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The education system behaving badly

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Re: The education system behaving badly

#51

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

The teacher who slapped the student may have had burnout. (NOT excusing his action, but diagnosing the possible problem.) Burnout was a big issue when I taught in the mid70's especially if you taught in at risk schools. I saw burnout in action. It isn't pretty.

Scenario: He's been at it for 40 years which is a LONG time to teach in elementary/middle school. Principal can't get him to retire with a nice honor ceremony, but thinks s/he doesn't have enough on him to nonrenew his contract. :idea: Aha! Let him win the Teacher of the Year Award and he will retire happy.

Nope. Now the honor goes to teacher's head and his malign burnout thoughts take over. Voila! The Beast escapes and acts.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#52

Post by northland10 »

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: Thu Mar 10, 2022 3:35 pm The teacher who slapped the student may have had burnout. (NOT excusing his action, but diagnosing the possible problem.)
I was thinking the same. The last 2 years have been an extremely stressful time for teachers and ones who have done it for years are more likely to slip into some extreme burnout. Of course, he will have to pay the consequences, but that does not mean the school was rewarding a bad teacher as a teacher of the year. He may well have been excellent and things went downhill quickly in the last couple of years.
101010 :towel:
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#53

Post by Volkonski »

10M US kids to be impacted when universal access to free school meals ends this summer

https://abc13.com/universal-free-school ... ce=twitter
One single mom told ABC13 she expects her grocery bill to double, something many families just getting back on their feet from the pandemic can't afford. With prices rising on pretty much everything, this comes as a big shock to millions of families.

The $1.5 trillion spending bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11 fails to extend crucial funding and flexibility provided by Congress for school meal programs.

The COVID relief packages passed in 2020 and 2021 added $8.8 billion to the government's budget for child nutrition programs and authorized the USDA to issue "waivers" relaxing program requirements. The waivers enabled universal access to free lunch for most of the past two years.

As Congress cut temporary COVID relief spending, $13.6 billion was added in aid for Ukraine.
I don't begrudge the aid to Ukraine but US kids should not lose their free school lunches.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#54

Post by sugar magnolia »

Volkonski wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:09 pm 10M US kids to be impacted when universal access to free school meals ends this summer

https://abc13.com/universal-free-school ... ce=twitter
One single mom told ABC13 she expects her grocery bill to double, something many families just getting back on their feet from the pandemic can't afford. With prices rising on pretty much everything, this comes as a big shock to millions of families.

The $1.5 trillion spending bill that President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11 fails to extend crucial funding and flexibility provided by Congress for school meal programs.

The COVID relief packages passed in 2020 and 2021 added $8.8 billion to the government's budget for child nutrition programs and authorized the USDA to issue "waivers" relaxing program requirements. The waivers enabled universal access to free lunch for most of the past two years.

As Congress cut temporary COVID relief spending, $13.6 billion was added in aid for Ukraine.
I don't begrudge the aid to Ukraine but US kids should not lose their free school lunches.
Curious how much of that money from school lunches was for delivering them while the kids were working from home though. I know it was a chunk because all kids got them, not just the ones who were on free lunch at school, plus the cost of sending the school bus around to deliver them. Too bad they didn't say what the cuts were compared to the last school year it applied to when the kids were all in school.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#55

Post by raison de arizona »

sugar magnolia wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:01 pm Curious how much of that money from school lunches was for delivering them while the kids were working from home though. I know it was a chunk because all kids got them, not just the ones who were on free lunch at school, plus the cost of sending the school bus around to deliver them. Too bad they didn't say what the cuts were compared to the last school year it applied to when the kids were all in school.
I dunno about anywhere else, but in Brooklyn one had to go down to the school to pick up the free meals, no delivery.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#56

Post by sugar magnolia »

raison de arizona wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:08 pm
sugar magnolia wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 6:01 pm Curious how much of that money from school lunches was for delivering them while the kids were working from home though. I know it was a chunk because all kids got them, not just the ones who were on free lunch at school, plus the cost of sending the school bus around to deliver them. Too bad they didn't say what the cuts were compared to the last school year it applied to when the kids were all in school.
I dunno about anywhere else, but in Brooklyn one had to go down to the school to pick up the free meals, no delivery.
But it was still available to everyone, regardless of whether they would have normally qualified or not. Here, they were also feeding teachers and younger siblings too. My main point was that the budget for the last 2 years would have been out of whack for what it usually is but the news article didn't address that so there's no way to tell if it's an actual cut to the program, or just a reversion to what it was 2 years ago.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#57

Post by Volkonski »

Teacher task force won't lack for new ideas, starting with hefty pay hikes for staff

https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/teache ... _TsuSxef8k
The 28-member task force - which includes only two teachers - will meet every other month.

"To really come up with a plan I think is phenomenal," says Jennifer Emerson, principal at SAISD's Briscoe Elementary. "From a principal's perspective, I think it's only good. It can help make us better."

Local representation will consist of superintendents from East Central (Roland Toscano) and Comal ISD (Andrew Kim).

"The glaring problem here is there is a lack of teacher and educator representation on this task force," Lopez says.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#58

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#59

Post by raison de arizona »

UC-AFT at UCLA @UCAFT_UCLA wrote: Stay classy, @UCLA

This is 100% a union-busting move to appoint contingent teaching faculty into non-unionized job titles.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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Post by raison de arizona »

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” —John Adams
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#61

Post by sugar magnolia »

This is why my daughter teaches in Brazil rather than MS.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#62

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

The MS students need teachers like her though. I understand her decision having taught in deep south Arkansas. My first job was at a racially divisive school. The next school 30 miles away was forward thinking with a strong teachers association.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#63

Post by Volkonski »

Volkonski wrote: Thu Apr 07, 2022 8:51 am A Texas teacher faces losing her job after fighting for gay pride symbols in school
A battle over rainbow stickers at a high school near Dallas has hobbled the Gay-Straight Alliance and left LGBTQ students feeling unsafe.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lg ... -rcna23208
The school year at MacArthur High in Irving, Texas, began last fall with the administration scraping off rainbow stickers that had been posted on campus, prompting hundreds of students to walk out in protest. Seven months later, LGBTQ students say things have deteriorated further.

One faculty sponsor of the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance is facing having her contract terminated, another is preparing to resign, and a third has been removed from the classroom. The alliance’s weekly meetings became monthly, and attendance dropped from about 40 students to fewer than 10. The student newspaper has functionally shut down. Two teachers said that the school’s principal asked teachers to take down gay pride flags in their classrooms and offices.

Several students said that either they or their classmates have been called homophobic slurs and bullied, and school staff members have failed to intervene. Some said they’re discouraged by the Irving Independent School District’s response to the concerns they’ve raised through the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) and school board meetings, and they feel less safe at school than they did a year ago. Two students said human resources officers with the district questioned them about their involvement with the GSA.

“It feels like a target was put on us,” said Adaiah Knight, a junior who identifies as gender-fluid and nonbinary and who said students have harassed them. (Knight uses they/them pronouns.)
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#64

Post by Volkonski »



Lock him up and throw away the key. Then go after the parents of those students. Rescind the admissions of every student he helped. Revoke the degrees of any such student who has already graduated college. :mad:
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#65

Post by RTH10260 »

Volkonski wrote: Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:34 pm https:// twitter.com/CourthouseNews/status/1512460339786526721?s=20&t=KoiE-V69aSDtE-6ok5RSNA

Lock him up and throw away the key. Then go after the parents of those students. Rescind the admissions of every student he helped. Revoke the degrees of any such student who has already graduated college. :mad:
That has already happened, the guy is the last awaiting his own bed-and-breakfast.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#66

Post by Volkonski »

RTH10260 wrote: Fri Apr 08, 2022 4:24 pm
Volkonski wrote: Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:34 pm https:// twitter.com/CourthouseNews/status/1512460339786526721?s=20&t=KoiE-V69aSDtE-6ok5RSNA

Lock him up and throw away the key. Then go after the parents of those students. Rescind the admissions of every student he helped. Revoke the degrees of any such student who has already graduated college. :mad:
That has already happened, the guy is the last awaiting his own bed-and-breakfast.
Good.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#67

Post by Volkonski »

:shock:

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#68

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#69

Post by Ben-Prime »

Volkonski wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 10:42 pm
I'd love to have been a fly on the wall during the HR-Legal Counsel discussion at the ISD that day.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
And justice shall be done.

- Charles Mackay, "Eternal Justice"
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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Post by Volkonski »

Even as our school district announces layoffs of administrators-

HISD to layoff curriculum specialists amid planning to cut $60 million from administration

https://abc13.com/houston-independent-s ... ce=twitter
Houston Independent School District is planning to lay off 25 curriculum specialists in the coming week.

This move stems from the HISD administrators planning to present a plan to the Board of Trustees to cut $60 million from the district administration. It is said that amount cannot be cut without laying people off.

ABC13 spoke to Millard House III, the HISD superintendent as he laid out his strategic plan saying that why the cuts are needed. He says it is to get the district back on track.

The specialists are being told that their current positions are no longer going to be offered, but they do have a chance to apply for similar roles as curriculum managers and curriculum coaches if they choose to do so.
Part of the problem is that active enrollments have dropped after the Covid shutdowns. A significant number of students haven't returned to classrooms so the state has reduced its payments to many school districts.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

#71

Post by Volkonski »

Teacher shortage in Texas spurs calls for systemic change
Red-state politics, stagnant wages and cumbersome workloads have hastened the exodus of teachers from Texas schools. But with a state task force assigned to tackle the problem, big changes could be on the horizon.


https://www.courthousenews.com/teacher- ... ic-change/
Not long after shouldering a new set of responsibilities brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers across the country began leaving their jobs in droves, either to take a job in a new field or to focus on their families.

The pandemic presented a new set of challenges for teachers, highlighted issues teachers have been facing for years and played a contributing role in a teacher’s reason to call it quits. While it’s a nationwide issue, Texas has been hit particularly hard. The issues driving teachers away have been present for years and have now come to a head.

Tara Kini is the director of state policy and chief of staff at the Learning Policy Institute, an organization that conducts research and develops policy to improve outcomes for K-12 public school districts and educators. She said in an interview that while there is no single issue driving the shortage, compensation has played an outsized role in the teacher exodus.

“Teachers’ salaries have remained stagnant when you look at year-over-year data,” Kini said. “States like New Mexico and Mississippi have taken a step in the right direction by significantly raising the base pay for teachers, but another strategy could be to make a teachers’ wage competitive to other college-educated professions.”

:snippity:

Capo believes educators are being forced to reckon with parents and politicians that want educators to advance an agenda and take away from teachers’ desire to educate students on their area of expertise, leading to their inevitable departure from teaching.

Setting new educational standards is a challenge that illuminates another area contributing to the shortage: workload. Texas teachers are responsible for driving standardized testing results, caring for students’ emotional needs and staying on top of lesson planning.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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Not just those two districts.

In Texas schools reopen in mid August. They don't have much time to recruit and hire teachers.
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Re: The education system behaving badly

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Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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