WI parents get more open enrollment time, but school officials still hold sway over some transfers

By Victor | Published: February 1, 2012
     Wisconsin parents will now have three months instead of three weeks each year to transfer their children from one school district to another as part of a handful of changes to the state’s open enrollment law adopted by lawmakers last week.
    
     The changes, ushered in during National School Choice Week, will also allow parents to transfer their child to another school mid-year, with approval from the resident school, James Wigderson wrote for the MacIver Institute.
      
     For Wigderson, and many Wisconsin parents, the change is a big deal.
    
     “As a parent of two children in elementary school I understand the need for options. I went through a situation myself when it was no longer in my children’s best interest to continue in our ‘home’ public school district after it became clear that my newspaper columns for the Waukesha Freeman had made some unprofessional teachers hostile toward my kids.
    
     “Unfortunately, I was not made aware of the situation until well after the open enrollment period had ended. It was too late for us to consider an online charter school in another district or switching my oldest son to a neighborhood district.
    
     “I had to make the decision to switch them to a private school. I may have made a different decision had those options been available to me at the time,” Wigderson wrote.
    
     We certainly support the General Assembly’s decision to make it easier for parents to choose the best school for their child. It’s a step in the right direction.
    
     But we are also concerned that local school officials will have the power to veto those decisions if parents want to make the change in the middle of a school year. The legislation allows local school leaders to determine if a mid-year move is in the best interests of a student.     
    
     We question whether school officials will base their decision on what’s truly best for students or on the implications of losing the student’s state aid allotment. 
    
     If parents don’t like the decision of school officials, the new law would allow them to appeal to the state Department of Public Instruction, which would make a final ruling on what is in the best interests of the student. But that’s not much of a consolation prize.
    
     We believe that the new law, like most school choice legislation, is based on a simple premise: Parents know what’s best for their children, and they should be able to decide where and how they are educated.
    
     Leaving the decision on transfers up to education bureaucrats, even just for mid-year moves, is the antithesis of that goal.
   
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Shawano, WI school officials overreact to student editorial on gays adopting

By Victor | Published: February 1, 2012

     A Shawano High School student was allegedly subjected to several hours of verbal abuse and humiliation from district Superintendent Todd Carlson over an op-ed he was asked to write for the student newspaper on the topic of allowing gays to adopt. 
    
     Brandon Wegner, 15, was allegedly censored, called “ignorant” and threatened with suspension by Carlson after he expressed his Christian viewpoint on gay adoption and quoted Scripture for his argument in opposition. Another student presented a pro-gay adoption argument in the same edition of the student newspaper, according to Fox News.
    
     The editorial became an issue when the gay parents of a Shawano High School student complained to school officials. The school responded with an apology that belittled Wegner’s opinion as “a form of bullying and disrespect,” Fox News reports.
    
     School leaders allegedly pulled Wegner’s column from publication in later issues of the student newspaper, citing the district’s anti-bullying policy as justification.
    
     District officials then allegedly proceeded to rake the 15-year-old over the coals, according to Mathew Staver, founder of the Liberty Council, which has taken up Wegner’s case.
    
     “The superintendent called him ignorant and said he had the power to suspend him,” Starver told Fox. “He is using his position to bully this student. This is absolutely the epitome of intolerance.”
    
     Over the course of several hours of meetings without Wegner’s parents, Carlson allegedly scolded the student, told him he was offended by the column, and offered him a chance to recant his words.
    
     “When Mr. Wegner stated that he did not regret writing it, and that he stood behind his beliefs, Superintendent Carlson told him that he ‘had got to be one of the most ignorant kids to try to argue with him on this topic,’” Staver told Fox.
    
     The Liberty Council has demanded an apology from Carlson, and is considering legal action against the district.
    
     We have two huge issues with Carlson’s alleged conduct. The first is the superintendent’s blinding hypocrisy. How can he possibly justify his actions while simultaneously accusing a student of bullying? He can’t. That’s the pot calling the kettle black. 
    
     But perhaps the bigger issue is the message that Carlson’s reaction sends to students. Not only does the district’s decision to pull Wegner’s column show blatant disregard for his First Amendment rights, it will undoubtedly cause other students to think twice about expressing their opinion for fear of ridicule.
    
     Would Carlson have reacted the same way if Christian parents complained about the pro-gay adoption column printed in the student newspaper? We doubt it. 
    
     This is political correctness run amok. There’s only room for free expression if it’s the ”correct” free expression.
    
     “The superintendent wants everyone to accept homosexuality as normative and homosexual adoption as something that should be standard practices,” Staver told Fox. “In doing so, he’s belittling the views and the biblical views of many people across the country. He is playing a zero-sum game. He’s not interested in dialogue. He wants to cram his view down the throats of everyone else and will not tolerate an opposing viewpoint.”
    
     What a way for kids to learn.

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Radical leftist teacher sets bad example for students

By Victor | Published: February 1, 2012

Racine’s Al Levie has a long history of imposing his politics on students

     RACINE – Al Levie must be proud of himself.
    
     The Racine teacher had his fifteen minutes of fame this month when he refused to accept an award from Congressman Paul Ryan at a Martin Luther King, Jr. event at a local college. A video of Levie’s antics, accompanied by a lame explanation for his defiance, is circulating online.
    
     “Paul Ryan is a lackey for the one percent,” Levie contends in a video interview after the event.
    
     The video made Levie an instant folk hero for leftists.
    
     But our research shows that silly antics are nothing new for Levie, an ends-justify-the-means type who routinely uses his students to promote his personal political agenda.
    
     In an article Levie penned for his union magazine, NEA Today, he wrote that “By engaging students in real-life issues and encouraging them to act on a political level, we will transform schools into places where authentic learning takes place.
    
     “At the same time, we will help our students become engines of positive change in our society,” he wrote. 
    
     In other words, Levie wants his students to become fellow rabble rousers. And what better way to elicit “positive change” than to snub a respected congressman from a political party he opposes?
    
     The incident with Ryan, however, is only the most recent example the social studies teacher has set for his students.
    
     Last summer, he was kicked out of a Wisconsin Senate Finance Committee hearing for causing a fuss. He was literally carried out by police.
    
     In 2009, “Horlick teacher Al Levie, known for organizing high school students in political movements, was part of the crowd” that protested outside of Ryan’s office, according to the Racine Post.
    
     In 2004, a student vote project headed by Levie was canceled when it was discovered that the event would only benefit one political party. The Journal Times reported:
    
     “The get out the vote project planned by Horlick High School students has been canceled.
    
     “Racine Unified School District Superintendent Thomas Hicks said what started out to be a class-related activity last week turned out to be a partisan event. The decision to cancel the event was made … after he learned the facts had changed and it was no longer a bipartisan endeavor.”
    
     It quickly becomes clear that Levie believes the purpose of public schools is to turn students into junior social democrats, and he’s setting the example with his childish antics aimed at Congressman Ryan. 
    
     Meanwhile, only 57 percent of Racine Unified high school students are proficient in social studies.
    
     That sad reality will leave students with a one-sided perspective on American political issues, and likely little insight into Ryan’s conservative thought.
    
     And that’s exactly the goal, isn’t it, Al?
    
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Supreme Court case could threaten Big Labor’s ability to deduct from public employee paychecks

By Victor | Published: February 1, 2012
     WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s no secret that Big Labor is dependent on dues and fees automatically withdrawn from the payroll checks of union members and non-members alike.
 
     The automatic deductions funnel millions of dollars into public sector union coffers each year, with a portion frequently going toward partisan political causes and liberal candidates who promise to preserve or expand the unions’ forced dues racket.
    
     But this vicious cycle is finally being challenged in states and municipalities around the nation. Perhaps the most important challenge, Knox vs. Service Employees International Union, was heard earlier this month by the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.
 
     The case is one of a growing number of examples of how public employees, including public school teachers, are pushing back against forced union dues – something many consider a violation of their First Amendment rights. American citizens should not be forced to financially support an organization or political causes they don’t agree with, union objectors rightly contend.
 
     By forcing members and non-members to subsidize its radical political agenda, Big Labor may have finally cooked its Golden Goose.
 
SEIU wants to run from the case
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CTU rips EAG’s new documentary as “not contributing to education debate”

By Victor | Published: February 1, 2012
But CTU’s embrace of destructive, flag-burning “Occupy” protests does?
 
     Last week, Education Action Group released a short documentary film with Juan Williams, titled “A Tale of Two Missions,” which focuses on the fight for school choice in Chicago.  The film was seen across the country at viewing parties and over 10,000 times on YouTube.
 
     The film looks at the competing missions of successful Chicago charter schools like Noble Street College Prep, versus the Chicago Teachers Union, which seems more focused on complaining about wages and trying to prevent the establishment of more quality schools like Noble Street College Prep.
 
     Juan Williams closes the film with this searing indictment: “If the Chicago Teachers Union would put as much effort into improving as they do into protesting, then perhaps Chicago wouldn’t be so burdened by violence, crime and lack of economic mobility – all borne of bad schools.”
 
     The CTU reacted to the film by claiming it “contributes nothing to the education debate in our city,” according to the Chicago News Cooperative.
 
     The film clearly points out that the CTU wants to limit educational options for thousands of underserved children in Chicago. Parents and taxpayers need to understand that crucial fact.
 
     When it comes to the topic of education, perhaps the CTU would do better to focus on the success of children in the classroom than the radical political causes it involves itself in.
 
     For instance, we struggle to understand the CTU’s full embrace of the violent Occupy protests, which most recently featured flag burning, rioting and destruction of public property.  Nevertheless, there CTU organizer Norine Gutekanst was, telling the crowd, “The Chicago Teachers Union delegate assembly voted last October to endorse the Occupy Chicago movement…”  The full YouTube video can be seen here.
 
     It is hard to see how partnering with such a radical, anti-American group will do anything to improve education in Chicago.  It will, certainly, create chaos and disruption, which is precisely what the CTU wants.
 
     Regardless of the opinions of the CTU and its radical leaders, this important film will be seen by thousands and will help to shape the education reform debate, in Illinois and across the nation. It likely won’t be the last thing EAG does in Chicago.
 
     “We will fully engage (CTU President) Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teachers Union – and ultimately AFT President Randi Weingarten – at the time of our choosing,” said EAG Founder Kyle Olson.  “And when we do, everyone will know – through facts and CTU leaders’ own words – what a corrupting, disrupting influence the union has been to the education of children.”
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Disgust with local teachers union drives one New York parent to run for school board

By Victor | Published: January 30, 2012
By Ben Velderman
EAG Communications
 
     WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Bill Signorile has regularly attended West Hempstead school board meetings for the past two years, in hopes of getting board members to curb the district’s spending.
    
     He says the board’s big-spending habits, particularly when it comes to union labor costs, are jeopardizing the financial futures of taxpayers and younger school employees, and threatening the quality of instruction for students.
    
     Over the past decade, Signorile has watched his school property taxes increase by 232 percent – from $2,584.97 in 2001-02 to $5,994.71 in 2011-12.
 
     During that same period, the West Hempstead Union Free School District’s budget has increased by 56.7 percent – from $34.7 million to $54.4 million – even while enrollment has dropped by 200 students. 
 
     Signorile says “runaway” taxes make it difficult for him to keep his home or send his children to college, while the ballooning school budget puts the jobs and pensions of district employees at risk.
 
     New York’s Education Commissioner John King echoed those concerns at a budget hearing last week. King told state lawmakers that a number of school districts are facing insolvency over the next few years, according to TimesUnion.com.
    
     In an interview with EAG, Signorile estimated that over half of West Hempstead’s commercial property sits vacant. That leaves the average homeowner – whose income has mostly flat lined in recent years – to shoulder more of the tax burden.
    
     West Hempstead is located in New York’s Nassau County which has the highest median property taxes in the nation, reports CBS 880.
 
     “That means the community has to come up with the money to pay the ever increasing school costs,” he said. “Does everybody want the train to crash?”
 
     Signorile shared his concerns at a school board meeting last summer, in hopes of waking district officials up to the possibility of a serious financial calamity in the near future.
 
     “I told them, ‘Let’s freeze everything for five years and let the economy come back,’” he said.
 
     Signorile was shocked by the response he received.
 
     “A retired teacher told me, ‘If you can’t afford to pay the taxes, you shouldn’t live here.’”
 
     That response not only revealed the selfish attitude of the local teachers union to Signorile, but it also inspired him to run for the school board this coming spring.
 
     “I’m getting involved,” he said.
 
Teachers union caused much of the mess
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Western Schools Bond 2012

By Jason | Published: January 27, 2012

Posted in Daily Updates | 2 Comments

Bill Cosby’s ‘State of American Education’

By Victor | Published: January 27, 2012
    Shortly before President Obama delivered Tuesday’s State of the Union address, comedian Bill Cosby discussed the “State of American Education” in a conference call with reporters.
    
   Cosby’s comments were also meant to promote National School Choice Week, a week in which Americans of all political, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds rally together to promote the value of school choice in helping kids succeed in school and life.
    
   “Cuts, cuts, cuts, that is what we hear, but education is not a thing that big bucks happens to be the answer [to],” Cosby said, according to the Daily Caller.
    
   Cosby talked about the importance of finding out-of-the-box solutions to the country’s education woes, the paper reports.
    
   “Okay – we know there are cuts, then let’s work with it. Let’s go to churches, find retired teachers who would like to join us in the basement of the church to work with the child,” he said.
    
   Cosby also told how he almost slipped through the education cracks as a child.
    
   “I stopped studying in the 4th grade on my own, because I had a picture of what my life was like,” Cosby said, referring to his childhood in a Philadelphia housing project.
    
   Cosby ended up succeeding because his mother placed him in the classroom of Mrs. Forchicks, “this white Orthodox Russian woman, 4’11”” who “stayed on my case.”
    
   “I am telling all you parents, you need more Mary B. Forchicks in the classroom,” he said.
    
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Teachers union outmanuevers New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

By Victor | Published: January 27, 2012

     New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been the superhero of the education reform movement since he burst onto the national stage in 2010.

     Right from the start, Christie showed a willingness to stand up to the school yard bullies that lead the New Jersey Education Association on the issues of merit pay, teacher tenure, and accountability.

     Given Christie’s impressive track record, it’s perplexing why the governor recently signed a law that allows school boards to pass budgets without voter approval, provided the budget does not exceed the two percent tax cap that has been in place since 2010.
    
     The NJEA favors the new law, which does not comfort us at all.
    
     We have serious misgivings about stripping taxpayers of their important oversight role. This new law does nothing to enhance transparency or accountability.  
    
     The new law also allows a district to move school board elections from April to November, which could be a good move. Consolidating elections will save taxpayers money and drive up voter turnout, potentially making it more difficult for the NJEA to get its friends elected to the local school board.      
    
     However, a union-dominated school board could decide to keep elections in the spring, and choose to pass budgets without final taxpayer approval. That would be a lose-lose for taxpayers.
    
     We admire Gov. Christie, and take no pleasure in pointing out the shortcomings of this new law.
    
     If you listen real close, you can hear doves cry.
    
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Illinois teachers union takes care of its anti-school choice Republican friends

By Victor | Published: January 27, 2012
     Another voucher showdown is starting to brew in Illinois.
    
     The Prairie Advocate reports that a handful of lawmakers will once again attempt to free students from the state’s worst schools by providing them with vouchers, even though previous attempts in 2010 and 2011 were defeated.
    
     The Advocate reports, “State Rep. LaShawn Ford, D–Chicago, sponsored a voucher program last year that would target children attending schools in the 20 zip codes reporting the highest lottery ticket sales. Ford said those areas, in general, are economically depressed.”
    
     The need for choice extends beyond those 20 zip codes. According to FoxIllinois.com, more than half of the state’s students “are underperforming when compared to national standards set by No Child Left Behind.”
    
     Regardless, the voucher plan remains a longshot.
    
     Illinois Review reports that during the last quarter of 2011, the Illinois Education Association’s political action committee (IPACE) doled out $102,000 to six House Republicans who helped vote down school choice legislation in 2010.
    
     “It would appear that the teachers union expects Republican House members to stand against school choice again this spring,” the group said in a release. “Or else they expect members to work very hard to retain the Illinois Association of Teachers’ generous taxpayer-funded benefits and pensions.”
    
     That leaves students with two choices: They can either form their own political action committee – and finance it through the sale of candy bars, cookie dough and gift wrap – or resign themselves to receiving a subpar education. That’s the sad reality in the Land of Lincoln which has now become the Land of Unions.
    
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