Dear Colleague,
With the 2018 elections behind us, we see that the
much-publicized record number of teachers running for office didn’t do very
well, despite the November 7th National Educational Association
claim that “Voters deliver big wins for public education.” As
Mike Antonucci reports, in West Virginia, 13 educators won and 25 lost, and 10
of the 13 educator winners were incumbents. In Oklahoma, 17 educators were
victorious and 31 were not. While 14 educators won in Arizona and only seven
lost, 11 of the 14 winners were incumbents. Also, The Wall Street Journal’s
Michelle Hackman reports that there were actually more teachers who ran in 2016
than in 2018.
Nationally the results were similarly disappointing for
#RedforED activists. According to an Education
Week analysis, of 177 educators who ran for state office, only 42 emerged
victorious. (It’s true, however, that activist teachers and their unions gained
some satisfaction with gubernatorial wins in Wisconsin, Illinois and Kansas – Republicans
Scott Walker, Bruce Rauner and Laura Kelly, all perceived to be less friendly
to traditional public schools, lost to their Democratic challengers.)
Speaking of unions, American Federation of Teachers
President Randi Weingarten recently wrote a piece for Education Week in which (alluding to a GenForward poll of
millennials attitudes toward a variety of education issues) she contended,
While millennials give
the nation’s public schools mixed grades, they strongly support public education
over privatized alternatives. Seventy-one percent of respondents said that
increasing funding would do more to improve public education than providing
more vouchers. And respondents’ top answer for the best way to improve K-12
education in local districts is to increase school funding.
Weingarten’s statement is quite misleading; millennials are
indeed very much in favor of vouchers. In fact, 87 percent of black and 85
percent of Latino millennials are in favor of them, as are 80 percent of Asian Americans
and 70 percent of whites.
The latest lawsuit against the unions takes the United
Teachers of Los Angeles to task for its narrow union resignation window. Special
education teacher Thomas Few has filed a lawsuit against UTLA and the Los
Angeles Unified School District “for violating his First Amendment rights to
free speech and freedom of association.” The teacher plaintiff, Thomas Few, is
being represented by lawyers from the Liberty Justice Center, which represented
Illinois state worker Mark Janus in the Janus
v. AFSCME case and the California Policy Center.
In a press release, Brian Kelsey, senior attorney for the
Liberty Justice Center said:
The U.S. Supreme Court
has declared that government employees have a choice and a voice when it comes
to union membership. The United Teachers of Los Angeles are violating Thomas
Few’s constitutional rights by not allowing him to withdraw from the union. The
Unified School District of Los Angeles is complicit in this constitutional
violation by taking union dues from Mr. Few’s paycheck against his will. In Janus
v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that government unions must receive clear, voluntary, and informed consent from
government workers for membership. Liberty Justice Center is determined to see
that these rights are respected throughout the United States.
To learn more, go here.
Also, on unions, CTEN board member, former teacher and
Supreme Court plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs’ excellent new book, Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and
National Teachers' Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country has
been released. My review of the book is available here.
To order the book, go here.
Education Week’s
Stephen Sawchuk has written a thoughtful piece in which he asks, “What if the
inability of Americans to agree on our shared history—and the right way to
teach it—is a cause of our current polarization rather than a symptom?” The
beginning of the article focuses on the Alamo and Sawchuk makes the point that
“what students learn about U.S. history varies depending on where they attend
school, and is frequently filtered through the political and demographic makeup
of different communities.”
Where does this leave the parents of children who support
strong immigration laws, President Trump, Second Amendment rights, capitalism,
etc.?
In California, unless you have the means to send your kid to
the private school of your choosing or can home-school, you and your kids very
well may be stuck due to the diminishing number of public schools that stress
traditional American values.
What do we do about this problem? The Cato Institute’s Neil
McCluskey says simply and unequivocally that public schooling, despite its
reputation, has not brought us together, and that we need educational freedom.
“When togetherness has been imposed, conflict and inequality have often been
the results.” For example, having no clout in traditional public schools,
Catholics established an alternative to the de facto Protestant public schools,
and by 1965 enrolled over five million children.
School choice – vouchers, tax credits, and education savings
accounts provide an escape. Where choice has been instituted, academic results
improve and taxpayers save money. McCluskey writes that Americans are unified
by human nature. “It is simply easier to live and thrive in a society when you
speak a common language and share a common culture. But people often want
commonality without being required to sacrifice things they cherish that might
also make them different. School choice works with that, enabling families and
educators to freely interact, and to unify without zero-sum, forced sacrifice.”
Charter schools have been in the news lately. Granada Hills
Charter High School in northern Los Angeles, with over 4,700 students, is one
of the largest charter schools in the U.S. And it is expanding to include
elementary and middle school students at a separate campus.
The benefit, say Granada Hills Charter administrators, is to
give those students a continuous, high-quality education for their entire
school life from transitional kindergarten through grade 12 without school
change.
Brian Bauer, executive director at Granada Hills Charter
High School, says the expanded school “will allow students a seamless
transition through a system where skills and content are built on, year after
year.”
To read more, go here.
There are many school districts across the state which are
facing monumental budget crises. In San Diego, things seem to be coming to a
head as at least 10 districts in the county “are projecting that they will not
be able to meet their financial commitments next school year.” The primary
reasons for the problem are rising pension and special education costs which
are at odds with declining enrollment.
“This is actually a more serious time than during the recession,” said Michael Simonson, assistant superintendent of business services for the San Diego County Office of Education, which reviews the budget of every school district in the county by September each year.
To read more, go here.
Also, CTEN will continue to keep up with post-Janus doings in addition to any other
issues pertinent to education and teachers, and inform you as things happen. If
you have any questions, or have experienced any problems because of your
decision to leave your union, please let us know, and we will do our best to
help you in a timely manner. We will also be able to share your concerns with
other teachers across the state. And speaking of sharing, please pass this
email along to your colleagues and encourage them to join us.
Also, anyone
wishing to donate to CTEN can do so very simply through check, money order or
PayPal - http://www.ctenhome.org/donate.html
As a non-profit, we exist only through the generosity of others. Thanks,
as always.
Sincerely,
Larry Sand
CTEN President
