#teacher layoffs

[ausetkmt]

Schools across U.S. announce teacher layoffs

[thesewordsrblue-blog-blog]

Stephanie Lane Sutton

15 minutes ago

EVERYBODY: Rahm Emanuel is attacking the youth of this city's right to public education once again by attempting to layoff 22,700 teachers. We have to fight this TODAY! The mayor's office is taking a numerical tally of opposition. All you have to do is call this number: [phone]. When someone answers the phone, you just have to say "I oppose the CPS layoffs." You don't need to live in Chicag...o to do this, and they don't need any personal information for this numerical count -- all you have to do is voice your opposition. After you call, please tweet, facebook, email, etc your opposition to get the word out! Since Emanuel has taken office, he has disinvested in public schools in favor of privatized charter schools, despite the fact that these schools do not produce better students, and completely ignoring the fact that non-unionized schools are an absolute nightmare for teachers to work in. Emanuel has consistently shown he is interested in creating profits for rich, private investors at the cost of the tax payer, and this is no exception. Please call and voice your support for the youth of this city. Office hours are 8am-9pm CST. Signal boost & share this information!

[sfpnovel-blog]

6.

In the morning when Ali left her post along Wallo’s back and headed to the bathroom, Carmen was already (or was it still?) sitting on the couch in the small living room in his leopard-print briefs with this charmeuse dressing gown fallen open around his wide belly. It was unclear whether he’d slept. The scene was identical to the one Ali had arrived home to yesterday after school, her cheeks flushed from a bike ride home down forgotten city streets on a warm September day, when she’d entered the apartment with her bicycle hoisted over her shoulder and Carmen announced, “Lover, I’ve been fired.”

She put the bike down and followed the smells of a strawberry blunt to Carmen’s side, took a deep toke before taking off her helmet and hearing what had happened.

But this morning she stayed standing by her bedroom door, afraid of a contact high from what appeared to be the second half of yesterday’s blunt, its fumes milling around Carmen’s breathing air as though he were the plastic fixture in a campy snow-globe or a lava lamp. The thought of facing her twenty-nine students without him made her stomach lurch.

A packed bag sat on the floor beside the couch, and with it the sleeping back Ali told him he could use. She wanted to sit down beside him and hold his great skull in her arms and comfort him like she did yesterday when the small action of a large beauracracy fell upon them like a guillotine. Like a house. She wanted to skip school and let the weed settle into her mind-body like she was a muddy pond and thoughts were only wispy weeds swirled around by the watery muck.

But that had been yesterday’s luxury, and today was now today, a school day.  Ali was standing on the shore with pond scum clinging to her calves, water running into the back of her shoes, trying to grieve Carmen’s departure as quickly and quietly as possible, when Wallo burst from the bedroom door in corduroys and socks, his thin chest still bare, and came to rest beside her. “A little early, muchacho?” he asked, noticing the smoke, then the bag. “Where ya going?”

Carmen deigned to cast a glance through the smoke at the two he would presently leave behind, then re-crossed his eyes and centered his attention on the peace pipe hanging turgidly between his wide lips.“I am going to occupy Wall Street,” he said.

Wallo’s mouth opened and his tongue flapped inside like a fish. He wagged it at Ali, then back at Carmen. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

“No joke, cracker,” said Carmen. He puffed longly on the last inches of the blunt.

“You are totally outrageous,” said Wallo.

“Yes,” Carmen said, nodding. He smiled at Ali.

“Yes,” she agreed, nodding along. Here was Carmen Guerra on the couch in his sateen dressing gown, but tomorrow he would be Comrade Carmen, leader of a new age, Gaga in khakis and a tan beret, living love as liberation, a dangerous feat possible only for dangerous lovers like Carmen, with his trans burlesque shows, his shadowy arts.

“You have my blessing,” Ali said, because it seemed the right thing to say. She went to Carmen and hugged him.

Later, while she and Wallo stood waiting for the bus stop under the sharp blue sky, takeout coffees and muffins in hand, Ali thought of her bicycle, still leaning against the living room wall where she’d left it. 

[k12enterprise-blog]

Transparency – What’s Your Policy?

The folks at Katy (TX) ISD have a Q&A page on their website for general inquiries.  It’s an insightful  view of what’s on the minds and in the hearts of the good folks of Katy when it comes to public education.

The posting that caught our eye is the one from April, 2011 where the district addresses  questions about the budget, staffing, and programs for the 2011 – 12 school year.  These queries are not softballs by any means.  They are well-reasoned and carefully thought-out inquires about how the district spends the funding it receives, i.e. taxpayers’ money.

The subject of most of the questions shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone: “Are high administrative salaries the cause of staff reductions?”; “How will reduction of instructional personnel impact class size and student-teacher ratio?”; “Why are we building new schools if we’re laying-off teachers?”.  The administration of Katy ISD does an impressive job of providing clear, understandable, and direct answers to all the posted questions. They should be commended, not only for the quality of their responses, but for tackling these issues in the first place.  They may not have answered every query, and we’re pretty sure there are people who feel their particular concern was not addressed.  But by giving people a forum for discussion, and not ducking the issues, they go a long way toward providing transparency on matters of concern to their constituency.

Oh, and one more thing.  The Katy ISD site provides a link to a document detailing exactly how the budget is spent and which expenditures may be reduced, pending the final state budget.

So how does your district deal with the issue of transparency?  Do you share the financial details of your operation – more than what’s required by law?  If needed, would you be able to easily access the pertinent data?

Tell us your ideas and policies – we’d love to hear how other school systems are responding to community requests for information on budget and other concerns.

[reporteremilieritter-blog-blog]

Visit Original Link

The Great Falls Public School District is laying-off 19 teachers and 7 classified staff after its mill levy failed.  The district has been cutting millions of dollars from its operating budget over the last few years, trimming extras.  But as Montana Public Radio's Emilie Ritter reports, now core subjects are being impacted.

No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to Montana Public Radio.

[loschronicles]

FUCK #LAUSD. 

one time for the teachers who give a fuck. 

[kileyrae]

Fifth grader Jocelyn Lam was sick of seeing her teachers getting let go.

One day after school, she went home and cracked open her pig-shaped piggy bank.

She returned to her school, Camino Grove Elementary School in California’s Arcadia Unified School District, with more than just a backpack and some books.

Lam carried with her an envelope full of $1, $5, and $10 bills. This was her entire life savings: money she had earned over the past few years for getting good grades and doing chores.

In the thick money envelope, she enclosed a hand-written letter to the Arcadia Unified school board and superintendent:

“I really hope this $300 will help save the teachers that are about to be laid off. I also hope this is enough to save more than one teacher.”

Lam’s donation of her life savings inspired an entire community to raise a total of $20,000 toward saving teaching jobs. And as of this writing, the movement has gone district-wide.

In the meantime, Lam is back at home doing more chores. Teacher jobs are at stake, and this fifth grader feels compelled to do something about it.

[thebrooklynpolitics-blog]

Teacher layoffs would hit some schools much harder

Click here for the full interactive graphic from WSJ.