Disenfranchised-Educators

"... for (in a democracy) it is not enough to allow dissent, rather... we must demand it!" Robert Kennedy 1966. All material appearing in this hole are offered in the public domain and may be reproduced. However, this publication may not be reproduced for a fee without permission. This blog is not for profit. WE ARE NOT AFILIATED WITH ANY SCHOOL DISTRICT, LABOR UNION, SCHOOL BOARD, or COLLECTIVE. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO INSULT THEM ALL! Proudly, we are NOT Owned by Rupert Murdoch or the CTA!

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Testing and the State Trustees

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State of California

Edmund G. Brown Jr., Governor

CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

1430 N Street, Suite 5111
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-319-0827
Fax: 916-319-0175

March 15, 2012

Norma Martinez
State Trustee
Greenfield Union School District
493 El Camino Real
Greenfield, CA 93927

Dear Ms. Martinez:

On behalf of the State Board of Education (SBE), we wish to thank you for your service as State Trustee of the Greenfield Union School District (SD). You have done an exemplary job and your commitment to the students, parents, and community of Greenfield is greatly appreciated.

As you know, at the September and November 2011 SBE meetings, the members of the SBE approved your recommendation to move towards the Exit Plan and return full local governing authority to the local governing board on or before June 30, 2012.

As you proposed, and we agreed in our follow-up discussions, your last day of service will be May 25, 2012. This will allow time for continuing work on some critical components of the exit plan, including the development and approval by the governing board of the academic plan for closing the achievement gap, development of a superintendent evaluation process, and continued governance training.

Consistent with our mutual agreement, please consider this letter notice pursuant to Section 10 of the MOU, effective March 26, 2012, of termination of the MOU between you, as Trustee of the Greenfield Union SD, and the State Board of Education. With the termination of this MOU, full authority for the governance of the Greenfield Union SD will return to the local governing board beginning on May 26, 2012.

Upon termination of this MOU, the Greenfield Union SD will be responsible for calculating your final paycheck based on your monthly compensation and expense allotment, as specified in the MOU, through May 25, 2012. As is required by Labor Code section 227.3, your final paycheck will also include payment for any annual leave days earned through May 25, 2012 that you have accrued but not yet used.

Again, on behalf of the State Board of Education, we thank you for all that you have accomplished in your two years of service.

Sincerely,

Michael W. Kirst (signed)
President

Susan K. Burr (signed)
Executive Director

cc: Patricia L. de Cos, Deputy Executive Director
      Tom Torlakson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
      Members, State Board of Education
      Nancy Kotowski, Monterey County Superintendent of Schools
      Maria Castillo, President, Greenfield Union SD
      Trevor McDonald, Superintendent, Greenfield Union SD

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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Today Finland officially becomes first nation to make broadband a legal right

By Chad Catacchio on July 1st, 2010

Starting today (July 1), every Finnish citizen now has a guaranteed legal right to a least a 1Mbps broadband connection, putting it on the same footing as other legal rights in the country such as healthcare and education.

As we reported last year, Finland was the first nation in the world to pass this type of legislation, followed by Spain in November.

The Finish government has promised guaranteed speeds of 100Mbps by 2015 for all of its citizens, and currently about 97% of Finns already have access to broadband connections."

Monday, July 27, 2009

Public Education Research, Analysis and Investigations

July 27, 2009

Indiana AFT Affiliate to End No-Raid Agreement with ISTA. Sources within both teachers' unions inform EIA that the Indiana Federation of Teachers (IFT is a branch of the AFT American Federation of Teachers) will opt out of the no-raid agreement it currently has with the NEA-affiliated Indiana State Teachers Association. The decision removes impediments to persuading current ISTA members and locals to switch unions and join IFT.

ISTA has a host of financial problems and is under an NEA trusteeship. (read all state monies go to the national's coffers) IFT is only about one-tenth the size of ISTA, but could make a significant dent in the wake of the larger union's $40 dues increase coupled with staff layoffs and consolidation of regional offices. (CTA is about to do the same to us)

Under normal circumstances, any battle would be strictly a Hoosier State affair. NEA and AFT have a national no-raid agreement, preventing either from lending assistance to the combatants. However, with an NEA trustee handling all of ISTA's finances, it's hard to see how the national unions can avoid knocking heads over the issue. A further complicating factor is the presence of the long-established Indiana Professional Educators, a non-union teachers' association.

Outside of the NEA board of directors rubber-stamping the trusteeship during its meeting in San Diego prior to the opening of the representative assembly, the Indiana situation was not discussed on the convention floor, nor was it discussed in the state caucuses, if the delegates I spoke to are any indication. In the coming year, they may wish they had been let in on the secret.

NEA and Private School Educators. At the 2008 NEA Representative Assembly, delegates approved New Business Item 79, which directed the union to "study the potential impact of opening Active membership to private school educators." A special committee examined the issue and presented its findings to the 2009 RA delegates.The report deals mostly with internal issues and contains no recommendations for a policy change, but it does have a couple of interesting paragraphs worth passing along:

* "Although the size of the K-12 private school employee workforce is at the present time relatively small, that may not be the case in the future. Because of advances in technology, alternative financing arrangements, and other innovations, the way in which the nation's children are being educated is changing, and the line between the public sector and the private sector is becoming increasingly blurred. The emergence of 'virtual' elementary/secondary schools in some states, and the nationwide push for more charter schools (which the United State Department of Labor has asserted – incorrectly, we believe – are private sector entities for purposes of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act), are illustrative. Allowing K-12 private school employees to become NEA Active members would provide the flexibility necessary for NEA to deal with the foregoing situations and other situations that cannot now be fully anticipated."

* "A desire to avoid LMRDA coverage is at least one of the reasons why some forty state affiliates do not at the present time seek to organize and represent any private sector education employees – even those who currently are eligible for NEA Active membership."

* A Dose of Reality. Chances are you won't be seeing a list like this in the future.

The Art of SETTING LIMITS, Its not as easy as it looks.

Art of Setting Limits Setting limits is one of the most powerful tools that professionals have to promote positive behavior change for their clients, students, residents, patients, etc. Knowing there are limits on their behavior helps the individuals in your charge to feel safe. It also helps them learn to make appropriate choices.

There are many ways to go about setting limits, but staff members who use these techniques must keep three things in mind:
Setting a limit is not the same as issuing an ultimatum.
Limits aren’t threats—If you don’t attend group, your weekend privileges will be suspended.

Limits offer choices with consequences—If you attend group and follow the other steps in your plan, you’ll be able to attend all of the special activities this weekend. If you don’t attend group, then you’ll have to stay behind. It’s your decision.
The purpose of limits is to teach, not to punish.
Through limits, people begin to understand that their actions, positive or negative, result in predictable consequences. By giving such choices and consequences, staff members provide a structure for good decision making.
Setting limits is more about listening than talking.
Taking the time to really listen to those in your charge will help you better understand their thoughts and feelings. By listening, you will learn more about what’s important to them, and that will help you set more meaningful limits.
Download The Art of Setting Limits

SYSTEMATIC USE OF CHILD LABOR

CHILD DOMESTIC HELP
by Amanda Kloer

Published February 21, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT
category: Child Labor
Wanted: Domestic worker. Must be willing to cook, clean, work with garbage, and do all other chores as assigned. No contract available, payment based on employer's mood or current financial situation. No days off. Violence, rape, and sexual harassment may be part of the job.

Would you take that job? No way. But for thousands of child domestic workers in Indonesia, this ad doesn't just describe their job, it describes their life.

A recent CARE International survey of over 200 child domestic workers in Indonesia found that 90% of them didn't have a contract with their employer, and thus no way to legally guarantee them a fair wage (or any wage at all) for their work. 65% of them had never had a day off in their whole employment, and 12% had experienced violence. Child domestic workers remain one of the most vulnerable populations to human trafficking and exploitation. And while work and life may look a little grim for the kids who answered CARE's survey, it's likely that the most abused and exploited domestic workers didn't even have the opportunity to take the survey.

In part, child domestic workers have it so much harder than adults because the people who hire children are more likely looking for someone easy to exploit. Think about it -- if you wanted to hire a domestic worker, wouldn't you choose an adult with a stronger body and more life experience to lift and haul and cook than a kid? If you could get them both for the same price, of course you would. But what if the kid was cheaper, free even, because you knew she wouldn't try and leave if you stopped paying her. Or even if you threatened her with death.

Congress Aims to Improve Laws for Runaway, Prostituted Kids

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 20, 2010 @ 09:00AM PT

The prospects for healthcare reform may be chillier than DC weather, but Democrats in the House and Senate are turning their attention to another warmer but still significant national issue: the increasing number of runaway and throwaway youth who are being forced into prostitution. In response to the growing concerns that desperate, runaway teens will be forced into prostitution in a sluggish economy, Congress is pushing several bills to improve how runaway kids are tracked by the police, fund crucial social services, and prevent teens from being caught in sex trafficking. Here's the gist of what the new legislation is trying to accomplish:

Shelter: Lack of shelter is one of the biggest vulnerabilities of runaway and homeless youth. Pimps will often use an offer of shelter as an entree to a relationship with a child or a straight up trade for sex. In the past couple years, at least 10 states have made legislative efforts to increase the number of shelters, extend shelter options, and change state reporting requirements so that youth shelters have enough time to win trust and provide services before they need to report the runaways to the police. Much of the new federal legislation would make similar increases in the availability and flexibility of shelter options.

Police Reporting: Right now, police are supposed to enter all missing persons into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database within two hours of receiving the case. In reality, that reporting doesn't always get done, making it almost impossible for law enforcement to search for missing kids across districts. This hole is a big problem in finding child prostitution victims and their pimps, since pimps will often transport girls from state to state. The new bill would strengthen reporting requirements, as well as facilitate communication between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard

Indigent services program has more than doubled

Here are three good reads to help fill the enormous gap between the surface hullaballoo about the nation's education crisis generated by WFS and Education Nation and the angry mob of teachers and educators who are seething against what some are calling the "war on teachers," (and their unions) -- Dana Goldstein's piece in The Nation about the successes of union-management collaboration (here), Jonathan Gyurko's piece on what Guggenheim left out of his piece (here), and Nick Lemann's New Yorker commentary about the overheated crisis rhetoric surrounding so-called reform (here). I'm hoping that there will be more about this in the mainstream sometime soon -- sketching out not only the controversies surrounding Guggenheim's proposed solutions but also the practical and political limits of going to war against traditional schools as we now now them. You'd think that the resounding defeat of Fenty and Rhee would have made this clear, but perhaps there wasn't enough time for it to sink into the journalistic consciousness enough before the WFS media juggernaut came through. Thank you. Alexander Russo July 19, 2010 Education Week.

I've really got to stop plag... recycling these articles.