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In recognition of National Charter School Week, the American Federation of Teachers today reaffirmed its commitment to quality, accountable public education pledging it will intensify its nationwide effort to organize charter schools. |
As published in the Christian Science Monitor The AFL-CIO's chief organizer sees increased desire in the By: David R. Francis American corporate executives spend several hundred million dollars a year on "union avoidance" lawyers and consultants (less politely called "union busters,") to keep their companies union-free. Other costs involved in campaigns against trade unions may well boost the bill above $1 billion a year, estimates management professor John Logan. |
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We live in an era when leaders in business and the media demand that schools function like businesses in a free market economy, competing for students and staff. Many such voices say that such corporate-style school reform is stymied by the teacher unions, which stand in the way of leaders who want unchecked power to assign, reward, punish, or remove their employees. Some academics blame the unions when student achievement remains stagnant. If scores are low, the critics say it must be because of the teachers’ contract, not because the district has a weak curriculum or lacks resources or has mediocre leadership. If some teachers are incompetent, it must be because of the contract, not because the district has a flawed, bureaucratic hiring process or has failed to evaluate new teachers before awarding them tenure. These critics want to scrap the contract, throw away teachers’ legal protections, and bring teacher unions to their collective knees.
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Regulations for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 were released on August 3, 2006. They will be formally issued in the Federal Register on August 14, 2006, which also will include the model Individual Education Programs (IEP), procedural safeguards and other model forms required under the law.
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President Bush’s drive to privatize Social Security stalled last year. It was clear to the American people that he viewed Social Security as a government program and not as the partnership it is between government and American workers.
In spite of mass opposition to the president’s plan, efforts to privatize retirement security using a new vehicle—your defined-benefit pension—are surfacing in an increasing number of states. Lawmakers in more than two dozen states are using shortfalls in public employee defined-benefit pension systems to fuel so-called reform. Their final destination is the same as that of the Bush administration’s Social Security overhaul: individual accounts that offer no guarantees, no retirement security. |
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