Rhee’s Students First Collaborated on Mich. Bill Limiting Collective Bargaining for Teachers
Laura Clawson from Working America is now at Daily Kos writing full-time about issues key to working people. Here’s her latest on the involvement of former District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in limiting collective bargaining for Michigan teachers.
Education blogger At the Chalk Face has obtained an internal briefing document from Michelle Rhee’s Students First and makes clear just how extensively Students First collaborated with Michigan Republicans on four education bills targeting teachers, including one limiting collective bargaining. The 30-page PDF is available here.
The crucial take-away is that although Rhee has claimed publicly that eliminating collective bargaining is not her end goal, and although Students First didn’t publicly support Michigan’s bill limiting collective bargaining for teachers, the document leaves no doubt that in fact the organization privately supported the bill, saying:
StudentsFirst did not work directly with the House on the collective bargaining bill and we have not expressed public support for the bill. However, many of the things they included in the bill came from our policy agenda and pave the way for implementing a new eval process, mutual consent and performance based RIFs.
Assault on Workers Extends to Entire Middle Class
Although union members are the most visible targets of the attacks on working people, this anti-worker crusade extends way beyond unions to an assault on the broader American middle class, says Laura Clawson.
Writing on Daily Kos, Clawson, senior writer at Working America, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s speech at the National Press Club last week provides an important message to which every American should pay attention. In the speech, Trumka says the nation’s leaders are not having a national conversation about putting America back to work to build our future but instead are debating “how fast we can destroy the fabric of our country, about breaking the promises we made to our parents and grandparents.”
…the politicians who pander to the worst instincts of the wealthy would rather break promises to our parents and grandparents and deny our children a future than pay their fair share of taxes.
Education Supporters Rally Against Walker at Privatization Conference
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More than 200 students, teachers and other activists—many from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania—rallied today in Washington, D.C., against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) and Gov. Tom Corbett’s moves to privatize their states’ schools.
The two—along with former Washington, D.C., school chancellor Michelle Rhee—were the key speakers at an annual conference by a right-wing “education reform” foundation that advocates privatizing public education and draws of some of the biggest funders of right-wing political projects nationally.
The American Federation for Children (ACF) promotes school privatization and voucher schemes that take away critically needed funds for public education.
Both Walker and Corbett are pushing privatization efforts and Rhee has long been connected to corporate education interests who would profit from school privatization. According to The Nation’s John Nichols:
In addition to his much-publicized proposal to strips teachers of collective bargaining rights and to make it dramatically harder for their unions to advocate for small class sizes and other priorities, Walker’s budget plan seeks to cut funding for local schools and reduce the authority of local school boards to make decisions that defend and strengthen public education in their communities. It also outlines a number of initiatives designed to clear the way for and encourage private-school choice schemes.
‘Superman’ Documentary Ignores Good Public Schools
The new documentary, “Waiting for Superman,” powerfully portrays the pain of children and parents struggling in an education system that isn’t meeting their needs. But it doesn’t tell the real story about public schools, and it doesn’t offer real solutions.
The stories depicted in the documentary show that the opportunity for a great education should be a right, not come by chance or choice, according to the AFT. By focusing on a few bad schools, the film overlooks the millions of good public school teachers who are on the front lines every day and working hard to meet the needs of children in public schools. Despite his good intentions, director Davis Guggenheim has made a movie that is selective and incomplete, says AFT President Randi Weingarten.
In an interview with Lloyd Grove on The Daily Beast, Weingarten says:
There are lots of incredibly good public schools around this country, and there are incredibly great teachers and there are more and more really interested, solution-driven contracts. And I think the fact that none of that is represented in the film is a problem with the film.
Weingarten Condemns Firing of 241 D.C. Teachers
The announcement today that 241 District of Columbia public school teachers would be fired under the school system’s new evaluation process raises questions about Washington, D.C., School Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s “penchant for firing teachers rather than providing supports to develop their skills,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. This brings to nearly 600 the number of district teachers Rhee has fired in just over a year.
Weingarten said:
Firing teachers en masse may sound to some like strong action is being taken, but in the absence of real professional supports and valid teacher evaluations systems, it simply perpetuates a destructive and failing strategy.
D.C. School Chief’s Actions Hurting School Children
The latest controversy over the Washington, D.C., school budget is another example of schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s “penchant to act without crossing all of her ‘t’s,’” writes Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post’s Answer Sheet blog.
The current budget flap came after Rhee agreed to give teachers raises without first checking with the city’s top financial officer, who now is refusing to certify the deal with the Washington Teachers’ Union/AFT. The union also is suing Rhee over the firing of 266 teachers last October after it was revealed the system had a $34 million surplus, more than enough to keep the teachers on board.
