography class stating: 1) "[President Bush’s State of the Union Speech] sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say." 2) "Bush is threatening the whole planet." 3) "[The] U.S. wants to keep...

COLORADO high-school sophomore Sean Allen couldn't convince his father that his geography teacher was as over-the-top as he contended. So Allen taped one of his teacher's rants on his MP3 player. Too bad for Jay Bennish: His 20 minute lecture ended up on talk radio. As aired on Mike Rosen's show, Bennish said President Bush talks like Hitler: "I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same," but that the two share "eerie similarities." Peruvians and Iranians arguably have "a right to bomb North Carolina" because the state grows tobacco. On Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda operatives were...

by Mark Finkelstein March 7, 2006 Turns out the real culprit in the Colorado kerfluffle over the teacher who compared Pres. Bush to Hitler is . . . the student who complained about it. Just ask Matt Lauer. Interviewing teacher Jay Bennish this morning, Lauer laid out this sympathetic scenario: Lauer: "The family here, the student's family, didn't go to the school board with this tape." Bennish: "They never contacted me." Lauer: "They shopped it around to conservative media outlets and finally released it to one and created an uproar. On the tape you can hear Sean Allen [the student...

Student 'starting to get crucified,' his dad says By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News March 4, 2006 Sean Allen's dad says he isn't handling this week's media attention and threats as well as his son. "Sean has handled this way better than his father," Jeff Allen, Sean's dad, said in an interview with Sean Hannity, syndicated talk show host with Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. "To read some of these e-mails that are attacking Sean is just devastating," he said. "It looks like the tactic is to turn it around, to make it about Sean and not about the...