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From the "just when you thought you'd seen everything file" comes the revelation that the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States, has an interesting book in its "Recommended Reading" section. That book is none other than Radical Marxist and Community Organizer, Saul Alinsky's, "Rule for Radicals." Barack Obama, the nation's leading radical "Community Organizer", corrupt ACORN, and Saul Alinsky's, "Rules for Radicals," have indivisible ties...

Which of the following factors should most protect teachers from layoffs? Seniority, Competency, Undecided.

The National Education Association has made a glowing assessment of radical socialist community organizer Saul Alinsky and is enthusiastically recommending American public school teachers read two of his books, including one dedicated to Satan. On its website, the NEA dubs Alinsky "an inspiration to anyone contemplating action in their community! And to every organizer!" It recommends Alinsky's "Reveille for Radicals," a 1946 book about the principles and tactics of "community organizing," and "Rules for Radicals," a 1971 text that articulated a socialist strategy for gaining political power to redistribute wealth from the "haves" to the "have-nots." The NEA, the largest...

over the last six years, Buffalo taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to teachers not to teach. Twelve different teachers have collected $2.25 million in salary while under suspension and waiting for disciplinary hearings during that time. And that amount doesn't include the costs for substitutes and the hearings themselves. The average wait for those hearings: three years. The school district doesn't release the names of the teachers, or what they've been charged with, but we've learned that right now there's a Physical Education teacher awaiting a hearing who was suspended four years ago this month and has been paid...

To cite just one terrible example, a New York City teacher is paid more than $100,000 not to teach. Thank her powerful union. Brandi Scheiner believes she is a political prisoner. Held against her will in what is euphemistically dubbed a "rubber room," the 56-year-old woman likens her two-year captivity to being imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. Alas, it's unlikely the Red Cross will hear her case. She's a New York City public school teacher who, like about 600 fellow NYC teachers, has been removed from the classroom for alleged incompetence or other charges that include being drunk in the classroom...

Florida is changing its policy on youths who opt for a GED to finish high school in less than four years. Until now, those looking for a shortcut could earn the same diploma as others. But Education Commissioner Eric Smith says that's not fair... So Smith has notified school districts that all who take the General Educational Development test must now receive a high school equivalency diploma, just like dropouts who later go through the GED process.

Hotel foreclosures spread throughout California Andrew S. Ross Sunday, July 12, 2009 The "challenges" for San Francisco's biggest business are coming thick and fast. That oft-used word at last Tuesday's San Francisco Visitors & Convention Bureau luncheon rang loud and clear two days later when the Four Seasons Hotel on Market Street defaulted on a $90 million loan. Those who might have forgotten were reminded that Nob Hill's famed Stanford Court Hotel had gone into receivership two weeks earlier, owing $89 million after its new owners bought the place for $93 million two years ago and spent $32 million in...

President Barack Obama laid out his "cradle to career" agenda for education Tuesday, including a controversial plan to boost pay for teachers who excel. In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Obama said he backs the idea of merit pay for the best school teachers. "It is time to start rewarding good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones," he said. Teacher unions have strongly opposed bringing such a system to public education. But in his talk, Mr. Obama said the time has come to do just that. He said, "too many supporters of my...

Richmond city leaders are hunting for $1.5 million a year over the next two years to help bail out the West Contra Costa school district from its financial hole and keep Richmond schools from closing. The money would buy the district more time to lobby state and federal officials to forgive its debt, or to persuade voters to pay higher taxes to keep neighborhood schools with low enrollment open, city officials said. City Councilwoman Maria Viramontes said the district must find a long-term solution to its problem, not just apply bandages. With Richmond willing to pitch in, school district officials...

Teachers union proposes sales tax to fund schools BURLINGAME — The California Teachers Association has proposed a statewide ballot initiative to raise at least $5 billion a year for public education through a 1-cent sales tax increase. The tax would provide new, ongoing funding for schools and community colleges in a time of continuing budget shortfalls, the Burlingame-based association said. "California's budget process is broken," said David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member CTA, "and our students and schools are suffering the consequences. More students are being squeezed into already overcrowded classrooms (and) more than 10,000 teachers and education support professionals...

Denver Public Schools superintendent Michael Bennet is expected to be named Saturday as the future U.S. Senate replacement for Interior Secretary nominee Ken Salazar, according to two Democratic sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to name his U.S. Senate replacement pick on Saturday, ending a brief but frenzied period of speculation about who will take the seat of Interior Secretary nominee Ken Salazar. The selection would be preliminary, since Salazar is not expected to resign his U.S. Senate seat until sometime after Jan. 15, when he faces a confirmation hearing — and later...

Having been inspired by reading the President-Elect's biography to her daughter, Letrice Titus personally contacted Obama's publishers for copies of the book for Syracuse students. Some Syracuse students have something new to read in the upcoming school year. "This is really an inspiring story about a mother who [has] read about Obama to her daughter, and then trying to take that experience through the Syracuse City School District," says former City Councilman Mike Atkins. Atkins joined Letrice Titus and Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney at Bellvue and Lincoln middle schools Monday morning. "It's relevant to their lives...it's not often that...

Gov. Rod Blagojevich became the state's first Democratic chief executive in more than a quarter of a century after vowing to reform what he labeled the culture of corruption surrounding his predecessor that had fed deep cynicism among Illinoisans. But little more than a year after replacing George Ryan in office in 2003, Blagojevich found his administration at the early stages of what became a host of state and federal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving state hiring, board appointments, contracting and fundraising that battered his tenure. *snip* As part of the investigation, in which 13 people have been indicted...

Nov. 23 -- BURLINGAME -- California's largest teachers union will back a fight in court to overturn the state's new eighth-grade algebra requirement. The Burlingame-based California Teachers Association has joined the lawsuit by the California School Boards Association and the Association of California School Administrators against the state Board of Education's decision to require all middle school students to be tested in Algebra I by the end of eighth grade starting in 2011. The state board "acted abruptly, imprudently and without fully understanding the consequences of its actions on our schools, teachers and students," said David Sanchez, president of the...

This is ghastly. If you are a parent with elementary schoolchildren, you will hit the roof.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose one-day-a-month unpaid furloughs for state workers for the next 17 months, as well as rescinding two of the workers' 13 paid holidays, sources said this morning. The governor is scheduled to unveil his proposals this morning for closing a budget deficit that could be as big as $11.2 billion for the fiscal year that started July 1 and another $13 billion in the next fiscal year. A source, who asked not be named because they are not authorized to speak on the issue for their state agency, said the administration is estimating that by cutting...

Income Redistribution: California Teachers Association blows $1 million opposing Proposition 8 by Kurt Schulzke on October 28, 2008 If there’s one “value” shared by Barack Obama, unions and marxists around the world, it is this: If you’re going to spend money, make sure it belongs to someone else. The California Teachers Association has played this redistribution game for decades, most recently dumping $1 million in CTA dues into anti-Prop 8 advertising. Today, however, California teachers can take some of that loot back. Specifically, teachers can take back up to $300 per year as a refund of CTA dues used by...

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...