Follow the (RTTT) money...

[YvonneCa]

I have a question. Given that these are the schools awarded RTTT funds in the first round...

http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/03/03042010.html


...is there a connection between these choices by the Department of Education, and the states where recent school 'firings' or 'quasi-firings' occur? In other words, are the firings happening in the same states as those in the RTTT list?

[Hannah Bell]

1. good question. rhode island certainly is. list below, which others?

The phase 1 finalists are:

Colorado
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island (Firings)
South Carolina
Tennessee

[Hannah Bell]

4. massachussetts: check

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x20839

[Hannah Bell]

7. colorado:

Superintendents fire shot across teachers’ bow

Friday, November 20, 2009 at 2:01pm

The race to the Race to the Top Funds have taken on a new purpose these days. Some are using the money grab as a means to push political agendas. Take the Denver Area Superintendents Council (DASSC) for instance.

In a letter, dated October 29th, to Colorado Lieutenant Governor O’Brien and Commissioner Jones, DASSC has proposed some major changes to the Teacher Dismissal Act, which DASSC apparently believes would act as bait for the funds.

The council calls for radical changes to the teacher probationary time period, from three to seven years; and for non-probationary teachers to have their status subject to renewal every five years. Here are other proposed changes, as outlined in the letter:

"All superintendents in DASSC want teachers protected from arbitrary decisions and capricious behavior on the part of any school administrator. However, the Teacher Dismissal Act has created an unworkable, complex, drawn out process for dismissal of any licensed teacher whose performance is not satisfactory. We would advocate the Teacher Dismissal Act be reviewed and revised so that the following could be accomplished.

The burden of proof at contested dismissal hearing for performance based issues should be shifted from the school district to the individual teacher. The teacher should have to prove arbitrary or capricious behavior on behalf of the school district... We also believe that the losing party should pay hearing related expenses.

While maintaining protection, the protracted process should be simplified and shortened. Teachers should not have 100 days of pay while the case is moving forward from the grievance process through a hearing in front of an administrative law judge unless the teacher wins the hearing in question and is reinstated. Otherwise, we would advocate that paying teachers ends when the district moves forward for dismissal."

...Denver's teachers approved a performance-pay system five years ago.

[Starry Messenger]

9. Editorial from Illinois yesterday

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-rhee-20100305,0,6816963.story

That's a radical departure for public education. Most schools across the country make personnel decisions largely or entirely based on seniority. Last in, first out. Illinois law requires that teacher layoffs be based on seniority unless a school district and its local union negotiate different rules. Result: seniority is the deciding factor everywhere, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. So law and custom protect older teachers — whether they're good teachers or bad teachers.

"The factory model approach of last-hired, first-fired is unusual among white-collar professions," says the National Council on Teacher Quality. That's true. Think about your workplace. Are you protected simply because you've been around for a long time? Or do you have to prove yourself every day?

Many cash-strapped Illinois school districts face the prospect of layoffs in the coming months. Unless outdated rules are scrapped, the schools will have to fire some of their best teachers because they happen to be younger teachers.

They also will have to fire more teachers. Younger teachers have lower salaries, so when schools operate strictly on seniority, they have to let more teachers go to achieve a certain dollar savings.

Union protection="outdated rules". Sounds like the media is starting up the propaganda there.


List of Funders for "National Council on Teacher Quality":


The National Council on Teacher Quality receives all of its funding from private foundations. Here is a list of our funders:

Achelis Foundation
Bodman Foundation
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
The Brookhill Foundation
The Louis Calder Foundation
Daniels Fund
Exxon Mobil Foundation
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Fisher Family Foundation
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation

Gleason Foundation
Martha Holden Jennings Foundation
Houston Endowment
Joyce Foundation
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Koret Foundation
Milken Family Foundation
Searle Freedom Trust
The Teaching Commission

[YvonneCa]

11. See? It's about money. BTW, I was protected because...

...I was around for a long time (it's called 'experience') AND I had to prove myself every day. That is true of most teachers.

[Starry Messenger]

13. It's totally about money.

It's fascinating in a disgusting sort of way to see the higher ups accuse teachers of "greed" when all of these firings are prompted by the most naked greed imaginable. And where is all that "saved" money going to go? To education? I seriously doubt it.

[Hannah Bell]

27. the "saved" money will go to them. in lower taxes, in bankster bailouts, in

payments to "investors" on those government securities & the interest on government securities.

not only that, but the government dollars now funding schools will eventually go to them, too.

"all your bases are belong to us!"

[Hannah Bell]

26. that's one of the strategies: use their bucks to set up phoney-baloney

organizations like "National Council on Teacher Quality":

The National Council on Teacher Quality is a nonpartisan research and advocacy group committed to restructuring the teaching profession, led by our vision that every child deserves effective teachers.

But this organization is just THEM & THEIR MONEY & THEIR HIRED LACKEYS.

not only that, it's tax free! they can stick their $$$ in this "non-profit" to fund political activities affecting all citizens -- that will eventually pay off in profit!

clever, those filthy rich people.

[KamaAina]

2. Rhode Island, check.

Florida, Louisiana, check. (rampant privatizing of schools through charters, especially in NOLA)

DC, check and double check. I suppose we're lucky we didn't get stuck with Michelle "The Axe Woman" Rhee as SecEd. :scared:

[sandnsea]

3. Yes willingness to fire teachers is part of the deal

So is willingness to identify under-performing teachers and provide increased training. And so is the willingness to fire principals.

[YvonneCa]

5. Willingness to fire teachers FOR CAUSE...

...is fine. But mass firing of an entire school staff is another thing entirely.

[sandnsea]

6. I would say the abruptness of the firing was wrong

but I don't agree that a major shake-up in a school or district is necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the sides are so rigid that there is no other way to break various allegiances than to do major staff changes. We just got a new superintendent and for the first time since I've been here, someone has had the guts to tell the truth about the failings in this school. I wonder if he'll last the year. And this is a relatively good school. I can't even imagine what failing schools deal with.

Regardless, the point of RTTT is to take a very small amount of the education stimulus and let the public schools try to implement methods to improve, evaluate the most effective methods, and replicate them. I don't know how teachers expected to turn around failing schools, except to turn them around or get people who could.

[tonysam]

8. Unfortunately "firing for cause" is solely in the mind of the principal

There are virtually no protections for teachers. The "due process" hearings are mostly jokes.

My lawyer was shocked to find I was fired because of a stupid form; she simply could not "wrap" her mind around the fact my career was ruined over a FORM while the principal violated FMLA.

Teachers must take districts to court to get any redress, a process that can take up to ten or more years.

[YvonneCa]

10. Tonysam, I know it's not easy, but we've gotta laugh...

...about this because it is so ridiculous. I was written up 'for the way I handed out paper' during a lesson. :7 C'mon...we're in CRAZILAND in education right now. :7

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. And I was written up for having school stationery on my desk

Please explain why I should trust that principal to decide if I should keep my job or not.

[YvonneCa]

17. You shouldn't. There are some VERY incompetent...

...administrators around. I have met one or two. ;)

[tonysam]

20. I had TWO lousy principals in a row

One wrote me up on petty allegations because he wanted me out of the middle school anyway after I had refused to cheat for him, and then of course I was moved to a school I didn't pick and ended up working for that dingbat who fired me over a form, thus violating FMLA.

And then the district had the goddamned gall to ask for my help in that bogus lawsuit that was reported locally and plastered all over the country thanks to Associated Press. A lot of gall considering the questionable tactics they pulled in order to protect the dingbat who fired me. After all, I am a "liar" and "dishonest" over FMLA forms I was not allowed to amend when my serious sinus infection returned, and that bullshit is in my file just for some unscrupulous lawyer to get hold of and attack me in a deposition or at a trial if it ever went that far.

No way in hell am I going to sue to get my job back--I want enough of a settlement I can retire. You just KNOW any third principal would be worse than the other two.

[tonysam]

21. My story is right out of a Laurel and Hardy movie

It's one act of stupidity on part of the district on top of another, and then another.

It would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact I am as old as a I am and the fact there are few jobs of any kind for me out there, seven years before I can officially retire with Social Security.

I would like nothing better than to watch the look on that dipshit principal's face when she gets served with papers when my lawsuit finally gets filed. I'd like to see the look on the superintendent's face if and when the local reporter from the Reno Gazette-Journal finds my lawsuit in federal court and realizes that I am the same person who is a defendant in that bullshit "rape" case at a local middle school.

It ain't every day a person is both a plaintiff and a defendant with a school district in the middle of the whole thing.

[YvonneCa]

23. Mine was,too. I finally just decided that my district...

...and I had VERY different values. If they could do what they did to me and colleagues, they obviously didn't care about the things I care about.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Ding Ding Ding we have a winner folks

The RTTT applications were submitted just a week or so before the mass firing.

[YvonneCa]

14. I'm watching the other states...

...to see who is next. :popcorn:

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Oh we've already been told MO is going for it

They are literally salivating to get their hands on that money.

[YvonneCa]

18. So is California. I am sure we'll both be in ...

...Phase two.

[Hannah Bell]

29. it's not even that much money. & it's going to dry up.

"The Obama administration insists that RTTT provides “unprecedented” levels of funding. Perhaps the funding is “unprecedented” when compared to the state grants described in the Massachusetts RTTT proposal, which in 2006 gave “up to $25,000 each in state grants for underperforming schools and up to $150,000 each for chronically underperforming schools.”

However, a federal RTTT grant would give Massachusetts no more than $250 million, to be spread over four years. The city of Lynn alone spends more than $130 million per year on its public schools. Furthermore, the RTTT funds are from the administration’s 2009 stimulus program—the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—and therefore non-renewable."

[Hannah Bell]

28. which is the same as with the title one app in central falls. the public announcement

of firing = one day after app due to the feds.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Kick

[Hannah Bell]

22. Iliinois: Renaissance 2010, "Massive Teacher Cuts if Education Budget is Cut".

Multiple school shutdowns & takeovers since arne's ren 2010 initiative


rttt = payback for services rendered?

[YvonneCa]

24. Feels like it. And the sad thing is, it didn't have to...

...be. How hard would it have been to just acknowledge teachers' work and show them respect instead of scape-goating them? How hard would it have been to include teachers in the turn around process...since they have a LOT of experience in a given school?

[maryf]

25. Ditto NY nt