[updated Feb. 4, 2013] With the Chicago Teachers Union having waged a largely successful strike against the Chicago Public Schools, we can expect to see other public school unions, and maybe other government employee unions, following their example. Strikes allow unions to preserve costly wages and benefits, or block needed reforms, by shutting down...
According to union financial reports filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, there are more than 120 employees of the Illinois Education Association, or IEA, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, or IFT, earning more than $100,000.
Organizations such as School of One which operates a math program at three New York City public middle schools are proving that innovation can occur in a public education system that is resistant to change.
Choice means giving parents the right to decide which educational option is best for their children, whether it be public schools, charter schools, private schools, online learning or homeschooling.
The holidays are over and kids have been back in school for weeks. But students in Grayslake District 46 are back at home now that teachers are on strike.
It is a fairly standard piece of Alinskyite strategy: make the argument about personalities rather than principles or results. Find an enemy and make the whole fight about him or her or it. As progressive icon and “Rules for Radicals” author Saul Alinsky himself put it, “pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize...
On Tuesday Michigan’s Legislature took the final steps in passing Right-to-Work legislation, and Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill into law. Outside the Statehouse, union protesters became more agitated, tearing down a tent where Right-to-Work supporters had gathered (a handful of people were almost trapped inside the canvas) and assaulting a Fox News correspondent. In...
If you’ve ever heard Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis give a speech, you know she has a thing for Finland. She points to it as a shining example of how an education system should work. She extols its collaborative teaching environments, its tenure system and its short, four-hour workday. Now, school choice supporters have...