Right now . . .
CHECK THIS KANSAS TEACHER PERSPECTIVE ON A SUNFLOWER STATE TENURE CRACKDOWN!!!
Here's the real scoop regarding the ongoing decline of public education in the Sunflower State . . .
TOPEKA MOB UPDATE
Kansas giving notice to Teachers: You're Fired
The Kansas Legislature has decided a funding bill is the perfect vehicle to dismantle public schools.
Where is Brownback? He's not staying late to weigh in.
Under the new rules eliminating due process, all K-12 teachers become contract employees that can be terminated at will. No valid reason or process needed.
Teaching is hard enough without having to worry about getting the ax on a whim. Give the wrong student a bad grade? A little too honest at the parent/teacher conference? Disagree with a school board member about policy? Teach something unpopular, like evolution or controversial literature? Earn more money than a new hire? Administrator doesn't approve of your sexual orientation? You're fired.
Due process has absolutely nothing to do with funding. Why is this in a finance bill?
Conservatives are using national stereotypes of failing schools and uncaring teachers as the problem they are "solving". Apparently, they believe the nearby unaccredited Kansas City, Missouri district is in Kansas, or that the Chicago teacher strikes are imminent here.
In Kansas, teachers can be and are fired. Teachers can not strike. The largest districts in Kansas are among the most successful in the nation. Large failing districts that need fixing are not the problem. Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission are not KCMO or Hickman Mills.
So how are top performing districts in the Golden Ghetto rewarded? By sending education money to private schools, charter schools and even home schoolers. New corporate and property tax breaks for those opting out of public education.
Instead of funding public schools, the state is moving to fund private solutions. The Senate fully embraced that path. The House refused in a close vote at 2 am. Those holdout Republicans are now being threatened with a right wing challenge that Governor Brownback, the Koch Brothers, and Chamber of Commerce will surely fund (as they did to flip the Senate in 2012).
After failing at 2 am last night and unable to schedule a 5 am session, the House adjourned until noon Sunday. Then 3 pm. Then 6 pm. Now 9 pm. They are waiting for teachers who have been at the Capital all weekend to leave so this can be pushed through without public reaction.
Developing...
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As a former teacher, let me say the destruction of the Teacher's Union everywhere would, in my opinion, imporove the quality of education for all students.
ReplyDeleteOur entire education paradigm, soup to nuts, is burdened with over paid administrators and tenured postions which provide sinecure to unqulified, modestly talented folks who, by way of endurance as opposed to accomplishment are sucking the life out of our kids.
College costs and the onerous burden placed on families for degrees now superflous from institutions who aid and abet this corrupt system are a crucible this society can no longer afford.
Read your favorite professor's most recent tome on Gender Studies at home after a tough day studying at a Trade School.
What other profession or career does not have employment at will? I worked for over 40 years without tenure, and somehow I survived.
ReplyDeleteI was not a teacher, but I come from a whole family of them. They love their jobs and would not consider doing anything else but teaching. They also think that they are blessed. They earn a decent living (not a fortune, but more than a lot of people earn). They have lots of time off.
It sounds to me that the teachers' unions are just parroting the tired old union line, one we have heard every time anybody wants to change anything. It is not working, guys. You need to find a newer act.
Because common core and tenure for bad teachers is the answer! Way to go teachers unions, what are we ranked on a global level in education these days?
ReplyDeletehey 710 you stupid fuckhead, clearly you didnt have good teachers b/c you cant read. ks doesnt have teachers unions. now go lick some rich persons boots and fuck off weighing in on shit.
ReplyDeletehey chuck-
ReplyDeletedont fucking tell me what to do.
go to hell,
Roxy Ballcrusher
The common core math program is a disaster.
ReplyDelete7:58
ReplyDeleteNo one is telling you what to do. The post at 6:13 is an opinion.
Fire for cause. NOBODY!!! Should have a job because the union / family/friends/etc covers your ass. Nobody!
ReplyDeleteTony, once again your ignorance and bias is astounding. Kansas gives no tax credits to homeschoolers (though it's a damn good idea), so homeschoolers pay for their own education as well as continuing to be forced to subsidize the education of others. Over $12,000.00 dollars per year is spent in Kansas for each student, much of it going to bloated bureaucracies that continue to promote mediocre teachers and wacky programs like whole language, see-and-say, outcome based education, "learning in progress" and the granddaddy - Common Core. As in other areas, Kansas is doing exactly what is needs to do to stay at the top of both education and quality of life - ignoring those whose ignorance and jealousies causes them to continue to whine about "fairness" - a cover for trying to keep everyone at a lower level of expectation so they won't have to actually work hard.
ReplyDeleteunion teachers work 24/7!
ReplyDelete24 hours a week
7 months a year
"As in other areas, Kansas is doing exactly what is needs to do to stay at the top of both education and quality of life ... "
ReplyDeleteBest humor writing published in any Kansas City blog ever. My hat's off to you.
7:10 Our ranking in the world means nothing. Our scores are still good if you separate it into races. Norway and Japan don't have the same minorities dragging them down we do. If an immigrant shows up for his first day of school on the day of state assessment tests his score counts even though he doesn't speak a word of English. And as for black people, well they have no excuse.
ReplyDelete