Superintendent Vitti changes his tune on the teacher academy; goes from mandatory to if you miss it there won’t be retribution.

The first letter to teachers read: All of this, and more, will be shared with you in detail at the 2013-2014 Teacher Academy this summer. You will have a choice of attending one of two weeks: the week of July 29^th, or the week of August 5^th. For those who miss both weeks, you will be expected to make-up the 5 days during the first semester of school by participating in five Saturday sessions.

A few hours later after I am sure a few inquiries from the union we got this:  As a follow up to the email below, please be advised that attendance at the Teacher Academy is strongly encouraged, but not required. Participation, or lack thereof, will not be factored into your evaluation. We strongly encourage you to attend one of the sessions and look forward to seeing you there.

Another change was point’s teachers would get for attending. The union initially said: No, you will not get your daily rate because this is not mandatory. No points will be offered.

But the latest e-mail form the super said: You will earn Master Plan points for participating in the Academy, and while participation is not required, it is strongly encouraged.

If your head is now spinning yours isn’t the only one.

Welcome to Duval County

School Board member Becki Couch late to the party again!

The super announced he wants to get rid of grade recovery. For years I have been writing about how some students game the system and making it available to all of them regardless of behavior and effort has handicapped student accountability.

I thought the best plan was to reserve grade recovery for these students who legitimately missed a lot of classes or for students who came consistently, behaved and tried hard but just needed a little more. To be honest though I am not so worried about the later group because teachers have a way of making sure those students have the opportunity to pass.

This is where Mrs. Couch comes in. She said in a Times Union article, “This has been a complaint for a very long time, even back when I was [teaching] in the classroom,”

Um, Mrs. Couch you have been on the board going on three years now. If you knew it was a problem, even from way back when you were in the classroom (3 years ago) maybe you could have done or said something. Maybe you could have fought for a change. I am confused what are we paying you for? Were there any other problems, like discipline, administrators acting like bullies, a one size fits all curriculum, that maybe we should address? SHEESH!

I was very optimistic when Couch was elected but the truth is she has been hit or miss.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-05-16/story/duval-superintendent-wants-do-away-grade-recovery-program#ixzz2TaxzlQSj

Duval County asks its teachers to take it on the chin

Here are the facts. Once again members of the school board received a 2800 dollar raise. They went from making what a first year teacher makes to making what a 9th year teacher makes. Also a teacher would have to work 20 years to see that kind of raise.

Next the super wants to pay teachers a stipend well below their normal hourly rate to attend a week long teacher’s academy.

Finally the board wants to sit on 3 times the reserves it is required to or an additional 50 million dollars.

My question is why are teachers most of whom already spend a lot of their own money on their students and classrooms and who when compared to teachers nationally are grossly underpaid supposed to take it on the chin?

This is absolutely disrespectful.

Is Superintendent Vitti trying to pull a fast one on the district’s teachers?

This is part of a note we got from the superintendent about the summer teacher academy:

All of this, and more, will be shared with you in detail at the 2013-2014 Teacher Academy this summer. You will have a choice of attending one of two weeks: the week of July 29th, or the week of August 5th. For those who miss both weeks, you will be expected to make-up the 5 days during the first semester of school by participating in five Saturday sessions.

Nowhere does it say the academy is optional in fact it says, skip only if you are willing to give up 5 Saturdays in the fall. Nowhere does it say you have the choice of not attending.

Now it does say we will get paid a stipend, 75 dollars a day but if a teacher works a full day that is far below their rate.

The union however says the academy is optional: No, you will not get your daily rate because this is not mandatory. No points will be offered.

Points are what teachers use to recertify and we get them through trainings and or taking classes.

The district is trying to get away with training on the cheap. If you aren’t going to pay me my rate give me some points. If you aren’t going to give me some points pay me my rate but either way don’t present what is optional or mandatory. That’s insulting; it says teachers aren’t smart enough to tell the difference.

As you can imagine this was quite the topic around the water cooler. One teacher who has been through more rounds of training than she can count said, and the really sad thing is whatever they “teach” us will be out the window in a few months or a year or two at most, just like every other training they have given us.

Since the district at best is trying to train its teachers on the cheap or at worse trying to pull a fast one, I couldn’t really disagree with her.

Duval County sells out its teachers and students

Next year Duval County will continue its partnership with Teach for America despite the fact everybody admits this is the wrong thing to do. Trey Czar who will manage 11 million dollars to help train the TFA recruits said on the radio two weeks ago that first and second year teachers struggle and the districts own study said we have a disproportionate amount of rookie teachers in our struggling schools. Well TFA assure that we have a constant rotation of struggling, neophyte teachers in our struggling schools!

So what does Duval do? Read that first sentence again, it continues with its plans to employ these hobbyists who will be work with our most vulnerable children.

Oh and it gets worse, despite the fact Duval has a hard time retaining teachers it doubles down on a program where it knows that the vast majority of will leave after their two year commitment. Less than 25% of the first three classes have stayed to year 3.

How does any of this make sense? We should be cutting back not expanding. It’s ridiculous and it’s also offensive to veteran teachers who have made teaching a career rather than an extended summer job which is what it is to the vast amount of TFA recruits.

It also wastes money as many will get training on the districts dime that they will never use. Then their mere presence has pay, cost of benefits and pension ramifications for teachers.

How can we reach our potential when we insist of staffing our classes with rookie teachers who won’t stay long enough to get better instead of teachers who may become lifelong educators? The answer we can’t but that hasn’t stopped the powers that be from moving ahead.

Why is the Duval County School Board insisting we keep triple the amount in reserves?

First let me remind you that several school board members received a 2800 dollar raise. A teacher would have to work 20 years before they got a raise approaching that much.

From the Times Union: After asking for revisions on capital dollars and charter school money, board members then decided they wanted to see the rough draft with 9 percent of the general revenue placed in the district’s reserve fund.

State law requires that the school district tuck away 3 percent in the reserve fund, which would mean $24.7 million for 2013-14. At 9 percent, that number is around $75 million.

Why are we leaving 50 million on the sidelines again? How about throwing some of that to the district’s teachers and staff who haven’t received raises in years? If huge raises are okay for the school board shouldn’t at least little raises be okay for the teachers and staff too?

The reality is there are lots of needs in the district that are going unmet. Last I counted there were just 12 social workers for all 123,000 kids, many teachers have to pay for their own supplies and should we really have 50 kids in art classes or 60 or more in P.E.?

The school board seems to think so.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-05-14/story/duval-schools-budget-workshop-confused-board-members#ixzz2TNY4A3Nf

Despite 91 million dollars charter school advocates plead poverty.

In a recent piece on ReDefinedEd Sherri Ackerman, who has never met a charter school that performed poorly or a public school that didn’t, complained about the lack of resources that charter schools have. She mentioned that many lacked gyms and kitchens and computer labs and so much more but she never mentioned that many are profit centers for hedge fund managers and corporations. Hmm, I wonder if they would have those things if instead of fattening executive’s bank accounts they invested that money into the schools. So much for it being all about the children right?

I for one am tired of the pleas of poverty and their demands for a continuing revenue stream. They got 91 million dollars this year and 50-something million last year. That money would have been better served in schools with gyms and kitchens and computer labs and proper facilities, let alone certified teachers and a curriculum.

Then nobody forces corporations to open charter schools. Nobody holds a gun to their heads and demands it. It’s all voluntary and if these people don’t know what they are getting into then they shouldn’t be getting into it. That should be alarming too.

This is just one more attempt to divert the public’s money away from where it is desperately needed and it is appalling

. http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/05/charter-schools-dont-look-like-the-taj-mahal/

House members say yes to cheap health insurance — for themselves.

What does this have to do with education? Well these are the same legislators who are voting for vouchers, charter schools, merit pay, odious evaluations, erosion of teachers rights and an expansion of high stakes testing. Then they vote to turn down healthcare for the poor while charging themselves less than 9 bucks a month. These people don't care about anything but their own private interests and many are trying to make a buck off education and save a buck, lots of bucks off of health care. -cpg

From the Tampa Times by Tia Mitchel

Florida House Republicans last month loudly and proudly rejected billions of dollars in federal money that would have provided health insurance to 1 million poor Floridians.

Quietly, they kept their own health insurance premiums staggeringly low. House members will pay just $8.34 a month for state-subsidized health care next year, or $30 a month to cover their entire family.

House Republicans, including Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, would not say why the House did not raise its premiums to match the Senate. The premium increase was also part of Gov. Rick Scott's proposed budget.It's also less than the $25 a month House Republicans wanted to charge poor Floridians for basic coverage such as a limited number of doctor visits or preventive care.

In a statement Monday, Weatherford said: "We are aware of the differences in what House members pay compared to other state employees for health insurance and are looking forward to addressing it next session."

The discrepancy, even if it's addressed, doesn't diminish the awkwardness of House lawmakers accepting cheap, subsidized health insurance for themselves while effectively saying no to health care for others.

"I don't think there is a defense of that. I think its pretty unconscionable," said Karen Woodall, executive director of the left-leaning Florida Center for Economic and Fiscal Policy. "And then to turn around and the leadership to say the reason 1 million people aren't accessing taxpayer-funded health care is they don't want to use taxpayer dollars is very disingenuous."

Eleven of Tampa Bay's 13 Republicans voted against accepting federal Medicaid money and are receiving state-subsidized health care. Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Inverness, voted against taking federal money but does not participate in the state health care plan. Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has the state health care plan but wanted the state to take the federal money. The area's House Democrats receive subsidized health care but voted to accept federal money.

The topic of Medicaid expansion — or what Florida should do as an alternative — took center stage throughout the legislative session. But there was hardly any focus on what lawmakers pay for their own coverage.

The state heavily subsidizes the costs of providing insurance to all full-time employees.

But 24,000 supervisors and managers, including lawmakers, get the best deal.

While the House remains in that category, senators in 2012 agreed to increase their premiums to match the bulk of the state workforce.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, insisted on the change, saying it wasn't fair for senators to pay less than low-level state workers. Senators now pay $50 a month for health insurance, or $180 a month for their families.

"I think the public expects the state Senate to be treated the same as our fellow co-workers in state government and not be given preferential status," Negron said Monday.

House members, who earn $29,697 a year for what is considered part-time work, get the same coverage as other state workers, just at a lower up-front cost.

The state health plan has several options, including a standard Blue Cross and Blue Shield policy or HMOs that vary by county.

Taxpayers pay nearly $600 a month to cover each individual House member, according to the state. With the HMO, members have no deductible and pay $20 to see a doctor or $40 for a speciality.

Contrast that with what House members proposed for parents and disabled adults, who made less than $11,490 a year. In addition to a $25 a month premium, the state would contribute $2,000 each year.

The combined $2,300 could be used for whatever coverage someone could afford, most likely short-term policies with high deductibles and limited coverage.

"They would pay three times as much and not even get something that is one-third as good," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, who argued on the House floor that the inequity was hypocritical.

All but 12 House members take advantage of the state health insurance plan. Waldman says members have defended it as part of the benefits package for a demanding job.

That may be true, he said, but "you can't take that compensation and turn a blind eye to the 1 million who are uninsured in the state of Florida."

Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, and the architect of the House plan, said the amount House members pay each month should not be the focus of the discussion. Calls to other local Republicans, including Reps. Kathleen Peters, Ross Spano and Dana Young, were not returned.

"I think the entire state health care system is broken, and what we tried to do is try to fix it," Corcoran said, noting that conservatives have called his proposal a national model. "When you do that, everybody is going to be treated equally and fairly."

Contact Tia Mitchell at tmitchell@tampabay.com.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/house-members-say-yes-to-cheap-health-insurance-8212-for-themselves/2120758

The nation's highest paid public employees.

Things could be worse, we could be Michigan

From People's World, by John Rummel
DETROIT - Double teachers' salaries, hold teachers in high esteem as other leading industrial nations do and insure quality pre-school education for all. Those were some of the high-sounding suggestions U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder made during a meeting with the staff and students of the Brenda Scott Academy in Detroit.
Only one big problem: there is a Grand Canyon-size disconnect between those suggestions to improve education and what is happening on the ground in Michigan.

Respect teachers? The Republican-dominated Michigan legislature has done the exact opposite. It views teachers, their unions and the collective bargaining process as the primary reason for poor student performance. It has responded with a slew of bills to cuts wages, benefits, and union dues deduction and push private, for-profit schools that rely on online teachers, not teachers in the classroom.

The Brenda Scott Academy is part of Educational Achievement Authority (EAA), a state-created school district that has taken 15 "underperforming" Detroit public schools and placed them under state control. Republicans in the state legislature now plan to expand the EAA into a statewide district, eliminating collective bargaining and seniority in the process. Educators rightfully view it as a dismantling of public education.

Secretary Duncan acknowledged that only three out of every 10 children have access to quality pre-school education and far too many children come into to kindergarten already one to two years behind their peers. That initial disadvantage follows them a lifetime, he said.

Sixteen-year former Michigan State Board of Education member Marianne McGuire said Duncan's comments reveal "the problem is poverty, not teachers."

Kids coming from well-to-do homes where there are magazines and books, and where children are read nightly, start school a "step ahead," McGuire said. While Duncan and Snyder might recognize the problem, "they don't put money into it," she noted.

A case in point is the fact that state House Republicans will soon vote on a plan diverting $800 million from schools each year to pay for road repairs and construction.

if you want to do something to help schools don't take $800 million away, McGuire said. Use that money to have "smaller class sizes, new equipment, and fixing up crumbling buildings," she said.

She also countered Duncan's claim that the EAA is the "right direction" to go in.

"If we feel the schools are in bad shape, we should be doing something to fix the schools, not set up a whole new district," she said.

Also worrying educators was the "secret" plan to get education on the cheap being discussed by Snyder, people associated with information technology companies and the Mackinac Center, a right-wing think tank based in Michigan. The plan, recently exposed by the Detroit News, entailed using vouchers to pay for schools with a heavy emphasis on using online courses.

Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook criticized the project as "a scheme that takes funding from kids to divert more taxpayer dollars into the pockets of rich CEOs."

McGuire noted that those leading the so-called school reform movement are "not educators and have never been in a classroom."

http://www.pww.org/those-pushing-school-reform-have-never-been-in-a-classroom/