Labor costs eat up huge portion of school budgets, leaving less money for students
Earlier this week, Florida’s State Board of Education held a budget workshop with education stakeholders to discuss ways the state’s public schools can stretch their budgets.
Suggestions ranged from increasing class sizes to outsourcing payroll. A Florida teachers’ union proposed closing [...]
Unions have lost the PR-battle, leaving courts as their only hope for stopping meaningful reforms
Voters in several states recently elected governors and legislators who are determined to reform public education and increase educational opportunities for families and children.
Those officials have passed groundbreaking legislation to meet those goals, despite the opposition of teachers unions. [...]
FEA is fighting for its life, not any high-minded constitutional principle
The Florida Education Association’s decision to challenge the constitutionality of a proposed constitutional amendment is more than an exercise in muddled, circular logic – it is the union’s last-gasp effort to escape extinction.
If taxpayers amend the state’s constitution to allow school vouchers, the [...]
Board members understand that public education exists for students, not teachers union
The Manatee school board deserves kudos from taxpayers and education reformers for its decision to pull the plug on automatic annual pay raises for teachers and excessive payouts for unused sick leave.
Not only will the changes save the cash-strapped district a lot [...]
Merit pay, accountability acknowledge that quality teachers are essential to good schools
Cheers to Gov. Rick Scott for signing into law a merit pay bill that treats teachers as the true professionals they are, instead of the interchangeable and indistinguishable workers the teacher unions make them out to be.
It is widely known that good [...]
Unions’ angry reaction to legislation reveals concern that many teachers would opt out
Like any common playground bully, the unions must use coercion to keep its “friends” in line.
Since the late 1970s, Florida’s teacher unions have used automatic payroll deductions to keep teachers’ dues flowing into their coffers. As a result of automatic [...]
Congratulations to Florida Gov. Rick Scott for having the wisdom to decline an invitation to attend last week’s “education reform” conference in Hillsborough that involved American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, as well as Florida union officials.
Gov. Scott seems to understand that the teacher unions have absolutely nothing positive to add to his [...]
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, is having trouble adjusting to the new political reality that has settled in throughout much of the country. Reform-minded governors and state legislators are reasserting the public’s ownership of public education, a move that will leave the special-interest unions out in the cold.
As a [...]
