Kyle Olson - Page 27

For some strange reason, some union activists prefer their organizations be referred to as “associations,” as opposed to unions. That’s odd, given that the National Education Association has grabbed the union mantle with both hands, and the American Federation of

One Michigan teacher has discovered that being a Michigan Education Association member is like staying at the Hotel California: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Andrew Buikema, a music teacher with Grant Public

At its recent convention, National Education Association Vice President Lily Eskelsen publicly thanked students for raising funds for the union political action committee, known as the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. “We also want to recognize the great

Note: This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum and oftentimes geared towards elementary students. For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com. The Black Panthers

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently led a delegation of union representatives to Cairo, Egypt to meet with “leaders of Egyptian unions that were instrumental in the recent political and governmental changes there,” according to a news release

A paper published by several college professors, entitled “Organizing the Curriculum for Labor Consciousness,” calls for more weaving of Big Labor history and tactics into every day K-12 school curriculum. The professors cite leftist American “historian” Howard Zinn, who wrote:

For the last several months, pension managers, school districts and public officials have been howling about the alarming state of employee pension funds. They tell us pension systems are dangerously underfunded and taxpayers are on the hook for potentially billions

Some people can find an excuse for anything, including the ridiculous practice of “last in, first out,” which protects veteran teachers during periods of layoff in public schools. We’ve heard unions complain that seniority must be maintained so that “administrators

This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum, much geared towards elementary students. For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com. In typical union and socialist

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne sued the Wisconsin legislature over the passage of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, citing government transparency issues. He argued that a legislative committee did not post proper notice of its meeting before voting

You just have to appreciate the foresight and planning ability of government. The latest stellar example comes from Riverside, California, where the Alvord Unified School District built a state-of-the-art high school. The only problem? The district now lacks the funds

Emails obtained through the Wisconsin Open Records law indicate former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk emailed all county employees and circuit court judges, including Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi, with a memo announcing her intention to file suit against Gov.

This is one part of a running series entitled “Indoctrination Fridays,” a weekly review of leftist propaganda incorporated into public school curriculum and geared towards elementary students. For more of the series, please visit PublicSchoolSpending.com. The California Federation of Teachers

The media and education establishment’s hair has been on fire over the thousands of layoffs that are occurring in American public schools. They’ve bought into the union line that school funding is in crisis, when in reality, spending is unsustainable.

Public school officials throughout Wisconsin can move ahead with plans to minimize the impact of pending cuts in state aid, now that the state Supreme Court has dismissed a lower court’s restraining order preventing Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill

It’s not every day you will see a governmental body, in this case a school board, create competition for itself. But that’s precisely what the Douglas County, Colorado school board did. It created a unique, if not unprecedented, voucher program,

There’s a reason labor unions are chided for acting like bullies and thugs. Just ask Michigan State Rep. Marty Knollenberg, who recently had dozens of unionists picketing outside his business due to education reform legislation currently under consideration in the

I was seeing red this morning when I read this first-person account of 3rd grade socialist indoctrination in Millwaukee Public Schools. It came from Dale Weiss, an MPS teacher and devoted radical. “The process of addressing budget cuts with my

There’s a great scene in Sudden Impact, the second Dirty Harry film, in which Harry Callahan “handles” all the criminals. But one bad guy, in the climax of the scene, decides to use a waitress as a human shield. “Go

Public sector unions moved rapidly this year to teach Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a lesson for his “attack” on collective bargaining. Massive protests gained national attention for weeks. Out-of-state notables like AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka and filmmaker Michael Moore grandstanded.

To fix public schools, you have to control public schools. And there’s little control when teachers unions, with their self-serving agendas, question every cost-cutting proposal and reform on the table. That’s why so many state governments have taken swift action

The predictable reaction from New York State United Teachers regarding proposed legislation to cap property taxes illustrates that the union has no interest in lightening the burden on taxpayers and struggling school districts. Each year, NYSUT negotiates teachers contracts in

Many civil rights groups around the nation have strongly supported school choice initiatives, mainly out of concern for inner-city children who have traditionally been stuck in sub-par schools. Civil rights leaders understand that education is the key to escaping the

Now we know why unionists were fighting so hard for a federal “card check” law. Organizers can unionize private and public employees, forcing them to pay hundreds in union dues, before they even know anything about it. That’s the situation

Respect is earned, not demanded, unless of course you’re Al Capone. That apparently is a difficult concept for the Michigan Education Association to grasp. Last week, Michigan teachers appeared at a state board of education meeting to vent their anger

Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of D.C. Public Schools and self-described “card-carrying, life-long Democrat,” said she was instinctively opposed to school vouchers because she was “on the side of the workers.” In her former line of thinking, teachers’ unions oppose

House Democrats in Indiana thought they were being clever by walking out on the legislative session in February, stealing a page out of the Wisconsin Democrats’ playbook. Instead of having a debate on the serious issues of education reform, they

During a recent television appearance, former Vermont Gov. and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said “charter schools are the future” and suggested that the charter school/teacher union “battle is coming to an end.” Yeah, right. Or, in Howard Dean’s language:

Last week, I told you about an Indiana teacher who compared the state’s new education reform initiatives to the Holocaust. My organization, the Education Action Group, responded to this teacher’s email, and told him in no uncertain terms that he

A few weeks ago I brought you the story of the California Federation of Teachers passing a resolution “reaffirming” support for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. He was convicted of killing, execution-style, Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. Despite numerous appeals

In his recent address at the National Summit for the American Federation for Children in Washington D.C., Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett made an important point about the state of public education. [youtube x4ZNzJ82rWA] “For years, we’ve talked about failing schools,”

The desperation level of teachers’ unions and their apologists is growing by the day. Ceding major ground in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, Idaho, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, the unions seem to be on the run. They’ve

School choice is on the move in Wisconsin, at least in Milwaukee County. The state Assembly has approved a bill that will increase the number of voucher students in Milwaukee, and increase the number of private schools they can choose

There are many conservative teachers sounding the alarm about the hijacking of their profession and the radicalization of school curriculums by left-wing union leaders. Exhibit A: Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis saying they’re not teachers but “education workers.” Dean

In many states, teachers and other public sector employees have no choice but to pay a union in order to have their job. While they don’t have to be a member per se, they still have to pay a fee

One thing I love about tea party activists is their commitment to government transparency and accountability. When they see the media speaking no evil, hearing no evil and seeing no evil, they do the media’s job for them. Citizen journalists