OK, I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus here, what with winter breaks and winter flus and winter doldrums and winter personal lives (would you believe, teachers have personal lives?!). But I’m making my way through the educational headlines for the last week, and along comes this doozy from Arne Duncan, the Secretary of [...]
Posts under ‘Government’
Brewer v. Teachers
Here’s what the LA Times said the preliminary cost of buying out Brewer will be:
Because the board terminated Brewer “without cause,” he’s entitled to receive a buyout specified under his contract. The terms under the contract are 18 months’ salary, totaling $450,000, and his expense account over that period, which adds $67,500. He’ll also get [...]
Buy-Bye Brewer III
Less than a week and it’s done. Man overboard! But not the way the LA Times hoped for. Here are the parting words of the Admiral:
Therefore, I have decided to do what I think is in the best interest of the children, to put all of our students first. Although my two years of service [...]
Buy-bye Brewer II
In today’s LA Times, Steve Lopez, who’s awesome at pitbulling (aka tattling out) public officials to make them accountable, wrote a great column describing eating with Brewer at–where else?!–the Pacific Dining Car.
$16.95 crab cake appetizers and $28.95 salads later, he requested the Superintendent’s expense accounts. Here’s what happened:
When the documents arrived, much of the information [...]
First DC, Now NY… Hello LA?
Last week Michelle Rhee created new proposals regarding teaching, tenure, and pay to shake up her moribund school district (latest Washington Post update here). NY teachers have also been getting on the newthink bandwagon led by Randi Weingarten who is both the president of the NY Local of the American Federation of Teachers and [...]
The Obama Girls Go To Washington
In the first place I can’t believe I’m writing about this. When hundreds of kids are dying of gunshot wounds in urban school districts like Los Angeles each year, when migrant workers’ children are unable to get educations, not to mention the 90+ million children around the world who who don’t even get to go [...]
Oh I Wish I Were in Washington D.C.!
What a difference a day makes!
Today’s New York Times online included a story on Michelle Rhee, the controversial year-long superintendent for the troubled D.C. school system. She’s one of the many Ivy Leaguers who used a few years of teaching in urban schools via Teach For America to springboard into the forefront of educational policy [...]
Thank God We’re Not Washington, D.C.
I just discovered an amazing, horrific series done last year by The Washington Post investigating D.C.’s school district. Bureaucratic red tape, mismanagement, fraud, outright thievery! Granted, educating in D.C. is tougher than in LA because the US Congress, not any particular state, controls funding for the District, and so they get buffeted by all sorts [...]
