In today’s LA Times Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Steve Zimmer, board member-elect of the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education, called on teachers to take a pay cut to save the district $45 million.
In response I offer the following federal stimulus and bailout headlines:
Stimulus [...]
Posts under ‘Politics’
Funny Things About Federal Funds
Teachers & Money
There’s a lot of talk out there to link individual teacher pay to test scores. While I’d be thrilled to get a pay raise (and in an earlier post, I shouted, ‘Bring it on!’), here’s why I don’t think this is a good idea.
First all the usual reasons: teachers will teach to the test and [...]
Health Care v. Education, Part 1
This week’s New Yorker has a great piece on health care costs. Want to know where the US Gov. spends the MOST money per capita on healthcare?
That would be McAllen, TX in the Rio Grande Valley. Lat year Medicare spent $15,000 per enrollee there, 2x the national average.
Where the heck did all that money go [...]
Cost Cutting 101
Today’s LA Times led a piece on the battle over Birmingham High School with the heading, “The outcome of a battle over reform at the Van Nuys campus might shape the future of L.A. Unified.” The mayor’s reform branch (I-Division), a magnet within the school, and a charter supported by some of the teachers are [...]
Danger!!!!! (More Tales of LAUSD Waste)
This week we had an inspector come by from the safety branch of LAUSD. He had a grim face, a clipboard, and a scratchy pen he wielded with gusto and relish. He scuttled through classroom after classroom and uncovered MANY examples of clear and present DANGER!!!!
Most notably: couches. Yep. That’s right. Couches. Sofas. Cushy chairs. [...]
Cracked, Broken, and Mute: How LAUSD Wastes Money
Yesterday’s LA Times reported the following from our globe-trotting, glad-handing, tv-anchor-bopping mayor (this isn’t TMZ but, btw, who was that cute lady beside him gazing adoringly at him on yesterday’s news reports?):
At Liechty, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa led a forum Monday with teachers and parents, stressing the need for “shared sacrifice” and “creative solutions” to save [...]
Pink Slips Continued
OK, so maybe it’s not the clearest data on Planet Earth, but it’s what arrived in my mailbox today. Basically, it says the union is asking for a 95:5 teacher: administrator ratio.
That would mean 30,057 teachers and 1024.18 administrators in the union’s ideal world.
The latest district proposal is 30,057 teachers: 1582 administrators (rounding so we [...]
Pink Slips Action Update
The CTA (California Teachers Association) has set up a social network to post your pink slip stories and actions and to get updates: kind of an ideas central. Check it out here.
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Pink Slips
Yesterday was Pink Slip Friday in LAUSD. Friends and colleagues started texting at 6:30 in the morning reminding each other to wear pink, though preferably not pink slips or lingerie of any public sort, to work. It was festive and light-hearted, perhaps because it (and we) were still bleary-eyed about it all.
Then we went to [...]
Uh-oh Arne Duncan!
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 [...]
