Fred Klonsky’s PREA Prez Blog

Archive for August, 2007

Laugh: On the Latest Washington Scandal.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 29, 2007

The Nation
Calvin Trillin:
posted July 26, 2007 (August 13, 2007 issue)
All Washington, DC, is now atwitter
With talk about some deeds of David Vitter.
With sanctimony, he had always been
Prepared to cast folks out for any sin.
For him, the sanctity of marriage loomed
Above all issues. Gays, of course, were doomed,
And when Bill Clinton misbehaved, Dave’s voice
Said resignation was [...]

Two systems. One faces a retention crisis.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 28, 2007

Jonathan Kozol.
The “head-in-the-sand” bloggers dismiss the problem of retaining teachers in the public schools system. They view it as a union-created myth instead of the crisis that it is. What their anti-union blindness won’t let them see is what Jonathan Kozol addresses in his Letters to a Young Teacher:
The truth about the flight of teachers [...]

More on retention.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 28, 2007

Empty classroom.
NY teacher JD2718 thinks NY mayor Bloomberg has no real interest in retaining teachers. Reasons? Cheaper to let ‘em leave, older teachers have more commitment to the union, schools with lots of non-tenured teachers are easier to control.
Perhaps. But teacher experience and quality is an economic issue for cities eager to keep middle class [...]

Eye on NCLB. Cuts to Reading First funding.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 28, 2007

Jack Polidori, Director of Legislation & Political Organizing for the Delaware State Education Association sends out this information regarding NCLB reauthorization:
>Representative Raoul Grijalva, a member of the House Education
>Committee, held a briefing on NCLB in Tucson yesterday.
>
>The most important thing he reported is that NCLB reauthorization will
>be on the front burner when Congress reconvenes in [...]

Contract news, with apologies to Dr. Homeslice.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 28, 2007

I don’t mean to take over the job that Dr. Homeslice does so well. But here’s some local Illinois contract news:
Hamilton teachers agreed to a 10% increase over three years. Hamilton is in Western Illinois on the Mississippi River.
Hamilton teachers ratified a three-year contract Wednesday. The school board also approved it after a closed session [...]

Joe can’t sleep thinking about charter and unions collaborating?
With Andy Rotherham on vacation, I’ve been kind of bored. No anti-union Democratic Party centrist to mock. And now Joe Williams says he’s going on vacation. But he left a little somethin’ behind.
Williams, the union-hating blogger at Democrats for Education Reform, sounds like he woke up in [...]

Laugh.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 27, 2007

“By the way, I have a pet theory about Alberto Gonzales: I’ve always believed that the reason the President called Gonzales Fredo was that when they first met, Bush incorrectly believed that Gonzales’ first name was Alfredo, and Gonzales was too much of a toady to correct him. I meant to download that theory before [...]

Once again the issue of retention.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 27, 2007

Once again we revisit the issue of teacher retention. The NY Times has a story by education writer Sam Dillon.
While some school critics who blog continue to put their heads in the sand, among other places, arguing over whether thirty percent  or fifty percent of teachers are leaving the profession, the Times suggests that there [...]

Laugh.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 26, 2007

“Yes the Democrats in Congress took advantage of a deeply unpopular lame duck president by caving into his every whim and agreeing to allow the attorney general to spy on Americans without a warrant.”
-Bill Maher

Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

Posted by: preaprez on: August 26, 2007