Our lords at the Civic Council want special treatment

Sometimes when I talk about the city's elite and how they want to run and profit off of public education and how they don't have our schools and teachers best interests in mind, I feel a little bit like I am off in the woods by myself. 

Then the Civic Council, Chartrand, Rummel, Petway, Haskell, Weaver and others rear their ugly heads and I don't feel so alone after all.

Let me just let their words do the talking for them.

From the Times Union:

  A powerful business organization, the Jacksonville Civic Council, complained to Duval’s School Board on Wednesday that they have not been given enough time to weigh in on the type of superintendent the district should choose.

The district held a meeting for business people to provide input at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Springfield but only two people attended.

The meeting was one of 10 community and stakeholder meetings that are supposed to help the Duval County School Board create a profile for the superintendent search. However, most of the meetings have been sparsely attended so far.

Board Chairwoman Paula Wright said many community members have already voiced their opinions about what they want in a new superintendent in four community forums held months ago to discuss district strategic plans, so she was not surprised at the small attendance of fewer than a dozen people at most of the recent community and stakeholder meetings.

Another community meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at The Legends Center, 5130 Soutel Drive.

A letter to Wright and the rest of the board sent later in the day indicated Civic Council members felt they didn’t have enough time to clear their schedules to attend. Civic Council president Jeanne M. Miller wrote that council members needed more than 10 days notice, at least two weeks, “due to the exceptional demands on their individual travel and work schedules.”

Miller noted in her letter that Wright apparently scheduled a meeting with the JAX Chamber’s board of directors for March 16. She asked Wright to make a similar accommodation to meet with Civic Council members.

“On behalf of the Jacksonville Civic Council, I wish to express our disappointment that you have declined our request for a timely noticed meeting,” she said.

“The Jacksonville Civic Council stands ready to provide you and the entire school board with insight from this region’s top employers on the workforce needs of the future .... As the leader of one of the state’s largest and most complex school districts, you cannot afford to leave the foremost employers of your eventual graduates out of this conversation.”

... The Civic Council has said this is a rushed process, urging that the decision be delayed so that future board members running for open seats could be included in the selection process.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180307/business-group-complains-about-lack-of-input-in-superintendent-search

So let me get this straight, the couldn't be bothered to attend any of the community meetings that us regular folks were able to attend, ten days notice wasn't good enough for them and they want, no demand their own private meeting to discuss who the next superintendent should be. 

Oy vey, if I was the school board, I wouldn't let them anywhere near the process because they don't want to get their two cents in, they want their hand picked superintendent in place and they figure if they wait to next fall when hopefully they have collected a few more school board members they can make sure it happens. 

They are not like us, they are used to having their way and that is part of the reason where we find ourselves. It's time the board said, no, to the Civic Council, because we know who ever they want would represent them and not the people of Jacksonville. 

Florida votes to end collective bargaining for many teacher unions

For a state with a teacher recruitment and retention problem, Tallahassee seems to be doing everything it can to dismantle its public schools and destroy teaching as a profession.

Their latest effort is house bill 7055 which sends billions more to private schools that have little in the way of requirements and over site and requires teacher unions with less than 50 percent membership to decertify.

Notice I said teacher unions because the bill exempts police, fire and prison guard unions, you know unions made up of mostly men and who vote republican. 

From the Gainesville Sun:

he 198-page bill, HB 7055, calls to decertify teacher unions across the state, opening teachers up to possible pay cuts and termination.

About 40 people rallied outside State Sen. Keith Perry’s district office Monday morning calling on him to reject a bill that could do away with unions representing school teachers.

Perry, R-Gainesville, later voted in support of the bill anyway, helping it pass the Senate floor Monday with a 20-17 vote. The amended bill will now go back to the House.

The 198-page bill, HB 7055, calls to decertify teacher unions across the state if the makeup of a union is less than 50 percent of the teachers for that district.

“It’s a war on public schools,” said Eileen Roy, Alachua County School Board member.

http://www.gainesville.com/news/20180305/bill-to-do-away-with-teacher-unions-passes-senate

This bill is even worse than last years HB 7069 if you can believe it.

I just wonder if my republican friends intentionally voted for the systematic destruction of public education and ending teaching as a profession, because that's what their representatives in Tallahassee are intent on doing.   

Some of you might be thinking pubic education is broken and needs to be redone but I would like to point out that its the republicans in Tallahassee looking to profit off of it and appease their donors who have been completely in charge of the state government for over 20 years. Yes there are problems but you are rewarding the people who have created them.

Teachers, looking for a second job? DCPS SB member Scott Shine has some suggestions

Just when you think there may be a sliver of hope for the guy, DCPS school board member  Scott Shine, he calls in to First Coast Connect and suggests teachers become auxiliary police officers.

I want to be fair to the guy, also I don't want to be written up, and called a liar or worse so check it out, he calls in at about the nineteen minute point.

http://news.wjct.org/post/322018-media-rountable-veg-fest-brett-tutor

Like teachers, even those in rural counties don't have enough on thier plates already.

Shine has come out against arming teachers but he seems to have added the caveat, except those that become auxiliary officers and its something that teachers should think about becoming.

Ugh

Arming teachers, is a terrible idea.

Having teachers become auxiliary officers seems terrible as well.

Having teachers who are auxiliary officers carry guns ins schools is just as bad too.

Sadly the right seems to be bending over backwards to come up with solutions to gun violence except the most obvious one.

The District and JPEF have celebration of teachers that they don't invite teachers to.

They say it’s the little things that matter, let’s find out.

The District partnered with the Jacksonville Public Education Fund to kick off an event at City Hall to honor teachers.

From the Times Union:

School district and city officials gathered in City Hall’s atrium Thursday to launch a year-long campaign to collectively thank teachers.

The program, sponsored by the Jacksonville Public Education Fund, is an effort to encourage the public and many of the region’s top leaders to think about how teachers touched their lives and their community, said Trey Csar, president of the public education fund, which researches and supports public education.

There is a traveling art exhibit, which includes an interactive kiosk resembling a massive coffee table book. In it, readers can touch the pages and watch videos of Jacksonville’s leaders describing a special teacher’s impact on them.

The installation will remain at City Hall through Monday and then travel throughout the county, Csar said.

A major goal is to encourage at least 100,000 people to tweet about their teachers over the next 12 months, using the hashtag #JaxThanksATeacher and tagging @JaxPEF. Or, people can express themselves and hear about teachers on the website TeachersAreMore.org.

Teacher appreciation is important, Csar said, because Duval County loses about half the new teachers it hires within five to seven years. Nationally, a growing teacher shortage is expected to worsen because the numbers of college students majoring in education is plunging.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180301/year-long-effort-starts-to-thank-teacher

Sounds great right? I mean I could argue that JPEF is not a pro teacher organization but there they are partnering with the district and the city to celebrate teachers, it’s great, sigh, except.

Except they had it at noon and didn’t invite any teachers. That’s right they had a celebration of teachers without any teachers when teachers could not attend even if they were invited. 

Wouldn’t it have been nice to at least have teachers attend?

It’s the little things right, like having a celebration of teachers when they could attend and maybe inviting them as well.

Csar is right, teacher appreciation is important, in lieu of a raise anyways, and perhaps in the future we should include teachers in any celebrations of them.

You know how you could really celebrate teachers? How about by voting for representatives who want to support teachers and public education rather than dismantle it like many of Duvals' do now. Fant, Bean, Fischer, and Byrd are some of the worst of the worst. If you really want to appreciate teachers vote them out.

Jacksonville right...  

DCPS makes the right call on not arming teachers

The bottom line is teachers have to many responsibilities now to add carrying and maintaining a firearm while at school and potentially taking a life, to them. 

Teachers already wear so many hats and are under appreciated and over worked as it is ludicrous that some people think arming teachers is a good idea and I for one applaud our board and super for acknowledging that and by saying DCPS will not be arming its teachers.

From the Times Union:

Most of Duval’s School Board members said Wednesday they won’t authorize teachers or other staff to be armed in schools, even if the state Legislature passes a bill making that possible.

Five of the seven board members said they will instead sign a resolution early next month that supports Gov. Rick Scott’s school safety proposals, instead of the proposals currently being discussed in Florida’s House and Senate. Two board members were absent.

The board members all said they like that Scott’s call for spending $500 million to put an armed law enforcement officer at every public school and extra officers for every 1,000 students enrolled in each school.

Scott’s proposal does not call for arming teachers or other school staff, while the state House and Senate bills do. President Donald Trump also is championing arming school employees.

http://www.jacksonville.com/news/20180228/duval-school-board-says-no-to-armed-teachers-despite-proposed-bill

Proponents of arming teachers will say if somebody intending to do harm knew there were armed teachers they would be detoured from doing so. Well Nicholas Cruz had to know Parkland had an armed officer and that did not stop him.

There are just to many chances where something could go wrong and I point to a good samaritan in Texas shot by the police after disarming a suspect and a teacher just this past week in Georgia discharging his weapon in a classroom as examples.  

The solution to guns is not more guns.

The truth is as long as we live in a gun society where some people feel their right to own guns is worth the occasional slaughter of children at school, people at the movies or a concert, or a Sunday congregation there is nothing we can do to make us absolutely safe, including arming teachers and turning schools into prisons, but we can do better if we as a society decide we want to.

DCPS has made the right call. 

The embarrassing and shameful bills the Florida legislature is voting on

It's a list of reckless, vindictive, dangerous and heartless bills.

Today a senate subcommittee  voted to decertify unions that have less than 50 percent membership, except for police, fire and prison guard unions, you know the ones that are mostly men and vote republican. This is a direct attack on teacher unions.

Speaking of teachers, they voted to arm them as a line of defense against school shooters despite the fact that overwhelmingly teachers have come out against the idea.

Then two days after the slaughter of fourteen children they voted to declare porn a danger while refusing to take up a debate about assault weapons, something they have refused to discuss in both houses now.

They also voted to have "In God We Trust" prominently displayed in all public schools. I guess this plus arming Mrs. McGuilicutty is supposed to keep children safe. 

Throw in their annual voucher bills designed to siphon more money out of public education and children into unregulated and generally substandard private schools and this is what the republicans in Tallahassee call a successful session.

Friends we can and should be doing better. We can no longer continue to vote for people who want to dismantle our public schools, show zero interest in protecting our children and who only represent the special interests who donate to their campaigns and super pacs.

ugh...

Scott Shine gets one right about guns

I think Mr. shine has been a dreadful, I mean legendarily bad school board member for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here, though if you want to put his name in the search bar you can easily find them. That being said, I agree with his position on arming teachers.

From First Coast News,

In response, Duval County School Board Member Scott Shine says Florida Carry needs to pump the breaks.

"I think what we have to consider is that the training to have a concealed weapons permit doesn’t really bring you to the level of law enforcement dealing with an active shooter situation," said Shine.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/florida-carry-calls-for-emergency-legislation-to-arm-teachers-in-the-classroom/77-520002175

Later in the piece it mentions he is ...an instructor in shooting sports and a teacher of a local concealed weapons class.

Um gulp.

Here is the thing, If shine who has had in my opinion had tons of bad ideas knows arming teachers is  a bad one, then that just proves how bad the idea is.

The Florida Senate makes the gun problem worse

It's hard to imagine after the tragedy in Parkland that the gun problem could get worse but that is what the Florida senate has made it. They were asked by the survivors to do two things and they failed to do them both.

Almost immediately after the tragedy, the survivors went to Tallahassee and begged the house to ban assault weapons and instead the House thumbed their nose at them and instead declared porn an emergency and mandated that "In God We Trust", be displayed in all our schools.  

The Senates supposedly the adults in the room had a chance to keep the debate alive but they didn't, voting on a near party line to stop debate on the issue. They then doubled down on the smack to the face of the survivors and did the second thing they didn't want, guns in the classroom and started a program to arm teachers.

From the Orlando Sentinel,

The amendment (to ban assault weapons) failed in a 7-6 vote, with Miami Republican Anitere Flores crossing party lines to join Democrats, who voted as a bloc in favor of the proposed ban on assault-style weapons. 

After the ban failed, the crowd again erupted, threatening lawmakers with being voted out of office in November. 

The overall package approved by the Rules Committee would allow specially trained teachers to bring guns to schools, prohibit people younger than 21 from buying rifles or other long guns, and give law enforcement officers the ability to get court orders to take guns away from mentally ill people they deem dangerous. 

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2018/02/27/florida-senators-reject-assault-weapons-ban-approve-proposal-to-arm-teachers

Only in Florida can we take a terrible tragedy and not only do nothing substantial about it but then turn around and make things worse.

Friends we can't keep voting the same public education hating special interest owned politicians and expect things to improve, we just can't.

How the senate committee members voted:

Trump wants to protect our children on the cheap.

These are his words,

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

Armed Educators (and trusted people who work within a school) love our students and will protect them. Very smart people. Must be firearms adept & have annual training. Should get yearly bonus. Shootings will not happen again - a big & very inexpensive deterrent. Up to States.

You know why spend the money to properly protect our children when you can do it on the cheap. Why invest in smaller classes so teachers can better get to know their students. Why invest in psychologists and social workers because so much of what happens at schools has nothing to do with schools.

Then he wants to give teachers who are already under paid a bonus if they will carry a gun? That's disgusting.

You know there have been bank robberies forever and nobody says, we should arm tellers, there have been shootings in movie theaters and nobody says arm the ushers either and after church shootings nobody says, arm the preachers, but for some reason people think arming teachers is acceptable? In fact in just about every aspect of life there has been gun violence but the answer hasn't been to arm the people who work there, but now the president wants teachers to carry weapons and if they ever have to use them to shoot most likely children.

I don't know what upsets me more, the presidents tone deaf and incompetent idea or the fact he wants to save money while implementing it.

What do you think it would be worth to save a child's life?
More guns is not the answer.

How sincere is Tallahassee about gun safety and school securiy measures?

Well sadly we now know what it takes for rick Scott and the republican's in Tallahassee to care about public school children, and yes if that came off as jaded I agree.

I want to be careful when giving them credit because he and they are undoubtedly partly responsible for where we find ourselves and to be hones they haven't done anything yet.

I don't think what they have proposed goes nearly far enough and in fact it just barely scratches the surface but since every journey starts with a first step I thought it should be acknowledged that after years of ignoring the issue people are finally talking about it. Though at the same time we should be wary because the chasms between what Scott wants and what the legislature want seem pretty far apart. 

From the Tampa Times,

 Gov. Rick Scott and Florida's Republican Legislature laid out a $500 million school safety package Friday that includes major changes to gun laws but falls far short of what survivors of the Parkland massacre and Democrats are demanding. 

In the most significant change on gun laws, state leaders agree that anyone who wants to buy a gun must be at least 21. Under current law, only handgun buyers must be 21. Beyond that, top Republicans disagree. 

• The Legislature wants a three-day wait for gun purchases, but Scott does not. 

• The Legislature wants to allow trained teachers to carry guns; Scott does not. 

• Scott wants police or relatives to be able to take away a mentally unstable person's guns without having to forcibly commit them. The Legislature does not.

http://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/23/gov-rick-scott-and-florida-legislature-push-different-gun-safety-plans/

One of the big problems here is Scott and the legislature have made big promises that they have rarely delivered, and they routinely ignore the will of the people, time and time again bowing down to special interests and their donors.

 As concerned as I am that Scott and the legislature won't do anything or won't do anything that will make a difference, I am just as concerned how they plan to pay for the things that they do.

Public education is already chronically and in my opinion criminally underfunded in Florida and Tallahassee has a history of implementing mandates and not paying for them and if they did this here, that would further squeeze our public schools.

My concern is they will require these safety measures but pay for them by under funding education in large, even more.  

Tallahassee up till recently has not cared about public education for quite some time and despite some positive words from them, now is the time to be more vigilant than ever at least until something gets done.