Fred Klonsky’s PREA Prez Blog

They’re meeting. They’re talking. They’ve taken a strike authorization vote. They given the required notice to strike. And there’s been no significant movement. But they’re still meeting and talking.
Union teachers of the Huntley Education Association are nothing if not patient. The only questions seems to be: How long?
“We’re just continuing to negotiate,” union Co-President Julie [...]

Former Florida Governor Jeb “Little” Bush has had his voucher plan squashed again.
Betcha he’s not done yet.

To all my friends, colleagues and to all the people of the Gulf Coast tonight: Be safe.

The thermometer will hit 90 today. It’s a day to walk down the road to the beach with a book.

We’re having leche monchada (stained milk) and a tortilla sandwich for breakfast at Pinotxo, a food stand in Barcelona’s la Boqueria market off the Ramblas.
We are back from our two weeks in Spain. We traveled from Madrid to Barcelona. An overnight train took us from Barcelona to Granada. Then to Seville with a day trip [...]

Madrid -Finding a place for coffee is not so easy at 8 AM in Madrid. Folks don´t have dinner here until after 10 PM so not much is open on a Saturday morning this early. We found a cup at the way-to-expensive Westin Hotel down the block. Now we´re ready to check out and grab [...]

JD tells an interesting story of the disappearing UFT President, Randi Weingarten.
Last night I went to the Albert Shanker Scholarship awards at UFT headquarters downtown. Second time in two years. The United Federation of Teachers gives out a large number of $5000 college scholarships to kids from across the city.

China earthquake victims.
It is hard to wrap your head around the magnitude of the disaster. The latest reports are of over 62,000 dead in China as a result of the earthquake near the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province. Another 25,000 are missing. But how do they even know? Hundreds of small villages are scattered [...]