From Sunshine State News.com
by Kenric Ward
Inspired by large protests in Wisconsin, government workers are setting the social-media network aflame with plans for public demonstrations in Florida on March 8.
"Category 5 starting in Miami-Dade County and it will not stop!" Mike Medina, a member of the Miami police union, wrote on Facebook.
"March 8 Tallahassee -- greet the governor and legislators on opening day to let them know that you will not stand for changing our laws in favor of special interests," urged Paula House Eisenhart in another posting.
Teachers, government workers and a host of progressive-labor organizations are rallying under the banner of "Awake the State" in response to Gov. Rick Scott's proposed $5 billion in budget cuts and in advance of the Legislature convening next month.
State Rep. Mark Pafford, who posted on the "Awake the State" Facebook and Twitter pages, declared:
"This governor and the legislative majority want to use worker against worker to reduce their corporate labor costs. Now is the time for action -- as a member of Florida's Legislature, I need your help. I need to know the People are angry and are ready to make a very clear statement. We need to work together, now."
Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, advises users of the Facebook site to "make sure you change your profile picture to get more people aware of 'Awake The State' ... this page is the modern vehicle to ensure we maintain our constitutional right to gather -- and make change."
"Awake the State" is serving as a rallying site for Florida teachers, who are particularly concerned about the school budget.
A group called "Fund Education Now" announced it had collected 5,000 signatures against what it called "budget cuts."
The Scott administration responds that state funding for K-12 education remains intact, but that the expiration of federal stimulus dollars in June will lead to an overall reduction in funds.
Meantime, county affiliates of the Florida Education Association are calling on teachers to e-mail and phone their local state legislators to oppose proposed reforms to the state retirement system.
A Senate committee is scheduled on Tuesday to hear Senate Bills 1128 and 1139, which would require public-sector workers, including teachers, to contribute to their pension funds and extend the retirement age.
To turn up the heat on the Legislature, "Awake the State" is pushing for a series of demonstrations on March 8, the opening day of the 2011 session. A la Madison, a major worker protest is being organized at the Capitol.
Organizers reportedly are aiming to bring 8,000 demonstrators to Tallahassee on March 8. Other groups that cannot make it to the capital that day are planning to hold rallies in their local communities.
Announced one Facebook posting: "March 8th in Florida, pick up a sign, stand tall for teachers, police, firefighters."
Mary Ryals, an associate instructor of business communication at Florida State University, said, "You bet I'll participate in the 'Awake the State' rally in Tallahassee on March 8."
Ryals said that Florida's public-sector workers, like those in Wisconsin, are anxious about changes to their pension and health-care programs.
Additionally, teachers expressed alarm over reports of a legislative proposal to discontinue automatic dues-withholding from instructors' paychecks. They fear that move could be the leading edge of a broader assault on collective-bargaining rights.
The Florida Education Association did not respond to Sunshine State News' request for comment.
Rep. Pafford related that the "Awake the State" page on Facebook garnered more than 2,000 "likes" from readers in its four days online. "It's a great vehicle for people to get on the same page and organize," he said, noting that some 60,000 people logged on amid the heated controversy of the SB 6 teacher-tenure bill last session.
The second-term lawmaker said social-media networks facilitate activism and grass-roots organization across the sprawling state when Tallahassee "gets sideways" on issues. That organizing potential isn't lost on public-sector unions, which are brainstorming in advance of the Legislature's opening day on March 8.
Nearly 100 self-proclaimed Florida progressives gathered in Orlando on Sunday to strategize on ways to combat the Republican reform agenda at the 2011 Legislature. One of the "LegiCamp" sessions was a tutorial on using Twitter for political organization.
Pafford speculated that much of the activity on March 8 will be local, perhaps in deference to the fact that it's a workday and, for most students, a school day.
Any widespread absence by government workers and teachers has the potential to stir a backlash among the very public they hope to court. Indeed, raucous demonstrations by public-sector unions could well boomerang among taxpayers who feel that government spending is out of control.
"The unions are fine with redistribution of wealth as long as it is coming out of our pockets and going into theirs," said Punta Gorda tea party leader Robin Stublen, who testified last week in favor of pension-reform legislation.
http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/social-media-explodes-florida-teacher-protest-chat
Showing posts with label tea party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tea party. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Teacher of the Year Verses the Tea Party
From the Times Union
by James Howell
While I can't argue with the sentiment of "we deserve a raise," this was in fact a suggestion by a colleague, and not words of my own. Clay County is a "high performing school district," no school in the county was marked at less than a "B," and Florida ranked 10th in quality educational systems in the nation. All this is in spite of Florida being 50th in the nation in terms of educational spending ... meaning Florida is already spending the minimum amount of money in the country on education, and this is BEFORE Governor Scott's proposed cuts. I'd say we produce a significant return on the investment of the taxpayer, since the definition of quality is getting a lot from investing very little.
However, in spite of all of this, Clay County teachers are not asking for a RAISE. A raise would be a revisitation to the salary terms in the contract, and an increase for every level of pay from the beginning teacher to the longest serving educator. All we want, and all we have asked for, is our STEP in salary, or the next level that has already been agreed to in our salary scale. (This amounts to $300 to $500 dollars per year for most). This is NOT A RAISE, but the adjusted increase for experience. Furthermore, the county HAS the money to pay for this right now. They received over $7 million from the federal government for the specific purpose of salaries and boosting the economy of the community...and they have done nothing with it. This is in addition to the $14 million they have in the reserve fund, which is far above the necessary minimum, or even a reasonably conservative increase. Furthermore, our top-earning teachers have taken a pay cut, some upwards of $20,000 per year, to help finance the STEP increase for those beneath them on the salary scale. Given our high levels of performance, the amount of money the School Board has in reserve and from the federal Government, and our own people sacrificing for it, I'd say we deserve our STEP.
Clay County teachers understand the current economic crisis as well as anyone. We understand that every cent counts right now, and why some people are looking for cuts to make in government spending. What we do not understand is how people consider our profession to be in the same group as government entitlements, or that because our very job requires personal sacrifice we should just keep on sacrificing because we are not real human beings, since we do not pursue the levels of reward that might be available elsewhere in the private sector. Ironically, these same people who wish to curb entitlements are seeking to cut their perceived problem's only true long-term solution: education. Without education empowering the next generation, they will seek further government assistance, thus increasing the tax burden on the public. Somehow, the government employee who serves the public interest, the one in the trenches actually making a day-to-day impact, not isolated in the corridors of power, has become the "wage-grazer," or "freeloader" that takes taxpayers' money without sufficient contribution, in the eyes of some of the public.
Teachers are not alone in this misrepresentation. No one cares for the firemen until their house is burning down, no one cares for the plight of the policemen until they are being robbed or threatened, and no one cares for the teacher until the country itself implodes from within.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/community/clay/2011-02-17/story/update-clay-county-teacher-year-proposed-2010-11-teacher-contracts#ixzz1EGcV5zL5
by James Howell
While I can't argue with the sentiment of "we deserve a raise," this was in fact a suggestion by a colleague, and not words of my own. Clay County is a "high performing school district," no school in the county was marked at less than a "B," and Florida ranked 10th in quality educational systems in the nation. All this is in spite of Florida being 50th in the nation in terms of educational spending ... meaning Florida is already spending the minimum amount of money in the country on education, and this is BEFORE Governor Scott's proposed cuts. I'd say we produce a significant return on the investment of the taxpayer, since the definition of quality is getting a lot from investing very little.
However, in spite of all of this, Clay County teachers are not asking for a RAISE. A raise would be a revisitation to the salary terms in the contract, and an increase for every level of pay from the beginning teacher to the longest serving educator. All we want, and all we have asked for, is our STEP in salary, or the next level that has already been agreed to in our salary scale. (This amounts to $300 to $500 dollars per year for most). This is NOT A RAISE, but the adjusted increase for experience. Furthermore, the county HAS the money to pay for this right now. They received over $7 million from the federal government for the specific purpose of salaries and boosting the economy of the community...and they have done nothing with it. This is in addition to the $14 million they have in the reserve fund, which is far above the necessary minimum, or even a reasonably conservative increase. Furthermore, our top-earning teachers have taken a pay cut, some upwards of $20,000 per year, to help finance the STEP increase for those beneath them on the salary scale. Given our high levels of performance, the amount of money the School Board has in reserve and from the federal Government, and our own people sacrificing for it, I'd say we deserve our STEP.
Clay County teachers understand the current economic crisis as well as anyone. We understand that every cent counts right now, and why some people are looking for cuts to make in government spending. What we do not understand is how people consider our profession to be in the same group as government entitlements, or that because our very job requires personal sacrifice we should just keep on sacrificing because we are not real human beings, since we do not pursue the levels of reward that might be available elsewhere in the private sector. Ironically, these same people who wish to curb entitlements are seeking to cut their perceived problem's only true long-term solution: education. Without education empowering the next generation, they will seek further government assistance, thus increasing the tax burden on the public. Somehow, the government employee who serves the public interest, the one in the trenches actually making a day-to-day impact, not isolated in the corridors of power, has become the "wage-grazer," or "freeloader" that takes taxpayers' money without sufficient contribution, in the eyes of some of the public.
Teachers are not alone in this misrepresentation. No one cares for the firemen until their house is burning down, no one cares for the plight of the policemen until they are being robbed or threatened, and no one cares for the teacher until the country itself implodes from within.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/community/clay/2011-02-17/story/update-clay-county-teacher-year-proposed-2010-11-teacher-contracts#ixzz1EGcV5zL5
Monday, February 14, 2011
Tea Party to Protest Teachers, for Shame
The Peoples Tea Party has called for a mobilization of it’s members to protest the Clay County School District agreeing after 8 months of contentious negotiations, 1.7 million in pay and benefits to its teachers.
On their web-site it said, "The unions are alive and kicking in Clay County Schools ... Get as many people to the meeting to show that the unions shouldn't be making the decisions there."
This anti-teachers union hysteria has reached all an new height.
Friends the teachers in Orange Park deserve this raise which for the average teacher will not offset increased medical costs, gas costs, food costs, inflation, what most already spend out of their own pockets on their students and classrooms and so much. In fact they deserve more than the small step increases that they are due to receive.
They by the way are also not the ones who caused the current troubling financial times nor are they the ones that have allowed the Florida Legislature to create tax loopholes that rob billions from Florida’s coffers and only benefit a few.
I know teachers in Orange Park that are little more than pay check to pay check. That leave their own children in extended day or in front of the telivision so they can tutor their students and grade their papers. They don’t have dreams of being rich just a desire to make a difference and not only should they be able to pay their bills and put aside for a rainy day but any organization that protests them and their ability to do so should be ashamed of themselves.
I get that we don’t like taxes, I get that we think the government wastes but there should be other ways to make up the money than on the backs of our teachers.
On their web-site it said, "The unions are alive and kicking in Clay County Schools ... Get as many people to the meeting to show that the unions shouldn't be making the decisions there."
This anti-teachers union hysteria has reached all an new height.
Friends the teachers in Orange Park deserve this raise which for the average teacher will not offset increased medical costs, gas costs, food costs, inflation, what most already spend out of their own pockets on their students and classrooms and so much. In fact they deserve more than the small step increases that they are due to receive.
They by the way are also not the ones who caused the current troubling financial times nor are they the ones that have allowed the Florida Legislature to create tax loopholes that rob billions from Florida’s coffers and only benefit a few.
I know teachers in Orange Park that are little more than pay check to pay check. That leave their own children in extended day or in front of the telivision so they can tutor their students and grade their papers. They don’t have dreams of being rich just a desire to make a difference and not only should they be able to pay their bills and put aside for a rainy day but any organization that protests them and their ability to do so should be ashamed of themselves.
I get that we don’t like taxes, I get that we think the government wastes but there should be other ways to make up the money than on the backs of our teachers.
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