The Education Wars

California's Arnold Schwarzenegger decides to declare war on his state's public schools by using the big, bad unions as easy targets.

Naturally, there is the usual hogwash about "merit pay" and nothing about the assholes who run the individual schools and school districts.

Already hopelessly politicized and corrupt districts will be even more so.

I looked over at the WCSD site, although I just cringe at the thought I ever tried to work for such a crooked outfit, and noticed the district is hiring for a few teachers, but I note the influence of the new superintendent on how they are hiring teachers, especially in subverting post-probationary/tenure regulations and finding a way to make sure people never get vested in PERS:

All individuals not currently on a standard contract with Washoe County School District, will be hired as day-to-day teachers until it is determined on or around count day in late September that the allocation can continue. If it is determined that the allocation can continue, the teacher will then be placed in a One Year Only contract, if eligible. Current standard-contracted half-time teachers may be hired at another school as a transfer, however, they will be considered half-time standard/half-time day-to-day until after count day as described above.

Individual selected into this position must be Highly Qualified for this assignment or complete a plan of action to achieve ASAP Highly Qualified status.

This is all Superintendent Morrison's idea, someone with only four years' experience as a classroom teacher and an Eli Broad "Academy" graduate to boot; this per-diem shit was rarely if ever used previously, and one-year-only contracts were used only in cases of a regular teacher's leave of absence or grant-funded positions. I suppose the dipshit union went along with this atrocity.

The state budget problem is being used as an excuse for mistreating teachers, putting new hires on temporary contracts, or tossing them out of the system altogether, just as I was thrown out on my ass because the district's crooks didn't want to pay my full retirement benefits. Never mind kids need classroom stability because they don't have much stability at home. But public schools are no longer about the kids; it's about protecting power and perks and the bottom line.

Get ready for the revolving-door teacher syndrome to hit every single school district in the United States.