Friedrichs Teacher Thinks Teacher Salaries Are Too High

In today's Wall Street Journal, one of the 10 teachers in the Friedrichs suit explains why he is fighting against unions:

Over time I’ve learned that the union’s collective bargaining is every bit as political. The union is bargaining for things I’d never support. For example, in my community, the union spends resources pushing for ever-higher teacher salaries. I’m in favor of a decent salary for teachers, but I think we are already well paid compared with everyone else in the Central Valley.

That's right - this Friedrichs teacher is fighting to ensure that unions don't negotiate for salaries because he thinks teachers are paid too much relative to others in his community.

All I can say is, wait'll he's successful at killing the union and becomes an at-will employee and he'll see how well he's paid.

When Does Cuomo's Sociopathic Behavior Come Back To Haunt Him?

Ken Lovett has this quote from an Albany insider over Cuomo's thuggish treatment of his fellow pols in and out of Albany:

“You can run that bullying game for just so long before you’ve p---ed off enough people that it all starts to add up and there’s no one left willing to stand with you.”

When does that point come?

De Blasio's still acting like he thinks he can work with Cuomo.

Assembly Dems just undercut a powerplay Senate Republicans were playing over Cuomo's poison pill 30 day budget amendments.

At what point do the Dems finally say "Screw Cuomo - we can't work with him anymore!"?

Seriously.

Aren't we well past the point where they should have had that epiphany?

Message To De Blasio: Cuomo is Not Your Friend - Cuomo Has NO Friends

Ken Lovett in the Daily News:

ALBANY — Mayor de Blasio is at his “wit’s end” over the harsh treatment he’s received from supposed good friend Gov. Cuomo since taking office, according to sources who say they spoke directly to the mayor.

De Blasio was seeking advice from people who are close to both himself and Cuomo on what he can do to improve his working relationship with a governor he believes has gone out of his way to routinely embarrass him.

“He was very direct,” one source said. “He just said, ‘I don’t know what to do. Why does he keep coming at me like this? I want it to work.’ He’s at wit’s end.”

Lovett goes on to write that de Blasio thought he would have a better relationship with Cuomo after he saved Cuomo's bacon with the Working Families Party in May and helped ensure Cuomo would not face a third party challenge in the general election.

But it's been business as usual since then - Cuomo's out to screw de Blasio, embarrass him, make him look like a fool.

He did it over de Blasio's Sunnyside rail yards deal, he did it when he closed the subway without telling the mayor first, he did it when he abruptly changed course on Ebola patient restrictions.

The truth is, de Blasio's a fool for thinking he can have a working relationship with Andrew Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo is a sociopath - he has no friends, his own family is rumored to not be too enamored of him, and time and again he demonstrates how the only principles he holds are to his own career.

The only way to deal with Cuomo is to stick a political shiv in him before he sticks it into you.

Maybe de Blasio will learn that one of these days.

Maybe Assembly Dems will too - they just weakened a powerplay against the governor by Senate Republicans by introducing Cuomo's poison pill 30 day budget amendments after the Senate refused to.

What is it with these Dems who look to get along with Andrew Cuomo, look to do his bidding in the hopes that he'll be nicer to them in the future?

They seem to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

They should get over it finally.

Science Teacher Complains Common Core Turns Him Into Literacy Teacher, But He Still Supports The CCSS

A common complain with the Common Core - no matter what subject a teacher teaches, he/she must become an ELA teacher and teach informational texts:

At the beginning of the school year, I start off my class with a quote. In my best orator voice, I exclaim, “We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated but the winner of the science fair. We need to teach them that success is not a function of fame or PR but of hard work and discipline.” President Obama said that in his 2011 State of the Union address.

I use this quote not only to inspire my students but also to remind myself of how necessary it is to promote science in our country.

 ...

Recently, however, this quote from just two years ago began feeling as if it had been dredged up from the history books. Instead of creating Super Bowl scientists, the Common Core State Standards Initiative seems to be asking me to put away my beakers, hang up my lab coat and crack open more nonfiction texts.

Conversations with peers who also teach science reveal that our courses are rapidly being converted into classes in which informational texts are read to support a nationwide shift in standards. Science educators are constantly asked: What can you do to support our students in highly tested subjects?

Personal experience reinforces this trend: My class periods have been chopped this year while reading, and math classes have been elongated significantly.

For anecdotal evidence, Google the words “science” and “Common Core.” Many of the search results are resources on how to teach nonfiction reading.

To allow for content, I wonder: Should I cut out that blood-typing lab or get rid of the week of hands-on gardening? Maybe this year my students don’t need to experience the bed of nails at the Maryland Science Center to teach them about forces. I could save a lot of time if I cut out their camping trip. Surely an informational text could show my students the same things they would take in while crabbing on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay.

Of course I won’t eliminate these incredible experiences from my plans this year.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am a proponent of Common Core standards, which have many benefits for students. I am also aware of excellent resources such as Project 2061 and Next Generation Science Standards, both of which promote hands-on learning. Today, however, many schools are systematically deprioritizing science, and it makes me uneasy about our nation’s future. 

This teacher is a fool if he continues to support the Common Core standards and truly believes they have benefits for students.

He can't be much of a scientist either.

The evidence is all there for him to see -  Common Core and the ancillary testing reforms that go with it force teachers of all subjects to focus only on what is tested, they turn every teacher into a literacy teacher and every class into an ELA class, they compel teachers to have to make choices between hands-on learning and real life skill lessons and the Endless Test prep that must be done in order to keep the school out of the turnaround specialists' hands - and yet he's still a supporter and proponent of Common Core.

Keep supporting Common Core and the education reform agenda that brought this to us, my friend, and you'll be consigned to teaching informational texts and literacy pods approved by the Gates Foundation in what's left of your science class.

And those class trips you dig taking your students on?

Yeah, no more time for that amid all the Endless Test Prep you have to do.

The point of the Common Core State (Sic) Standards is to cut all that stuff you love to teach out - the hands-on learning, the experimentation, the class trips, that "a-ha!" moment we teachers love to see kids have - and replace it with rote learning, test prep drills and endless tests.

Alas, this science teacher doesn't see the evidence right in front of his nose.

Sometimes I read things some teachers write and I think, this person is too stupid to teach anything.

Teachers With Stockholm Syndrome

Lhota tells NYC teacher there's no $ for retroactive pay. Teacher thanks him for honesty, "convinces me more you are the man for the job"
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) September 30, 2013

Nothing to say here other than this unnamed teacher is one of the dumbest people on the planet.

Lhota says there's money for tax cuts for rich people.

But those years you teachers went without a contract because Boomberg refused to negotiate fairly?

Nope - no money for that.

Golly gee, Mr. Lhotta, thanks for your honesty!

Bet this teacher voted for Bloomberg three times running too.