WEAC Daily News Blog

• Thousands of educators continue flooding Capitol

  2/16/2011 9:59:05 AM

  By Christina Brey

  As thousands of educators and other public employees flood to the Capitol today, here’s a quick round up of news for you:

  Democrats continue hearing on union bill after GOP halts testimony

  The Legislature's budget committee will vote on a bill to strip public workers of most of their union rights Wednesday afternoon, after halting a public hearing at 3 a.m.

  Republicans who control the Legislature said they decided to stop taking testimony after 17 hours so they could focus on one-on-one conversations with constituents. Democrats said they were appalled by the Republican move and began taking testimony from the dozens of citizens who remained in the Capitol.

  "We will listen to you as long as it takes," said Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) at 3:30 a.m.

  Governor plans to deliver budget address far from state Capitol

  To meet statutory requirements, Walker plans to convene a joint ...

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• Educators say no - don't take our voice

  2/15/2011 7:56:45 PM

  By Christina Brey

  As hundreds of our members and their union colleagues from other public employee unions stood in line today waiting to testify on the anti-union bill introduced by the governor, thousands more stood united outside. The crowd estimate was at 15,000 with thousands of registered speakers.

  Check out video here and more here.

  Stories are all over the news, so you'll get the most complete wrap up at weac.org.

  Don't stop now, member activists, your students, schools & communities need you!

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• The ‘fix’ is in

  2/11/2011 9:17:47 AM

  By Matthew Call

   

  So new Governor Scott Walker – who has yet to sit down and negotiate with any labor union – thinks collective bargaining for all of Wisconsin’s workers is broken. And he plans to eliminate many of the rights of teachers, support staff and other public workers across the state.

   

  A proposal from Walker will allow unionized workers to negotiate only their salaries. Everything else – health insurance packages, pension contributions, etc. – will be determined by the employer.

   

  What Walker is calling a “budget fix” is basically an attack on unions and the public-sector workers who have been demonized as of late. It’s not a “fix” at all.

   

  In fact, for years now public workers have been trading salary gains to maintain health insurance and retirement packages. That’s right – the same public workers Walker wants you to think are bankrupting the state ...

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• Advanced Placement results released; Wisconsin students do very well

  2/10/2011 8:57:48 AM

  By Russ Allen

   

  In 2010, more than one-fourth of Wisconsin’s graduating seniors took at least one AP course. This was slightly below the national average of 28.3%.

   

  However, in terms of performance, 70% of Wisconsin’s tested students actually passed their AP test. This compares with a national figure of 60%.

   

  Students are graded on a five-point scale. A score of 3 or higher is considered passing:

  5	Extremely well qualified*
  4	Well qualified*
  3	Qualified*
  2	Possibly qualified*
  1	No recommendation**

   

  *Qualified to receive college credit or advanced placement

  **No recommendation to receive college credit or advanced placement

   

  The passing figure of 18.3% for all graduating seniors was the highest among 13 Midwest states. Overall, Wisconsin ranked 14th in the nation on this measure.

   

  	% of all graduates taking an AP Exam	% of graduates scoring 3 or higher
  Illinois	26.3                           ...

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• Seniority, layoffs, education reform

  2/7/2011 12:19:58 PM

  By Christina Brey

  This piece on seniority and layoffs touches on education reform, unions, and has the bonus of featuring WEAC President Mary Bell.

  The bottom line is no teacher should be working in a Wisconsin public school if that person, after receiving a fair evaluation and opportunities to improve, is still found to be ineffective. Layoffs shouldn’t be used as a “chance” to get rid of ineffective teachers. Administrators should be following set procedures to identify educators who aren’t measuring up, provide an improvement plan, and if those educators don’t improve, should be escorted out of the profession.

  Layoffs occur because of financial or other school circumstances, and historically the fairest way to conduct layoffs was based on experience – to prevent bias. The current system already allows for administrators to consider certifications and advanced skills, so all remaining teachers are qualified to teach in the subject area they ...

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• Detail-oriented

  2/4/2011 10:50:36 AM

  By Marlena Deutsch

   

  Like many Wisconsinites, I was glued to Governor Walker’s State of the State on Tuesday via multiple media channels: TV, news sites and Twitter. After reading his script in its entirety, I realized that I was left with the same thoughts as others: where are the details?

   

  Governor Walker is answering calls that his state of the state lacked details by hitting the northern part of the state to call for more contributions to health insurance and benefits from public employees. While this plays well in the PR arena, when it comes to schools, it still won’t solve the looming problems created by a broken school funding system. His call for increased contributions still won’t get our state funding for schools straightened out, and his promise that taking away collective bargaining rights for workers will be the answer is, well, the wrong one....

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• State of the State – plowing ahead or leaving behind?

  2/2/2011 9:35:52 AM

  

  By Christina Brey

  Wisconsin’s governor conducted his first-ever State of the State address last night. He made all the appropriate nods to the blizzard outside and Super Bowl anticipation, and set in with a standard message of tough choices. There were few details, however.

  Here’s a quick round-up:

  Crisis, crisis, and more crisis

  Walker calls for tough choices, but offers few specifics

  Gov. targets state worker benefits in his speech

  Walker: Start Interstate project sooner than later

  Democrats: Walker short on details

  One thing I noticed was that, unlike other speeches I’ve followed (from both sides of the aisle), this governor didn’t mention our state’s successful schools – didn’t talk about Wisconsin’s proud tradition of public education. Nothing. That’s unfortunate, because our schools are a big part of Wisconsin’s high quality of life, and who better to acknowledge that than the state’s governor?

  It left me wondering – is education ...

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• The horse-and-buggy approach

  2/1/2011 10:44:07 AM

  By Matthew Call

   

  So a think tank is going around saying Wisconsin’s teaching licensing program is too rigid. And too lax. And it needs to be overhauled. Somehow.

   

  That’s the gist of what the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute is saying lately, getting some pub in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. Basically, the WPRI considers the barriers to becoming a teacher too high and the standards for staying in the profession too minimal. But here’s the thing about Wisconsin’s teacher licensing system: it’s pretty much the same as those in other Midwest states, and it’s evolved over the years. Teachers are evaluated using a performance-based method and directed to continued professional development.

   

  With all that, how does reducing professional standards for teaching make any sense? How does lowering the bar for who is in charge of the academic development of our young people solve any valuable goal? Public ...

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• Balancing on the back of one

  1/28/2011 10:04:49 AM

  By Marlena Deutsch

  There is no question that most states are under serious economic duress. Deficits and unemployment numbers swing in huge ranges across the country, and the underlying result is that real people feel the pressures of unemployment.

  The mantra that got people voting this past election cycle, and ultimately shuffled the political power rankings, was “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs”: the promise of more jobs, better paying jobs, jobs in each and every community. Yet, the mantra that often follows is one of eliminating government jobs. Reducing the workforce of city, county and state workers. Public workers are vilified, when they, too, are taxpayers, support their local communities, invest in their state, send their children to public schools. So why do politicians feel that eliminating some jobs will make more jobs?

  There’s a proposed bill in Minnesota “to slash the state workforce by 15 percent. The bill’s backers claim the ...

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• Students could be both tested and weighed

  1/27/2011 11:39:43 AM

  By Russ Allen

   

  This is a real story; I’m not making this up. Republican State Senator Beverly Gard (Indiana) has proposed legislation that would require that all students in Indiana’s public schools be weighed each year and the results entered into the state’s data system. She wants to do this so that state officials can determine which parts of Indiana have the most serious obesity problems. This begs the question; what will be done with these data? Schools are asked to collect this type of information (another mandate), yet there is no indication of how it will be used, or even if will be used. Perhaps these questions should be answered before any laws are passed.   

   

  Latest science scores disappointing

   

  On Tuesday the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the results of its latest science assessment. Overall, Wisconsin students scored high, but nationally (especially in urban centers ...

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