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Society for Quality Education

Union Rules

November 21, 2013 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 05:55 AM

Well, things have been a bit quiet around here, so what do you think of this New York charter school that has decided to close its doors "because operating under union work rules has made it impossible for it to provide students with a decent education"?

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I couldn’t get into the site to read, so I don’t know if this question was answered or not—how do the KIPP schools work?  Don’t they have the same issues with teachers’ unions?  Are there any KIPP schools in New York State?

Posted by Bev on 11/21 at 11:03 AM

POSTED ON BEHALF OF MALKIN

http://ceafu.org/2013/11/teacher-union-work-rules-make-no-sense-for-education/

You can read the article via the above link. It makes it clear that very few charter schools (including the KIPP schools) are unionized, but that this particular school is one of the few that is unionized.

Posted by Malkin Dare on 11/21 at 11:14 AM

If one goes private on Fire Fox - http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303531204579208211730264896
It will override the block.

That said, in my travels I picked up a few more articles of note to add to the above. Also in the Wall Street Journal - The Union War on Charter Schools
As New York shows, they want to kill any education choice.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB123985052084823887

Written in 2009 - it appears the Wall Street Journal is the one to go to on union rules and chartered schools.

Here is one from New Zealand with the same title as the article in the Wall Street Journal. http://theology.geek.nz/2013/11/teacher-unions-vs-charter-schools/
“Note the power and control over government schools held by the unions.  No surprises there.  As a consequence, we are able to see even more clearly the authoritarian mentality of the unions.  Moreover, the union is unmasking itself.  When it has its PR hat on, the PPTA, along with other teacher unions, likes to wear the mask of standing up for parents as if to protect and ensure a quality education for children in New Zealand.

Now the truth is coming out.  The union is not interested in “quality education” at all.  It is relentlessly driven to protect its members, the state unionised teachers–at all costs, quality education be damned.  Angela Roberts, the PPTA union president actually unmasked herself and her members this week:”

Check out the AFT - not against chartered schools per say, but rather ones with conditions. https://www.aft.org/issues/schoolchoice/charters/
Now check out the left side of the web page - Under Damaging Public Schools - Charter schools, Privatization and Vouchers. I had to read it twice over, just to understand the dance of being against but posing as proponents.

In the New York Post - not fans of chartered schools - http://nypost.com/2013/11/19/williamsburg-charter-school-closing-over-contract-impasse/

It is a fairly new story, and in my travels I came across this item on the new New York Mayor, when he was campaigning, he wanted chartered schools to pay rent. Perhaps it is off the table and what is really more interesting is his appointees for education. One name stands out - “Kim Sweet, a special education advocate whose organization has repeatedly sued the city under Bloomberg. All are public school parents. ”  http://gothamschools.org/2013/11/20/de-blasio-advisors-include-critics-of-bloomberg-school-policies/

Sweet really does advocate for the SE children. She is a lawyer by trade, and Sweet if the Executive Director for Advocates For Children of New York -  http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/who_we_are_afc/success_stories

Sweet really has been a powerhouse for SE children in New York. It will be interesting to watch from the sidelines what Sweet will bring to the table because she abhors the discrimination embedded within the public education system that will not educate children with disabilities to their full potential. That said, I think the New York public education system might just improved in education quality and the charter schools are left alone for the time being.

The reason why I put it out, because I have read a few recent articles that the teachers’ unions are really against raising the education quality for SE children and children with learning disabilities. It runs the same way as the charter school closing, citing - ” “We had to carry many of the burdens of being a DOE school, but we could not enjoy the benefits and flexibilities that charter status normally allows.”  It runs like this, the SE children are a burden to the public education schools because of the many regulations, the IDEA laws and the constitutional rights of children with disabilities, because the unionized contracts prevents the schools to carry out their legal duties. Ergo, teachers’ unions and their contracts will discriminated as the norm for the SE children in any public school. Therefore, the teachers’ unions are against improving education quality for the SE students in relationship to improving student achievement to reach the SE student’s full academic improvement. 

Just watch for it in the coming new year - the new argument…...........

Posted by Nancy on 11/21 at 12:13 PM

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

I don’t see which union rules they were concerned about. I assume they could not make enough money being forced to hire qualified teachers, stay within normal hours follow seniority rules and so forth. Rules public schools have worked with in oh I don’t know ... FINLAND has used to provide the world’s best education.

Union states in USA provide higher quality NAEP results than non union states by far.

Posted by Malkin Dare on 11/21 at 04:28 PM

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG

Look at the nature of the website. It is an anti-union website Duh. These sites are seldom organized and run by actual teachers but by anti-union corporate outfits that put a few hand picked right wing teachers on a board.

There are seldom any attempts to decertify teachers’ unions because the vote failes very badly everywhere it is tried.

Give any Ontario or other Canadian teachers’ union a free vote on a secret ballot to end the union and it will lose with 90+% voting to retain the union.

I would be happy to have that vote in any province in any local any day.

They never say which union rules they don’t like but seniority is usually way up there + demands to pay even scale.

When a new union is formed seniority is usually Clause #1 of the contract.

Posted by Malkin Dare on 11/22 at 06:00 AM

The charter was formed in 2001, Doug. At that time, the chartered school when formed are beholden to the union contract and its clauses, governing teachers.  The charter school in question, was one of the first charter schools for New York City. ““Because the school converted from a traditional district school to a charter school in 2001, the board was bound by the [United Federation of Teachers] contract with the Department of Education,” reports the New York Post. In a letter to parents notifying them of the decision, the board wrote, “We had to carry many of the burdens of being a DOE school, but we could not enjoy the benefits and flexibilities that charter status normally allows.”
http://ceafu.org/2013/11/teacher-union-work-rules-make-no-sense-for-education/

A 1997 article - it remains relevant for 2013. “Bailey is right. In the final analysis, no school reform can accomplish much if it does not focus on the quality of the basic unit of education—that human interaction between an adult and a group of children that we call teaching. The big teachers’ unions, through the straitjacket of work rules that their contracts impose, inexorably subvert that fundamental encounter. These contracts structure the individual teacher’s job in ways that offer him or her no incentives for excellence in the classroom—indeed, that perversely reward failure.”
http://www.city-journal.org/html/7_2_how_teachers.html

Posted by Nancy on 11/22 at 07:49 AM

pobod

ALL, not some, ALL of the most successful education systems in the world are HIGHLY unionized.


That school will not be missed. The new mayor of NYC is no fan of charters. He wants ever one that has a private element like management, to start paying rent to stay in public school buildings.


Pro charter candidate for Mayor of Boston also defeated by union backed anti charter candidate.

Posted by Malkin Dare on 11/22 at 12:53 PM

Hey Doug, charters will be staying - just campaign promises to get themselves elected.  As I stated before, it looks like that charter schools being paid rent is off the table. Considering that the extra money over and above from the public monies being received are considered fundraising dollars in the same way, the public education establishment and the schools will go and look for the big foundations for kind donations to pay for the bells and whistles. That said, charter schools do received less funding than the public schools, to pay for the basics and if they should have to pay rent, their funding from the public education purse will increase to cover the rent.

Start reading the charter rules Doug - For the amount of tax dollars being given - the charter schools are doing an admirable job in educating children and parents loved the charter schools as a choice.

Posted by Nancy on 11/22 at 05:04 PM

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