Victory in Florida, But States Still Fighting Anti-Education Bills
April 29, 2010 by Amy Buffenbarger
Filed under Education Funding, Featured News, Jobs, Top Stories, Uncategorized
By Kevin Hart
This month, with a stroke of his pen, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist took a bold stand for public schools and vetoed Senate Bill 6, a bill that threatened to make Florida one of the most teacher-hostile states in America. But educators are warning that SB 6 was just one battle in a larger, nationwide effort to defeat state-level legislation that threatens to harm America’s public schools.
Florida teachers, administrators, education support professionals, parents and community groups drew a figurative line in the sand with SB 6, which was drafted without input from educators, would have stripped employment rights for teachers, and would have amounted to a massive, unfunded mandate for school districts.
Tens of thousands of e-mails, phone calls and letters flooded Crist’s office, encouraging him to veto the bill. Daily newspapers were filled with op-eds from concerned educators, and teachers called in to television and radio stations in droves. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter offered thousands of messages from Floridians pressing for the bill’s defeat.
And, ultimately, this is the grassroots blueprint educators will need to use to continue to defeat a rash of anti-education bills popping up in statehouses throughout the country.
The next battleground may be Louisiana, where Gov. Bobby Jindal’s definition of “reform” seems to entail bullying and scapegoating the state’s hard-working educators and handing taxpayer funds to for-profit schools.
Jindal is trying to spearhead numerous changes to Louisiana education law, despite the fact that he has never during his two years in office met with representatives from the Louisiana Association of Educators, the largest education group in the state.
Jindal and State Superintendent of Schools Paul Pastorek are trying to use the federal Race to the Top grants competition to justify closing neighborhood public schools in favor of for-profit charter schools; reassigning hundreds of hard-working teachers and support professionals who will lose their jobs when these schools are closed; and enacting a “teach to the test” atmosphere that will strip creativity and innovation from the state’s schools.
LAE is already mobilizing educators, parents and other stakeholders to fight the anti-education legislation. The organization has launched a Web site at www.standupforlapublicschools.org and has created a Facebook page that already has united concerned residents from throughout the state.
Colorado educators are also fighting a recently introduced bill that threatens to undermine public education. The Colorado Education Association has announced its opposition to Senate Bill 191, which would stick districts with a massive bill for overhauling their teacher and principal evaluation systems, even if the districts already have well-functioning systems in place.
The bill would also use questionable, high-stakes testing to measure teacher effectiveness (the financial burden of this testing would fall to cash-strapped districts) and would radically weaken due process rights for teachers.
Educators have voiced concern that SB 191 is designed to be an end-run around the Governor’s Council for Educator Effectiveness, which was launched by Gov. Bill Ritter in January. Unlike SB 191, the council relies on input from practicing educators and has just begun its work.
CEA is already engaged in aggressive member outreach, lobbying and radio advertising in an effort to raise concerns about SB 191 and ensure that educator voices are heard in any remake of teacher evaluation systems.
Photo: Educators rally against proposed education funding slashing in South Carolina. Photo by South Carolina Education Association.
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I will be addressing the proposed budget cuts to education in the State of New Jersey. Nothing like this has ever happened in New Jersey. The proposed cuts are irresponsible and reckless. They will destroy the high standard of education in New Jersey, leaving our public education system gutted the same way California’s school system is, where only those that can afford to pay, receive a decent education. It is the beginning of the privatization of education in NJ. Our public education system will not recover from this. It is a fatal blow that the governor hopes to wield. Despite the spin put on it, the intention of the Governor’s cuts is not to save money, it is to destroy and privatize public education.
There will be larger classes, cuts to sports, arts, music, language arts, special education, guidance, and other key programs. This will affect the quality of education greatly. It will lower test scores. Students needing additional help will suffer as support programs disappear statewide. ESL classes will be affected. Full day kindergartens will become half days and half day sessions will disappear.
Where will our children turn if after school programs are gone? This budget pushes teens towards the street rather than the track, football field, art or theater club. We will soon be paying tax dollars to combat rising gang membership and drug use as doors close on students at 3 P.M.
If you ask a teacher why they became a teacher, not one will answer “because I want to be rich” nor will they tell you “I want to earn over $400,000 a year to be in a better tax bracket.” They become education professionals to teach. Rather than earn a higher salary in the private sector, they accept many years of low to moderate pay in exchange for the many rewards of teaching and for job security. As Governor Christie attacks pensions, medical benefits, and job security, the job of a teacher will become less and less attractive. Ultimately, our best and brightest will not choose education as a profession.
As test scores go down and school systems fail, property values in NJ will fall. Real estate values have always been tied to education.
This is an attack on public education, educators, unions, and collective bargaining. The attack is also on the lower and middle class youth of New Jersey. These cuts are meant to eviscerate public education. Governor Christie’s end game is not fiscal responsibility. He intends to destroy public education, promote the privatization of education, break unions, and keep many uneducated.
The public is being misled by Governor Christie’s disgusting lies about teachers. The wording of the attacks on teachers almost word for word matches union busting tactics used on the UAW when the Tarp money was given to GM. This strategy began with President Reagan’s attack on the Air Traffic Controller union and has been fine tuned over time. It is very effective and has turned public sentiment against teachers in general. Teachers are not the enemy nor are they the problem.
The net effect of the push to open signed contracts, freeze wages, force payment into health care, change the pension formula, ignore the state’s legal obligation to repay loans taken on the pension fund, in combination with working under threat or promise of being laid off, has been to demoralize and depress our children’s caretakers. This only hurts our youth’s strongest allies who are, in some cases, their only advocates. Most of this is not necessary; the income to the state from re-instating the millionaire’s tax would refund education in our state. At a time when President Obama speaks of “preparing our youth to compete in the new global economy” we are planning to ruin any chance that the students of New Jersey will be prepared to do so. It is a matter of priorities. We, as citizens of New Jersey, can choose to destroy or build.
Governor Christie’s agenda is NOT in any of our best interests, even those who support it. New Jersey schools are among the best in the nation. If Governor Christie’s budget passes, the state we will have a growing source of shame rather than pride as our youth suffer the effects of Governor Christie’s short sighted, cruel attacks on the New Jersey public education system and on the future of our greatest commodity, our youth.
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