District 86 ponders $1.1 million in staff cuts

Another school board does the right thing. After a survey only 40% of voters said they were willing to pay an increase in taxes. This school board did the right thing and is not going to run a referendum in March 2006. This article appeared in the November 17th edition of The Doings What a great story.

District 15 McHenry, District 50 Harvard and District 300 Carpentersville/Algonquin in past elections have heard the voters and they said No. Will these boards continue to divide their communities or will they reject the idea of running referenda next spring?

District 86 ponders $1.1 million in staff cuts
BY JANE MICHAELS
STAFF WRITER

Nine teachers could be eliminated as part of the cuts to head off a $1.1 million deficit projected in 2006-07 for Hinsdale High School District 86.

District 86 finance committee Chairman Mark Emmons said Friday that the cuts include several support staff positions, four coaching jobs and the sponsorship of several clubs and activities. District administrators are suggesting the cuts, but no specific positions have been identified, he added.

"The potential cuts could be fairly significant," Emmons said. "It's never easy."

Superintendent Nicholas Wahl said Monday that he also plans to outline other ways to decrease spending. That report is scheduled to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, at Hinsdale Central High School, 55th and Grant streets.

To balance next year's budget, board members agreed in October to trim programs rather than pursue a March referendum to generate more tax revenue. A September survey reported only 40 percent of voters were willing to pay more in taxes to offset increased operating expenses.

The board had been prepared to reduce spending by $2 million -- one estimate of next year's budget deficit. But a revised forecast decreased the estimated shortfall to $1.1 million, Wahl said.

Budget deficits are projected to continue. Officials are expecting a $4.1 million deficit in 2007-08 and a $4.5 million deficit in 2008-09. By 2008-09, the district's fund balances won't be able to offset the deficit and the district will be $377,000 in the hole, according to projections.

Emmons said board members will consider how budget cuts will affect class sizes, especially classes with low enrollments, such as advanced placement mathematics and foreign language.

"If we eliminate or target classes with low enrollment, then only Spanish would be offered at Hinsdale South, for example," Emmons said. "No, that's not acceptable."

Currently, French, German, Spanish and Latin are offered at Hinsdale Central and South high schools.

Emmons said the board's budgeting process takes four months, and several factors complicate the process.

In December, the federal government will release the consumer price index, an essential piece for calculating district revenue next year. Tax cap laws limit the increase in the district's tax levy to 5 percent, or the previous year's CPI, whichever is lower, plus an amount for new growth. The 2004 CPI is 3.3 percent.

Another factor will be the new contract to be negotiated with district teachers, Emmons said. In March, negotiations are expected to begin to replace the current three-year contract, which expires at the end of the school year.

Ethics drive board to cut taxes, risk losses

Another school district took in more than they told the voters during a past referendum. This school board did the right thing and cut taxes. The below article appeared in the November 17th edition of The Doings.

Ethics drive board to cut taxes, risk losses

BY LESLIE O'NEIL
STAFF WRITER

Fighting back tears, school board president Louise Hillegass urged the board to weigh all options before taking the final 4-3 vote that could result in cutting district programs.


Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 Monday discussed for nearly 3 1/2 hours the benefits and disadvantages of slashing the tax rate from the equivalent of 60 cents to 31 cents. Because of a temporarily lifted tax cap, a reallocation of funds and the use of a phase-in method to increase tax rates, the district has received more than twice what was requested in a 2002 referendum. A group of citizens caught the error.

"I do not believe we have acted unethically," Hillegass said, adding she believes the board never intended to overtax residents.

But with schools' programs on the line, she said the board faces another ethical problem -- whether to risk educational quality to appease overtaxed residents.

"I want to be quite sure we're doing the right thing for the district," she said. "There's a lot of gray out there. I want to be careful about not oversimplifying this issue."

Along with Hillegass, Superintendent Mary Curley recommended postponing cutting the rate until a committee of citizens could be formed and more residents' views could be heard. Business manager Pat Seigel warned that returning to the 31-cent rate and abating the $5 million would likely result in the district needing to pass another referendum by 2008.

"Think seriously about not giving back the $5 million tonight," Curley told the board. "It's not imperative that we make that decision tonight. Nobody's paying for the time, and you can still end up in the same place."

During public comment, residents voiced concerns that they were being stolen from, even having their "wallets lifted" by the board. One resident presented a visual, the "district mascot" -- an oinking piggy bank that grunts "more money, more money."

Still others, some calling themselves the quiet majority, said they would rather be overtaxed than see children lose programs and homes lose property value.

"I'm concerned that the opinions of a few are being interpreted as the feelings of the majority," one resident said. "They call themselves anti-tax, but I think they're anti-education."

Despite pleas from Hillegass, Curley and other board members, taking additional time to sort out the issue wouldn't have changed four board members' minds.

"The bottom line is at the end of this, it's my ethics. If I think it's wrong now, I'm still going to think it's wrong in March," board member Lisa Armonda said about the board keeping any additional money. "I can't come up with any other scenario than this. I'm sorry."

Armonda, along with Kitty Delaney, Mary Beth Tamm and Kevin Hanrahan, approved returning to the 31-cent increase and abating the additional $5 million. Hillegass, Bill Mouka and Daniel Rizzardini opposed the motion.

Before the 4-3 vote, Curley warned the decision could result in lost programs.

She presented a list of more than 20 items that could be reduced or slashed.

"To even mention a lot of these cuts is difficult," Curley said as she unveiled the option of consolidating special education classes and reducing special education staff.

Despite the possible cuts, Hanrahan said he would vote for what he thinks is right.

"I have to set an example for my children about what's right and what's wrong," he said. "I can't justify using money without a formal public mandate."

During closing public comment, residents expressed gratitude for the board members' efforts.

"I don't know how I would have voted," one resident said. "Every one of you made an ethical vote. I'm personally very proud to have every one of you as a board member."

D-2 teachers set to strike

D-2 does not have the money to pay teachers more than the teachers have demanded. Their employers (the taxpayers) told D-2 teachers they do not want to give them more money. Now the teachers like spoiled two year olds stomp their feet and go on strike to demand more money. All this with no regard to their fellow teachers who will lose their jobs if the board caves to salaries they cannot afford. This is about money not about the children. They are already paid well and even with the proposed changes in benefits have better benefits than most taxpayers who support them.

It is time for the taxpayers and parents to fight back and fight back big. Encourage your board not to cave. Hold the teachers off until Christmas, give them a taste of what it is like not to afford Christmas presents. Go on strike. Families who have a stay at home Mom or Dad should support their neighbors with two income families and agree to watch their children. Homeschool parents should agree to take in their neighbors’ children. Call your school board and offer them support. Call you student's teacher and ask them to get back to work. In general terms do your best to teach your children about budgets, economics and why this is important not to cave to the union. Now is a good time to teach children you can not always have everything you want this is should be a good lesson in patience and working for what you believe is best for your children. Explain how the teachers can retire at 55 with pensions larger than many people’s salaries that have to work to age 67 and beyond.

For more information go to Citizens Against Unrestrained Spending in Education (CAUSE)- 4 Kids


The below article appeared in the November 16, 2005 issue of The Northwest Herald.

D-2 teachers set to strike



RICHMOND – Nippersink District 2 board members walked silently past a gantlet of 50 teachers and support staff outside the middle school Tuesday night while the crowd chanted, "Settle, settle, settle" under dripping umbrellas.

Three hours later, Richmond-Spring Grove Education Association representatives left negotiations and announced that its members would go on strike starting Thursday.

"Our members will be picketing during regular working hours," said Laura Biloz, co-president of the union. "The board of education of Nippersink District 2 has provoked this strike. The association is in agreement with the district on a contract for this year that would have kept our children in school. The association made significant concessions in salary, benefits, insurance and working conditions to make that agreement possible. However, the district demanded even further concessions for next year before the parties had a chance to look at a clear financial picture at that time."

Superintendent Paul Hain said the district had offered teachers a two-year contract with a 0.5 percent increase the first year and a 1.5 percent the second year. Each year also would include a 1.4 percent step increase for the additional year of teaching experience.

Hain said the teachers came back with a counterproposal for a 5.4 percent increase the second year, which would include the step increase.

"They're not negotiating here," Hain said. "It is an ultimatum."

The three-school district has 1,600 students. The union represents 103 teachers and eight support staff members.

Nippersink Middle School teacher Lorie Comstock said she still remembered the informational picketing that occurred three years ago, when the two sides fought over a contract.

The difference this time, Comstock said, is that the teachers are not fighting for larger increases but for fewer cuts in their benefits.

"I refuse to take home less pay, and that is what it is going to be," Comstock said. "We're not in this for the money, but I don't want to be taken advantage of either."

Teachers voted against a two-year contract Nov. 9. The proposed contract would have cut $450 per teacher that the district pays into a medical flexible spending account and would have split contributions to teachers pensions for any increase more than the current 11.38 percent. In addition, insurance deductibles for employees would have increased to $300 from $250, and the district would have covered 80 percent of medical costs instead of the current 90 percent.

Hain said the school board was willing to extend the benefits until the end of the school year, which would have cost the district between $34,000 and $37,000.

"The board is committed not to ask the taxpayers for more money," Hain said. "If we go beyond this point in year one, we will be increasing deficit spending."

Thursday's strike will be the first time teachers have walked off the job since Cary Community Consolidated School District 26 and Harvard Community Unit District 50 teachers went on strike in September and October 2002.

Biloz said the union wanted to give parents one day to prepare for the strike, but there was still time for the board to reach a settlement.

"They could agree to the one year, or they could come back with a new offer," Biloz said. "They need to realize we can't give up any more."

Hain said the school board did not call off negotiations and was prepared to go back to a federal mediator.

"We will run school right up until they are not here," Hain said. "At that point, we will shut down. We will await the results. We know we will have to go back and bargain at some point in time."


By JEFF GARD

jgard@nwherald.com

Teachers say 'Y' not us?

Teachers' unions continue to bully others into salaries they cannot afford. Read their threats for yourself. The average parent and taxpayer must speak up to school board and legislatures. The Teachers' unions are becoming an uncontrollable political monster that does not want to take responsibility for educating our children.

The below article appeared at www.dailynews.com on November 15th, 2005.


Teachers say 'Y' not us?
UTLA equates support for measure with pay demand
By Naush Boghossian, Staff Writer

The head of the Los Angeles teachers union has sent Los Angeles Unified officials a clear message: We supported your $4 billion Measure Y construction bond initiative, now it's your turn to meet our pay demands - or face the consequences.
The threat from United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy comes amid district negotiations with the union for salary increases in the third and final year of its contract.

The district's last offer was a 1.5 percent pay hike, contingent on the bond measure passing - but Duffy wants twice that and wants a deal by January.

"If they play games with me on that 3 percent, then we will not be able to come to an agreement and we will continue to build our capacity to take action, and come this spring, they're going to be very surprised at the kinds of activities that we're going to start initiating," Duffy said Monday.

A separate round of negotiations for a brand new contract will begin in the spring, when Duffy plans to ask for even bigger salary increases. He said the district could come up with the money by cutting down on its bureaucracy.

Measure Y passed with an overwhelming 66 percent of the vote when it only needed 55 percent and Duffy argues it could not have succeeded without the union's grass-roots efforts.

But district officials say there's not enough money in the budget to meet union demands and reject any connection between union support of the bond measure and salary talks.

"The reality is that the teachers union that helped pass the bond gets direct benefits from it, and I'm not sure if and how we're supposed to take that somewhere beyond what we're already looking at in increasing compensation," board member Mike Lansing said.

"We're already trying to get to a fair and equitable position on (the salary hikes) as much as we can given our limitations."

Promising more militant action, Duffy was elected to lead the union in March in a huge upset. He ousted John Perez, who was seen by many teachers as not being tough enough with the district in fighting for teachers.

"This time around, let's face it, without our money and our folks on the phone and precinct-walking, (Measure) Y would have died," Duffy said.

"We put time and effort and money and convinced the California Teachers Association to put money into it, and I will certainly not lose any opportunity to let the district know that we are partners, and that at the very least I expect to be dealt with in a fair and equitable manner."

Duffy said his union supported the bond initiative because it was good for teachers and students since it would allow the district to complete its ambitious $20 billion construction and renovation program. The program includes 160 new schools, renovating hundreds of others and putting all students on a traditional, nine-month calendar.

UTLA donated $75,000 to the campaign, and urged the California Teachers Association to do the same. It also put 700 members on the streets and on phones to spread the message, Duffy said.

The passage of the bond measure prevented the district from having to find an additional $40 million for the general fund to pay for operating expenses such as teacher salaries, classroom materials and routine maintenance.

But the district's current offer is about as high as it can realistically go given its finances, board member Jon Lauritzen said.

"Obviously, the fact that Measure Y passed bodes well for making a reasonable settlement with the unions," he said.

"It is getting really expensive to live in Los Angeles and most of our employees are way below market value. But at this point, I think the unions are realistic that we just don't have a lot of money sitting around right now."

The idea that unions now have a strong bargaining chip is true, but it doesn't mean that the district will give in to demands during negotiations, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, political analyst at University of Southern California.

"The teachers union has long been a power in LAUSD affairs and will continue to be a power in LAUSD affairs. The unions are smart enough to use it as a bargaining chip, but the district has to come back with an offer and the union has to accept or not accept what they come back with," Jeffe said. "The ultimate bargaining chip is the threat of a strike."

Duffy called the election cycle a "blessing in disguise," because it helped the union organize more than 200 school sites and start building its capacity to reach out to school sites and community groups.

"We're building our capacity to take action in the spring. In the meantime, if they don't deal with me fairly, then they're losing an opportunity to be a partner. They can decide which way they want it," he said.

Duffy, who has made a show of a united front with district officials since he took office this summer, said the district should also be mindful of his support and maintaining a partnership as they face a takeover challenge by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"There's another issue here they need to pay attention to - the mayor is still talking about taking over the school district, so I think it would be to the benefit of the school board members, who are elected officials, to go with the district and make sure they deal with UTLA in a fair manner," Duffy said.

Naush Boghossian, (818) 713-3722

naush.boghossian@dailynews.com

Dist. 211 Sets Pact Deadline

Gee, what a surprise. D-211, the same district that just approved a huge tax increase is facing a strike threat. But then why not, they're only making an average of $82,447 for nine months work. How can they scrape by on such a pittance?

(Of course, teacher unions don't always wait for referendum passage. Sometimes they threaten strikes after defeats, just ask D-2).

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/cgi-bin....73.html

Dist. 211 sets pact deadline
BY PATRICK CORCORAN
STAFF WRITER

Although they didn't know it, High School District 211 teachers overwhelming voted down the administration's last, best offer Thursday.

During a special School Board meeting Monday, High School District 211 administrators stood firm and gave teachers something to think hard about -- a Dec. 2 deadline to approve the same three-year tentative agreement rejected last week.

In addressing the School Board, Superintendent Roger Thornton said the contract -- which significantly reins in personnel costs -- reflects a pledge made by the district to voters who supported its controversial tax increase referendum in April.

"I believe everyone, including teachers, made a commitment during the referendum as to how this money would be used. Voters told us, 'If we vote for this, you better keep your word,'" he said. "When you work with kids, you better be a person who keeps their word."

Taking the initiative away from the teachers' union in an unusual -- but orchestrated -- move, the School Board unanimously approved the tentative contract following Thornton's presentation.

Thornton said the district's governing body was simply exercising its right.

"Just as the union has the right to vote on the contract, so does the board. We are accountable to the public and they have been most patient with us," he said. "It's within the rights of the board to say, 'We believe strongly in this contract and we want it to go forward.' I wasn't sure of how this vote would turn out, but I was proud to see it decided unanimously."

Come Dec. 2, the offer on the table will be pulled, Thornton said.

The contract between the state's largest school district and its 1,000-plus member union, Northwest Suburban Teachers Union Local 1211, includes salary hikes of about 2 percent and shifts significant financial burdens once shouldered by the district -- including retirement contribution and health insurance payments -- to teachers.

Northwest Suburban Teachers Union Local 1211 President John Braglia puts the annual cost of the benefit concessions at $13,000 to $19,000.

However, in light of today's economic climate, teachers are willing to accept those costs, Braglia said. He said growing class sizes, not salaries, are at the heart of the stalemate (see related story).

"We were really willing to push this through if it meant there were going to be gains for the kids, which is something the School Board promised to do during the referendum process," he said. "But the School Board is not interested in limiting class sizes."

Thornton doubts that issue caused the "no" vote.

"When something is repeated enough, it can become the truth," he said.

The tentative agreement keeps in place subject-specific class size restrictions approved in the 1998 teachers' contract.

So what's the next step? Braglia said the union will survey its members tomorrow and return to negotiations with the goal of finishing the contract before Thanksgiving. At this point, he isn't concerned that talks could break down and result in the first strike in the history of the district.

"My job is to keep communication open and I know we're close," Braglia said.

Thornton said both sides will continue to work in good faith, but there isn't much room for negotiating.

"Our team is obligated to consider their requests," he said. "But there's nothing new that we have to offer."

With an average salary of $82,447, District 211 teachers are the fifth highest paid in the Chicago area, behind districts in Highland Park, Northfield, Lyons Township and Winnetka.

The proposed contract can be viewed at the district's Web site, www.d211.org.

Teachers refusing accountability for the education of our children.

The below piece is an all too common problem across the United States. Teachers refusing to be accountable for educating our children. This is one of the many reasons why unions do not belong in public schools. The undereducation of American children is ruining their lives, their education potential and their income potential and the teachers' unions do not care. We are all forced to pay for the damage that teachers' union causes in the form of higher taxes due to remedial education, medicaid and the costs of the penial system just to name a few.

No Child law irks teachers' unions
Federal statute prompted strike in Oregon town
By Julia Silverman, Associated Press | November 13, 2005

SANDY, Ore. -- The homecoming game had been canceled, and parents were running out of ways to keep cranky children entertained, because of a teachers' strike in which a major sticking point was more than just a local issue: It was the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In school districts around the country, the Bush administration's centerpiece law on primary and secondary education is beginning to emerge as an issue at the bargaining table.

In Sandy's 4,200-student Oregon Trail District, where the strike is in its third week, teachers are afraid they will be replaced, transferred, or otherwise penalized if they, their students, or their schools fail to measure up under the law, which sets stringent new standards for performance.

While salary and benefits are also stumbling blocks in the dispute, the teachers and the school board in this city of 5,400, about 40 miles southeast of Portland, are wrangling over contract language related to No Child Left Behind. Several bargaining sessions have stretched into the wee hours.

''No Child Left Behind is creating issues we didn't expect four or five years ago," said Larry Wolf, who heads the Oregon Education Association, the state teachers' union.

''The law's approaching deadlines raise flags for both sides," Wolf added.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools must bring increasing percentages of children from all backgrounds up to scratch on reading, math, and writing tests. Schools that repeatedly fail to make enough progress face a series of sanctions, the most serious of which include school closure and takeover by a private company.

The law also says that by the end of this school year, teachers must be ''highly qualified" in the subject they teach. That definition varies from state to state, but it generally means that teachers must have majored in the subject they teach, must be certified by the state, and must pass an exam.

In some places, teachers are pushing for contract language to protect themselves.

In Oregon, for instance, unions are asking for the right to take part in developing new curriculums required under No Child Left Behind, and they want assurances that staff members will not be replaced or transferred if a school's students do not progress according to the standards set by the federal law.

Teachers also want to make sure that student performance on tests is not the basis for negative action against an employee. And they say that school systems should not be able to take into account whether a teacher has been deemed ''highly qualified" during layoffs or recalls.

School board officials say that laws like No Child Left Behind affect what can and cannot go into the contract.

''We can't incorporate things that would violate or conflict with those laws," said an Oregon Trail school board member, Wayne Kuechler.

In Philadelphia, where the public school system is now run by the state, the teachers' union conceded some seniority hiring rights in the latest round of contract talks, to give the district more options in hiring teachers to staff schools that are marked as low performers under the federal law.

''At every turn in the contract negotiations, the press and demands of No Child Left Behind were always present," said a union spokeswoman, Barbara Goodman. ''The bottom line is, there were a lot of changes made in seniority."

In Warwick, R.I., teachers and the district have been negotiating a contract for three years without success, in part because of No Child Left Behind.

''Any time you add additional duties, teachers expect to be paid, which is reasonable," said John Thompson, chairman of the Warwick School Committee. ''But with pension and healthcare costs going through the roof, we can't afford things like higher pay for more work."

Dist. 15 opens its books

Bravo to Palatine District 15 for opening its books to the public. This great article appeared in the November 11, 2005 addtion of the Daily Herald .

Dist. 15 opens its books

By Nadia Malik

Board agrees to put district documents online and in libraries
In an effort to increase its transparency, the Palatine Township Elementary District 15 board agreed Wednesday to place several documents on its Web site.

Teacher salary schedules, the packets the board receives before meetings and a full budget will all be available to the public without having to file a request through the Freedom of Information Act.

The documents will also be available at the Rolling Meadows, Palatine and Barrington public libraries, which all sit in the district’s jurisdiction.

“That allows anybody who doesn’t have a computer … to go into the libraries and examine documents,” board President Scott Boucher said.

The board also recently decided to start taping its meetings, which have been playing on public access television in Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Rolling Meadows. A schedule of the air dates is available on the district’s Web site.

These same tapes will also be placed in all three libraries.

Many of the documents that will be made public played an integral role in the tax-rate increase request the district had on the ballot in February and the board elections in April.

Some residents, for example, took issue with the raises the teachers have received in their past negotiations with the district.

Board vice president Tim Millar asked that an explanation of the teacher salary schedule also be placed on the Web site, since the document is hard to read and caused some questions during the elections.

School improvement plans for each of the district’s 20 buildings and the collective bargaining agreements for all three of the unions the district deals with will also appear both on the Web and in the libraries.

Millar originally brought up the issue at the October board meeting, and Boucher had questioned some parts of the proposal at the time.

On Wednesday, he said that after exploring the issue - including searching other school board Web sites to see what kinds of documents appeared on their site - he felt comfortable with the idea.

“I was making sure that this was talked about before we did it,” he said.


The below message comes directly from the Illinois State Board of Education website.

“Since budget time is once again on the minds of school business administrators, this is a reminder that if your school district has a website, in accordance with Section 17-1.2 and Section 34-43a of the School Code, you are required to post your budget on your school district’s website. To assist you in meeting this requirement, follow the steps below to convert the ISBE 50-36 Budget Form to a .pdf that can easily be posted to your website. This form can be located on the ISBE website.”

If your school district has a website remind them to put the budget online.

School board dines on taxpayers' dime

The article below appeared in the November 10th addition of the Northwest Herald. There is no reason why this school board could not interview candidates on school premises. This is a good note to remember when they ask District residents to vote "yes" for a tax increase in March 2006.

Those interested in investigating your school districts should do FOIA requests for the school board's budget. School boards often go to conferences and sometimes spend thousands of taxpayer dollars on meals and alcohol at these conferences.


School board dines on taxpayers' dime

McHENRY – Using consultants' advice, District 12 likely will spend about $1,500 this week on meals at Dunnhills for seven school board members, Business Manager Pat Bingman, and three superintendent candidates.

The board scheduled interviews Tuesday, Wednesday and today at the restaurant, 1501 S. Route 31, McHenry, where most entrees cost between $10 and $25. The group ate dinner before each closed-session interview in the restaurant's meeting room. Tuesday's bill, which included some appetizers and desserts, but no alcohol, came to $490.72, Bingman said.

Consultants from the Illinois Association of School Boards suggested taking the candidates to dinner in an informal setting, board President Tom Liston said.

The association presented six candidates, which were interviewed in a six-hour special board meeting last month, he said.

"Beyond seeing these people in a very regimented setting, we get to see them in a social setting," Liston said. "He's going to be an individual who is going to be very public; his public persona is very important to our choice."

The meals at Dunnhills are paid out of the board of education expense budget in the district's education fund, Bingman said. The $307,400 expense fund covers $170,000 in worker's compensation premiums, as well as legal fees, copies, background checks for new employees, property appraisal, postage, and legal publications in the newspaper.

The expense fund also covers the Illinois Association of School Board's $7,500 fee.

Kathy Ignoffo, a parent and athletic booster club president, said she was glad the school board members were interviewing candidates in a laid-back atmosphere.

"Do I like that it's $500 a night?" she said. "No, but I don't know how else they can do that."

The board members will discuss its impressions and, they hope to reach a consensus at a closed-session meeting Tuesday, Liston said.

"Hopefully, we'll be contacting people after our next meeting," he said. "We would announce only after they accept after they've had time to talk with their own constituency."

Board members want to select a candidate to replace Superintendent Rob Gough this semester so Gough can train his replacement.

Gough plans to retire in summer 2006 after serving 28 years as a district administrator, the last 18 as superintendent.


By JILLIAN COMPTON
jcompton@nwherald.com

Educating the public about referenda.

One of the keys to fighting referenda is educating the public a good way to do this is to write Letters to the Editor. This great example appeared online November 9th in the Daily Herald.

District 87 board doesn’t listen well
I hope the students of District 87 are better listeners than their administrators. After having experienced two failed referendums within a year, both aimed at raising our taxes, you’d think they’d get the message. Well, based on newspaper accounts, it appears the school board needs to work on their listening skills. The voters have communicated our frustration with a public school system that has an insatiable thirst for additional money while failing to improve the quality of education for our children.

It’s indisputable that year after year the cost of public education has gone up faster than the rate of inflation, while nationally, standardized test scores, along with other objective measures of success, have faced declines.

In an increasingly competitive world, we should demand that our children be given the tools they need to succeed. The current system has proven that it can’t meet this objective; no matter how much money we pour into it.

What’s required is fundamental reform. Merit-based pay for teachers to attract and retain the best and brightest, and more stringent graduation requirements are among the many changes necessary. In the absence of real reform, and therefore a continued decline in the quality of public education, parents should be given the option of sending their children to those schools which are delivering a quality education, and not be penalized financially.

One definition of insanity is to continue doing what you’ve always done and expect a different result. Let’s stop the insanity. To the District 87 board of education, I say, “no reform, no choice...no more money.”

Steven Keate

Wheaton

K-12 Brainwashing

Recently we came across a new NEWS source that you may want to add to your daily reading list called Education News.Org
. We found a link to the below article at educationnews.org in FrontPageMag.com


K-12 Brainwashing
By Ari Kaufman
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 4, 2005
It is no longer a secret that many public and private universities are populated by professors who use their classrooms to recruit students to their political agendas. But while the politicization of the universities is now common knowledge, an even more distressing instance of this abuse is to be found in the nation’s K-12 schools.

I have that on good authority. I have been a teacher in Los Angeles-area elementary and middle schools and have witnessed first hand how students who are younger and more impressionable are being regularly indoctrinated by leftwing teachers. Having worked in a number of different school districts over the past five years, from the well-to-do Palisades to the hardscrabble Watts neighborhood, I can further attest that cases of indoctrination occur far more often than many would believe possible. For the complete article go to FrontPageMag.com .

Comments from the finance guy on various education issues.

Pete is a friend of ours who is helping us work for education reform. Pete has spent many decades working in municipal and school finance. Below is his perspective on Representative Mike Tyron’s Bill for schools to truly report the impact of school referenda and a number of other issues.

"Dan Johnson is a partner in the largest firm of Municipal Bond attorneys in Chicago. His opinions and his testimony to the legislature have formed the basis for many of the nooks and crannies we have found to exist in Illinois school financing law. In other words, he makes money -- hundreds of thousands of dollars -- creating and approving these nooks and crannies.

Many of these have come from the aberration we call PTELL, which I am afraid most FOCF members believe in. This proposal is just another cranny. Why have separate Funds at all?

The underlying concept in having Funds is to provide the taxpayer with some control over how his money is spent. That control, common to most states, says that the elected body and its employees have an allowance, actually a set of allowances for the several Funds. This set is called a Budget.

Separately, in acquiring debt or paying pensions, different allowances are set. With respect to debt, the parent (alias the taxpayer) must usually approve the purchase of the capital asset which it will be required to pay for. Even this right of approval has been eliminated by persons such as Mr. Johnson opining that some debt financings need not be approved by the parent.

Further, and more recently, the schools and other taxing bodies have been given the right to acquire additional debt as long as the old debt was paid off and the parent's obligation was not increased. The parent is in debt -- forever. This is the handiwork of such as Mr. Johnson.

Is it any wonder that the taxpayers reject referenda these days? They no longer trust their elected representatives to be stewards of their money.

Now comes a proposal which in effect has the taxing body say: "Trust us." We have failed to deliver a quality education, we have funded teacher early retirement as a reward for this failure, we have built schools when none were needed, we have not been transparent in our financial disclosures to the public -- but trust us.

This legislation is not needed. If more money is allegedly required in a Fund, referendum questions can easily be framed to so state. Trust is earned over time, but as Reagan said to Gorbachev: Trust, but verify."

And now two words to all who believed that PTELL was the answer, who believe that that solved the problem of wasteful spending in the schools. You fools. You thought the State was protecting you. You useful idiots, as Lenin used to say. To quote the famous writer Samuel Clemens: no man's purse is safe while the legislature is in session.

You were rightfully concerned when property values (your built in but unrealized wealth) inflated faster than your income. That gave taxing bodies greater access to your strained purse. Instead or organizing and getting elected at the local level, you went to the State. Unorganized as you were, you were no match for the NEA unions and the local boards who were elected by the PTA. You may have been right, but you were no match for the countable voters, and for the contributions the teachers were able to slide into the campaign funds of the elected.

Like the convicted one able to select the method of capital punishment, your only benefit was to choose the type of screwdriver being used.

Well, the NEA has just about squared the circle. They control not only entrance into the profession, the salary schedules, the early retirement programs; they also control the testing systems. They control complaisant legislators in one party and useful idiots like Mr. Tryon. Indirectly they control their fellow Ed School graduates the Administrators who have their own highly expensive niche.

And through the PTA, they control the parent voter, who is the source of all their political power. "It's for the Kids" means no more, no less than all power to the teachers. Busting this unholy alliance should be the main goal of the people.

The NEA's objections to the No Child Left Behind testing and their persuading school districts to reject the money, is temporary. When they get control of the testing mechanism as they have of the state tests, the ACT and the SAT -- as they will under a Democrat administration -- they will corrupt that as well. Their objective quire clearly is "No Teacher Left Behind."

Today, though, the national test will reveal the dirty little non secret. It will validate the results now coming to the fore of the low quality of our primary and secondary education systems.

NEA persuades the Districts that they do not have the money to correct the weaknesses which such a test will reveal. Districts do not, they say, have the money to conduct such tests. Yet Districts can find $40K to pay for referendum assistance from specialist groups.

It is an Alice in Wonderland existence. It is time to recover our sanity."

Failing Teachers EQUALS Failing Students

This great piece appears on EagleForum.org . Although the piece is old the problem persists today. Research has found those who come from an educated and stable family tend to do well in school while those who come from an uneducated poor family tend to do poorly in school. School should break the cycle of poverty but with the quality of teachers today and poor curricula the cycle will be hard to break. This is why education reform is necessary. We must get rid of the very useless teacher certificate and get rid of tenure. Schools should be able to hire those who will best educate students. Tenure obstructs schools from being able to do just that.

Failing Teachers Equal Failing Students

CHICAGO, IL - A statewide investigation of teacher competency by the Chicago Sun-Times found that 5,243 teachers currently teaching in Illinois public schools have failed at least one certification test. The newspaper analyzed the test scores of 67,000 teachers on both basic skills and subject matter tests taken since Illinois began teacher certification testing in 1988. Test data were available on only half the teachers, since those hired prior to 1988 may never have been required to take a test.
The state's biggest flunker was a teacher of learning-disabled students in Chicago who failed 24 of 25 teacher tests, including 12 of 12 tests on how to teach children with learning disabilities. Another teacher failed 19 of 19 tests, including 13 of 13 basic skills tests. One bilingual teacher flunked five of five basic skills tests and three of three elementary school subject matter tests. This teacher was working on a "transitional" bilingual certificate that waives certification testing in Illinois for up to eight years.

How tough is Illinois' basic skills test? According to some experts, it's so easy that an 8th- or 9th-grader should be able to pass it. Yet one of every 10 public school teachers in Chicago has flunked the test at least once. Most of these failing teachers teach in schools with the highest number of failing students, which supports national research indicating a strong link between weak teachers and failing students.


Studies Show Link
A 1986 Texas study showed a significant correlation between low teacher test scores and low student test scores. A Tennessee study 10 years later found that elementary math students who were taught by low-scoring teachers for several years in a row ended up 50 percentile points behind their peers.

Other research shows that full certification also makes a difference. A 1997 study by the University of Texas found that students scored higher on state tests when taught by fully-licensed teachers. In 1999, researcher Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University, who is the executive director of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, reviewed teacher quality and student achievement. She found that teacher quality is "more strongly related to student achievement than class size, overall spending levels, [and] teacher salaries . . . ." Her research also showed that "the percentage of teachers with full certification and a major in the field is a more powerful predictor of student achievement than teachers' education levels (e.g., master's degrees)."


Hearings Scheduled
After the Sun-Times analysis became public last month, state Sen. Daniel Cronin, chairman of the Illinois Senate Education Committee, called the findings "appalling" and announced plans to convene hearings in November to tackle the problem of failing teachers. Members of his committee will consider requiring that teachers be retested with a new, tougher basic skills tests introduced on Sept. 15. Also on the table are plans to give parents more information about teacher certification and to offer financial incentives to good teachers willing to teach in failing schools.

Many of Illinois' flunking teachers eventually passed their certification tests, but hundreds did not. Yet they remain in the classroom under a "Chicago-only loophole" which allows substitute teachers to teach indefinitely without passing any certification tests. Although other states call such waivers "emergency" or "temporary" permits, Illinois calls them "certificates."

"That's misleading and convoluted and it doesn't accurately reflect what people expect," Sen. Cronin told the Sun-Times. "We're learning that a certificate doesn't mean much [in Illinois]."


Root of Problem
Some educators point to the education colleges as the source of the problem of failing teachers. "There has to be something wrong if you go to college and get B's and C's and then can't pass these exams," observed Superintendent Willie Davis of the Ford Heights School District near Chicago. Other critics say teacher training includes "too much theory and not enough practice, mediocre subject-area training and low admissions standards." It's a vicious cycle, they say: "Graduates of weak public high schools go to weak education colleges and then return, poorly prepared, to teach in the public schools."

With a lack of qualified teachers already plaguing California and growing shortages in many other states, parents and educators worry that testing requirements may be relaxed still further or waived altogether.

No to Tax Increases

In yesterday's post I talked about a Bill to better explain referenda increases. Today Eric Olson an Editor in the Northwest Herald has a great piece about the Bill. Our favorite line is "Until they can know for sure, they should be voting no to tax increases."

Tax bill would erase lots of confusion

Our local legislators are working during this week's veto session to win approval of a bill that would simplify school tax referendums and how they affect taxpayers.

I wouldn't advise anyone to vote for another school tax-increase referendum until the measure is approved.

State Rep. Mike Tryon, a Crystal Lake Republican, said he went to Springfield early to work on the bill this week, though all our local state legislators are sponsoring Senate Bill 1682.

The measure has arisen from the troubles that have befallen taxpayers in Huntley School District 158, who in November 2004 approved a tax increase that allowed more than double the rate increase that was advertised. Now that district officials are trying to keep the increase to what originally was intended, they are finding that the district will lose millions in state aid as a result.

Tryon puts the chance of it getting approved during the Legislature's veto session, which ends Friday, at 50-50.

The way the system works now, voters cannot know for certain how large a tax increase they are approving, nor can they tell how much their district will benefit from the increased taxes.

The current law requires tax-increase referendums to ask voters to approve increasing the maximum allowable tax rate. However, tax-cap laws limit the amount of new money schools can collect each year to 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. The result is that tax rates tend to decline a little bit every year.

Usually by the time a school district asks for a rate increase, the actual tax rate is less than the maximum allowable rate, which can result in a hidden increase that is difficult to predict.

This new legislation would allow voters to decide on how much to raise their actual tax rate, from what it is at the time to what it would be the next year.

"This problem will go away in all future referendums, but the problem will not go away in tax-cap districts where [a] referendum was already approved," Tryon said. "We're trying to provide a mechanism for a district to be able to manage its tax rate."

The bill also allows our local school boards to propose lowering their maximum allowable tax rates.

This is needed because the state takes the maximum allowable tax rate into account when it decides how much money it gives to local school districts. If a district is not using enough of its maximum allowable rate and is being penalized, voters can correct the problem. And a tax-decrease referendum seems like one that would succeed.

This change in the law should be approved before the next election. Voters have a right to know how much a tax increase really will cost them and how much good it will do for them to pay more. Until they can know for sure, they should be voting no to tax increases.

– Eric Olson is the Northwest Herald's multimedia editor.

Bill to vote on a tax decrease.

Today's Northwest Herald has an article about a Bill that would although voters to vote on a tax decrease for schools. Although this Bill is an excellent ideal it is highly unlikely that this Bill will pass. The teachers' unions in Illinois have now become so strong that they donate large sums of your tax dollars to both republican and democrat legislators.

Bill would turn tide on D-158's tax rate


[published on Tue, Nov 1, 2005]
State lawmakers are making a last-ditch effort to craft legislation that could help undo a controversial District 158 property-tax increase.

Voters in Algonquin, Huntley and Lake in the Hills were stunned after learning that a 55-cent tax-rate increase approved in November 2004 could increase taxes by more than double that amount. Members of the General Assembly have debated multiple bills to prevent a similar misstep in the future and possibly to keep District 158 from losing millions of dollars in state aid.

State Rep. Mike Tryon, R-Crystal Lake, said lawyers were reviewing changes to Senate Bill 1682, which could allow voters to decide on a tax reduction. He said the original bill would be replaced with language from Senate Bill 2123, sponsored by state Sen. Don Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park.

"We have the ability in this bill to run a [tax] rate decrease," Tryon said.

But there is no consensus on whether this bill or others could result in a tax decrease for school districts. State school code does not mention a tax decrease, and Tryon's bill might not address the school-code issue.

Scott Nemanich, a lawyer who represents District 158, said he had not seen the revised bill so he could not comment. He said he expected to offer an opinion today on the bill's ability to provide the mechanism for a tax rollback.

After meeting last week with House and Senate staffers in Springfield, District 158 officials had mixed views on the tax legislation being debated in the General Assembly.

School board President Mike Skala said he had confidence in legislation accomplishing the board's goal to seek a tax decrease. Board member Larry Snow said attorneys for the district were not optimistic about the passage of a bill that would resolve the tax issue.

Tryon said, "If we have to amend the school code, it's a long shot at best."

The fate of the bill rests in the hands of House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who decides which bills will be sent to the House floor before the fall veto session ends Friday.

By STEVE BROSINSKI
sbrosinski@nwherald.com

What Every Ed Student Should Know

The below piece was sent to us by our friend Kevin Killion at Illinois Loop. org. He received this from a teacher friend. This was the note attached. "I thought you might enjoy this article below. This letter to ed school students was written by Martin Kozloff (kozloffm@uncw.edu), an independent thinking professor who is the Watson Distinguished Professor in the education department at the University of North Carolina. " Our education system would be amazing if all teachers took this message to heart.


What Every Ed Student Should Know

March 23rd 2005


Dear Education Student,
I've never met you but I know you.

You are bright.

You are energetic.

You like kids.

You want to do good by kids.

I salute you for that.
You deserve to know the story-to know what the deal is. Therefore, at the risk of being presumptuous and paternalistic (after all, you haven't asked for my opinion), I'm going to give you some advice.

And here it is!


1. Most of what education professors tell you is totally useless.
It has nothing to do with any of the REAL tasks of teaching -- such as communicating information to your students and checking to see if they get it (which is the CORE of teaching).

It has never been tested and shown to be valid, true, reliable, or useful. It fact, most of what education professors tell you is wrong, false, and pure baloney. It is superficial. You'll be told a few things that Piaget believed. It will add up to nothing. You'll be told to adapt instruction to your students' "learning styles," but no one will tell you exactly how to do this. [Besides, there's really no such thing as learning styles, anyway.]


2. Caveat emptor. Buyer beware. Don't be taken in by nice-sounding words.

"Best practice." Oh, yeah? Who says?

"Authentic." What on earth does that mean?

"Developmentally appropriate." Are all kids the same?

"Reflection." How is that different from thinking about something?

"Child centered." What else?

"Multiple intelligence." How is that different from skills?

"Learning styles." Does not exist.

"Portfolio assessment." Look at junk in a kid's scrapbook.

"Brain-based." Is there some other organ involved? Real brain scientists think "brain based learning" is just a stupid fad. Do you think education professors know ANYthing about the brain? Would you take their advice on medication?

These words sound good but they are logically absurd (i.e., stupid) and there is almost no research to support them. They will be NO help to you in the classroom. In fact, they will confuse you and take time away from designing CLEAR instruction that is to the POINT. There you are standing in front of your kids. Your objective is to teach them the strategy for decoding words (sounding out words and then saying them fast) -- regular words (such as ran, slim, ask) and irregular words (such as the, was, said). If kids don't learn to decode words accurately and quickly, they will not learn to read connected text accurately and quickly, and therefore they will not comprehend what they read, and therefore they will spend their lives being ignorant.

How will "learning style," "child centered," "holistic," "authentic," and "Piaget said!" help you now?

They won't. Not one bit. So, drop it. Delete it from your memory. Forget it.

Teaching is a technical game. A logical game. All you have to do is demonstrate the strategy for decoding words clearly and explicitly (showing students exactly HOW), using a range of examples of words that they will soon have to read.
Boys and girls, I'll show you how to read this word (point
to "slip") the slow way. When I touch under a letter I will
say the sound. Get ready. Here I go.

sssllliiip
Watch again.
sssllliiip

Do it with me.
sssllliiip

Your turn.
sssllliiip.
Excellent for reading that word the slow way.


Was Piaget a lot of help there?
In other words, if you present information in a logically clear way, you don't need ANYthing else.


3. Be skeptical. In fact, have an "attitude." Ask hard questions. After all, you're paying for this education.

"What exactly does 'authentic' mean?"

"What research shows what is best?"

"What experiment pits so called developmentally appropriate practices against so-called developmentally inappropriate practices?"

Most education professors will turn red when you ask these questions. They won't have good answers. They'll just repeat themselves.

"Best practices are practices that (work best, are child-centered, are effective)." Gee, that's REAL helpful.

"Is there any research? Oh, yes. Lots of research. Lots. A whole lot." Oh, good.

If that's how your physician answered questions would you stay or would you run?


4. Education is a moral enterprise. We do NOT have the right or the public mandate to experiment with (other people's) children or to play with "ideas" by using (or by teaching ed students to use) untested methods and curricula.

In any other field, using methods that have not been thoroughly field tested and shown to be reliably effective would be considered malpractice and perhaps criminal. Corporations spend more time and money testing if a new shampoo will really give you "lustrous and vibrant hair" (and not make you bald) than education professors spend on whole methods for teaching reading or math to millions of children. Yet, they will tell you -- with great confidence -- to use these methods.

How do YOU spell immoral?
Remember. It's YOU in front of those kids! Your professors are back in their offices. If your kids don't learn to read or do math, even though you did what your education professors told you, it will be YOU that is considered responsible. No one will be going after them.

The arrow of accountability -> You
"Me?"

Yes, you!

5. As in medicine, architecture, structural engineering, and food science, the only morally acceptable guide to action is research. Not personal opinion. Not personal preference or style. Not "philosophy." And certainly not what a lot of other people [who just might be morons] think is right.

Has a new curriculum been field tested with thousands of kids before it is sold? [If not, run!]
What does the preponderance of scientific research-experimental research (with control groups, longitudinal, quantitative data)-say about a method, an assessment instrument, or a curriculum? If you can't find a ton of serious research on it, then RUN!

Don't be sucked in by qualitative research (e.g., case studies of one classroom, interviews with teachers or students, field notes). This kind of information is too subjective and unreliable. For example, there is NO experimental research showing that teachers make better decisions about how to improve instruction when teachers assess kids' portfolios than when teachers use standardized tests to see what kids have learned. So how come education professors want you to use portfolio assessment?

Would you give your own children medication that had not been tested scientifically? Would you use medication that is supported only by testimonials?
"I used Dr. Bingbong's Herbal Rejuvenator. Now I have LOTS of energy. Of course all my teeth fell out and I can't hear. Hello? Hello?"


6. We are not social revolutionaries or even social reformers. No one asked us to do anything but teach. We will not produce greater equity in the life chances of disadvantaged minorities by having ed students mouth platitudes about diversity or student centered instruction. We can only try to teach all kids well.
So, when education professors try to enlist you in THEIR great cause (social justice, equality, stamping out racism, reforming American social institutions), ask yourself,
"Who IS this person? Where does THIS person get off thinking that changing society is HIS job? Would I even let this person baby-sit my little brother? Besides, look at how this guy dresses! Where does he get those clothes? A dumpster?"


7. Teaching well is not an art. It is not about teachers' creativity. It is a technical game -- like surgery, architecture, engineering, and even cooking. Just as perfection in dance, music, archery, sky diving, martial arts, sports, and creative writing are FIRST technical. There is a way (a routine-a set of steps governed by rules) that produces good results (balance, speed, strength, grace, hitting the target-i.e., accomplishing the objectives). Your job is to learn those ways. The time for creativity is thinking how to expand or enhance instruction. Once you have taught students figures of speech, symbolism, rhyme and meter, how might they APPLY this? Now be creative.


8. We know enough about the technology (how to) for teaching reading, writing, spelling, math, foreign languages, history, logic, science, and many other subjects, so that instruction can be relatively straightforward and routine for most students, and can even be in commercial curricula. Creativity is reserved for nonroutine situations and problems.


So, don't be a dope. Use commercial, tested programs to teach the core skills in the major subjects. Or, you can spend hours every day and all weekend preparing lessons!

Here are your real friends:

Sopris West

Curriculum Associates

SRA McGraw-Hill

Core Knowledge

Saxon
Singapore Math
Websites used by homeschoolers. They have done the research
on good programs for you.

"Teach Your Child in 100 Easy Lessons " at
http://www.startreading.com You can teach almost any kid to
read using this book -- for 20 dollars.

"Designing effective mathematics instruction" by Marcy Stein.
All the lessons are there.

And there are lots of resources at http://www.educationation.org
Professor Plum may be a little strange but he's not always wrong.

Education Myths and Cheating Our Kids

Looking for a great Christmas present, Hanukkah present or your favorite holiday present for your favorite education reformist consider Education Myths : What Special-Interest Groups Want You to Believe About Our Schools and Why it Isn't So by Jay P. Greene and Cheating Our Kids : How Politics and Greed Ruin Education by Joe Williams. Amazon is offering a special savings if you purchase these two books at once. For complete reviews of the books go to Amazon.

A Nation at Risk

In April 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education Published A Nation at Risk
. It has been 22 years since this piece was published and about 18 years of teachers who were educated in this system now teaching our children. Some of the indicators of risk included the following.

1. International comparisons of student achievement, completed a decade ago, reveal that on 19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times.

2. Some 23 million American adults are functionally illiterate by the simplest tests of everyday reading, writing, and comprehension.

3. About 13 percent of all 17-year-olds in the United States can be considered functionally illiterate. Functional illiteracy among minority youth may run as high as 40 percent.

4. Average achievement of high school students on most standardized tests is now lower than 26 years ago when Sputnik was launched.

5. Over half the population of gifted students do not match their tested ability with comparable achievement in school.

6. The College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) demonstrate a virtually unbroken decline from 1963 to 1980. Average verbal scores fell over 50 points and average mathematics scores dropped nearly 40 points.

7. College Board achievement tests also reveal consistent declines in recent years in such subjects as physics and English.

8. Both the number and proportion of students demonstrating superior achievement on the SATs (i.e., those with scores of 650 or higher) have also dramatically declined.

9. Many 17-year-olds do not possess the "higher order" intellectual skills we should expect of them. Nearly 40 percent cannot draw inferences from written material; only one-fifth can write a persuasive essay; and only one-third can solve a mathematics problem requiring several steps.

10. There was a steady decline in science achievement scores of U.S. 17-year-olds as measured by national assessments of science in 1969, 1973, and 1977.

11. Between 1975 and 1980, remedial mathematics courses in public 4-year colleges increased by 72 percent and now constitute one-quarter of all mathematics courses taught in those institutions.

12. Average tested achievement of students graduating from college is also lower.

13. Business and military leaders complain that they are required to spend millions of dollars on costly remedial education and training programs in such basic skills as reading, writing, spelling, and computation. The Department of the Navy, for example, reported to the Commission that one-quarter of its recent recruits cannot read at the ninth grade level, the minimum needed simply to understand written safety instructions. Without remedial work they cannot even begin, much less complete, the sophisticated training essential in much of the modern military.

This must be a concern of all parents and all citizens for the full report go to A Nation at Risk
. The undereducation of American children effects all citizens because those who are not properly educated as children are either robbed of a more prosperous future or become burdens on society which we must support through welfare or the penial system. The problem is not the amount spent on education but the quality of education. You may think that your child is in a good school but that does not go far enough we need to make sure all children are educated properly and with that we need true education reform.

How teachers union hurt teachers and institutions.

Teachers' unoins are taking big chunks of money out of teahers' paycheck to fight the Governor Schwarzeneggers reform plans. A great article appears in the Heartland Institute's magazine School Reform News



Class-Action Lawsuit Pending Against California Teacher Union
U.S. District Court allows union to use forced dues increase for political lobbying
Written By: Karla Dial
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

While a class-action lawsuit against the California Teachers Association (CTA) was pending, a U.S. District Court judge on October 6 refused to temporarily freeze funds the union seized from teachers statewide without due process in order to fight Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and several measures on the November 8 special-election ballot.

Since September 30, the CTA has been automatically collecting an additional $60 a year in dues from all 335,000 teachers and college professors statewide. Six teachers, represented by the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, filed a class-action lawsuit against the union in late August, citing a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson) that says all union members must be notified of how their forced union dues are spent and be given a chance to prevent their money being spent for purposes other than collective bargaining.

Lead plaintiff Judy Liegmann, a fifth-grade teacher from Sunnyvale, said she found out about the three-year increase in late June from the CTA representative at her school. The union never formally notified her or told her of her constitutionally guaranteed options.

"Assessing dues for political purposes without asking permission [from members] ahead of time is very strange," Liegmann said. "That's money that has to do with our convictions. The union has done nothing to let teachers know they voted in an arbitrary way to dip into every teacher's paycheck to fight a political battle whether the teachers liked it or not."


Money Already Spent

In a sworn statement, CTA accountant Carlos Moreno revealed September 30 that the CTA already has spent on political activities the $60 million that will be raised by the forced dues increase. At press time, the union was seeking an additional $40 million loan from a bank.

While the U.S Supreme Court precedent boded well for the class-action lawsuit, Justin Hakes, a spokesman for the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, said the October 6 ruling violated teachers' consciences.

"The whole point of [seeking to freeze the funds] was that once the election is over, the money's been spent, and you can't undo the results of the election," he said. "Once someone's conscience has been violated, you can't undo that."

The CTA did not return calls seeking comment.


The teachers have been doing a great job of destroying the public education system now they are trying to mess up a Catholic School in Michigan. The below article appears in School Reform News
If Catholic school teachers want to unionize we would prefer they go to the public schools and not mess up the better performing Catholic school system.

Court: State Can't Force Catholic School to Unionize

Written By: Neal McCluskey
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

The Michigan Education Association (MEA) is deciding whether to appeal an August ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals that held a state labor relations commission could not force a Roman Catholic high school to permit its teachers to unionize. This marks the latest twist in a two-year battle between Brother Rice High School in Birmingham, several of its teachers, and the MEA.

The case began in July 2003, when 30 of Brother Rice's 42 teachers requested that the school permit the faculty to vote on whether to join the MEA, the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). The school refused, arguing that permitting its teachers to join the MEA, which sends a portion of all dues it collects to the NEA, would conflict with Roman Catholic teachings. The Catholic Church opposes legalized abortion, for instance, while the NEA has cosponsored pro-abortion marches.

After Brother Rice rejected the teachers' request, the MEA petitioned the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) to force the school to let the vote proceed. In August 2004, MERC ruled against Brother Rice, finding the Michigan Labor Relations and Mediation Act required the school to permit the unionization vote.

Brother Rice appealed MERC's ruling to the Michigan Court of Appeals, which on August 16 overturned the commission's decision, declaring MERC did not have jurisdiction over the matter and that government infringement on a parochial school's labor relations raises "substantial First Amendment concerns." The ruling was consistent with National Labor Relations Board v. Catholic Bishops of Chicago, a 1979 U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court found federal involvement in labor disputes involving religious organizations violates the religious freedom provisions of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.


Balancing Act

Patrick Gillen, an attorney for the Christian Brothers Institute of Michigan--Brother Rice's parent organization--was pleased with the appeals court's ruling. He told the Detroit Free Press on August 17 the "delicate balance" between keeping a Catholic school affordable and treating its teachers fairly "should be struck by the school community without any interference from the state."

MEA Communications Director Margaret Trimer-Hartley said the union has not yet decided whether it will appeal the court's ruling. Likely important to that decision will be whether the MEA thinks an entity like MERC or the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will ever constitutionally be able to command a religious school to accept a unionized faculty.

Such a command was recently upheld at the post-secondary level. On August 30--just two weeks after the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned MERC's decision--the NLRB ordered Presbyterian-founded Carroll College in Milwaukee to allow its faculty to organize under the United Auto Workers. The NLRB rejected Carroll's argument that a unionized faculty would compromise the school's religious mission.

However, that decision did not necessarily bode ill for schools with clear religious affiliations. The NLRB found Carroll's connection with the Presbyterian Church had become very weak over time, with Presbyterians neither owning nor running the school today.


Ongoing Challenges

Justin Hakes, director of legal information for the National Right to Work Foundation in Springfield, Virginia, does not think efforts to unionize religious schools are near an end.

"Though the August ruling signifies a victory both for religious independence and teacher freedom in Michigan," Hakes said, "union officials will continue to target teachers as they hungrily pursue new sources of forced union dues revenues."

The MEA's Trimer-Hartley, in response to a question about future efforts to organize religious schools, suggested Hakes might be right in predicting continued union involvement.

"[Though] we have not actively sought members in religious schools, and we don't see this decision as changing that strategy," Trimer-Hartley said, "our organizing strategy is to answer the phone and respond to requests to hold elections. We will likely still answer the phone and judge each request individually."

Funding for Schools to be Fair and Equal

Thanks to Bruno Behrend of Extreme Wisdom
for this great heads up. Tony Blair has decided to take on the left and the teacher's union and reform the education system in England. Not surprising many of the same lame excuses put out by the education establishment here are being touted in England.

Funding for Schools to be Fair and Equal


Funding for schools to be 'fair and equal'
By John Clare, Education Editor and George Jones
(Filed: 25/10/2005)

Every secondary school is expected to become an independent, self-governing academy within five years, Tony Blair said yesterday.

Parents would be given power to change the curriculum, replace failing heads and start new schools, he promised. Anticipating today's education White Paper - "a pivotal moment in the life of this Government" - he outlined radical plans to "complete the reform" of state education in England that Labour started when it came to power eight years ago.


Councils will be stripped of their responsibility for schools; businesses, churches, City livery companies and wealthy individuals will be allowed to take over schools; independent schools will be encouraged to accept state cash and join the state sector; and there is to be a new emphasis on grouping pupils by ability and offering advanced classes to the brightest.

Mr Blair made clear that he was ready to resist opposition from the Labour Left and the teachers' unions to opening up the system to parent power and ending comprehensive education.

He has decided to make reform of secondary education one of the defining issues of his remaining years as Prime Minister.

In what will be seen as a rebuff to his critics, including John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, he said: "Parts of the Left will say we are privatising public services and giving too much to the middle class. Both criticisms are wrong and simply a version of the old levelling down mentality that kept us in opposition for so long."

The National Union of Teachers said Mr Blair's "obsession with choice" would "lead to chaos" and accused him of "pandering to the pushy middle classes" at the expense of poorer children.

Ian Gibson, the Labour MP for Norwich North, said he was -"dismayed" that all the good work in secondary education could be destroyed by the changes.

Government sources stressed that Mr Blair was ready for a final showdown with the Left over the plans to introduce more choice in both education and the National Health Service.

Although Mr Prescott is unhappy with the plans, fearing that they will discriminate against the poor and favour the middle classes, Mr Blair has the backing of Gordon Brown, the Chancellor and his likely successor, who is intent on creating more "personalised" public services.

David Cameron, the Tories' education spokesman, said that if Mr Blair really meant to introduce greater rigour, autonomy and choice he would "have the full backing of the Conservative Party because the education of our children is too important to play games over".

Mr Blair, addressing an invited audience of parents at No 10, said that successive reforms of state education since 1944 had not always fulfilled what they had promised. This time it was different because "we have learned what works".

Since 1997, good or better teaching in primary schools, as judged by Ofsted, had risen from 45 per cent to 74 and in secondaries from 59 per cent to 78. The proportion of 11-year-olds reaching the expected level in reading, writing and maths had risen from 43 per cent to 57 and pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths, had gone up from 35 per cent to 44.

But there was more to do to tackle pockets of deep educational disadvantage. Parents would be given real power. All schools would be able to have academy-style freedoms and be able to take on external partners.

"No one will be able to veto parents starting new schools or new providers coming in simply on the basis that there are local surplus places."

There would be a market in both education and the NHS but not one based on private purchasing power.

"Personal wealth won't buy you better NHS service. Funding for schools will be fair and equal no matter what their status and there will be no return to selection aged 11."

Parents would be able to replace the leadership or set up new schools if they were dissatisfied and they would be involved in decisions on issues such as the curriculum, school meals and uniform.

Although Mr Blair failed to acknowledge the debt his academy and specialist school programmes owe to the city technology colleges devised by the Tories, he did try to explain why he had abolished grant-maintained status, which provides the model for his independent schools.

He said: "Grant-maintained schools only covered 18 per cent of secondary schools and three per cent of primary schools and on both funding and admissions, where special privileges were given, created a real sense of anger amongst other less fortunate schools, needlessly creating a two-tier system."

Mr Cameron said: "Only now at the twilight of his premiership is he taking the steps that the Conservatives pressed him to take for so long."

Teachers' Cost Of Living Matters More

Thanks to a friend in Harvard for passing this analysis on to CRAFT. The below analysis appears on the NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
website.

Teachers' Cost of Living Matters More
Brief Analysis

No. 535

by Danielle Georgiou, Pamela Villarreal and Matt Moore

Public officials and teacher unions often compare teacher salaries in a particular city or region against the national average or against other U.S. cities. They assume teachers in areas with higher than average pay are doing well, whereas teachers in areas below the national average must fare poorly. Legislators in states where teacher pay is below the national average are under considerable pressure to raise salaries.

However, our analysis suggests officials may want to consider the cost of living — the quantity of goods teachers can actually purchase with their salaries — rather than simply comparing pay. Our analysis of teacher pay in 50 major metropolitan areas shows that after the adjustment, some cities regarded as higher-paying are actually below average, while cities that appear to pay so-so wages are actually quite generous.

Why Is the Cost of Living Important? Teacher pay is determined mostly by years of service and level of education; the grade level taught or a teacher's effect on student performance are not considered, and advanced degrees are given equal weight.

The average wage for elementary public school teachers in the United States is $45,670.
The average wage for elementary teachers in the regions considered in our analysis range from $59,514 in New York City to $32,209 in Oklahoma City.
Of course, other factors can affect a teacher's salary, such as continuing education credits and sponsorship of extracurricular activities. But simply totaling the number of dollars they are paid doesn't give a complete picture of how well, or poorly, teachers in a given city or region are faring. It is much more meaningful to know what a teacher's dollar will buy locally.

The local cost of living is determined by prices for a basket of consumer goods and services. Prices for housing, groceries, utilities, health care and so forth vary from city to city and region to region. The cost of living for each metro area was determined using the "ACCRA Cost of Living Index," published quarterly by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association. The data shows the cost of living varies widely. For example:

The cost of living in San Francisco is 80 percent higher than the national average, largely because area housing costs are three times the national average.
The cost of living in Memphis, Tenn., is more than 11 percent below the national average, primarily because housing prices there are only three-fourths the national average.
Methodology. Average teacher salaries for elementary and secondary teachers were determined using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates report. The salaries in each area were adjusted for the cost of living. We analyzed 50 metropolitan areas, selected according to availability of data, size and geographic balance. They include the United States' largest 20 metro areas (except for Detroit, Mich., which was not included in the ACCRA data).

National Results. When pay for elementary and secondary teachers is adjusted by the cost of living, the rankings of the 50 cities shift:

With an average salary of $59,514, New York City's elementary teachers receive the highest salaries in the nation, but when adjusted for the cost of living, the number drops to $42,662, making New York City's teacher compensation 25th among major cities. [See the table.]
With an average salary of $59,284, elementary teachers in San Francisco rank 2nd in the nation; adjusted for the cost of living, the salary falls to $32,663, plunging the city to next to last (49th).
In Honolulu, the average annual salary equals $45,467, but the adjusted salary is only $27,048, pushing that city to last place (50th).
The results are similar for secondary school teachers:

In Los Angeles, secondary teachers average $56,384, well above the national average of $47,120, and rank 5th among major cities; however, when adjusted for the cost of living, Los Angeles teachers' pay plunges to 45th.
Salaries for secondary teachers in Houston rank 30th, but the cost of living adjustment moves the city up to 15th.
Slight improvements are seen in a few cities: in Beaumont, Texas, the average annual salary for elementary teachers is $39,960, while the adjusted salary is $45,513 and in Memphis, Tenn., average annual salary is $45,108 and adjusted salary is $50,797. [See the figure.] Overall, public school teachers who are paid above the national average may actually be compensated below the national average when the cost of living is considered.

Conclusion. Clearly, the cost of living makes a difference when examining teacher pay and making comparisons between different regions. Because the cost of living varies widely from city to city and region to region, public officials and teacher unions should consider how much a teacher's dollar can buy, not just numerical pay, when discussing teachers' wages.


Thanks again to the Harvard resident who passed this analysis on to CRAFT. CRAFT and other opponents to referenda have often pointed out cost of living vs. teacher pay to referendum supporters, teachers and administrators. However this analysis often appears to go over their heads. Perhaps a couple of courses in economics would assist in their understanding of the matter and why many residents believe teachers and administrators our overpaid.