Arne Wields His Dubious Magic

North Carolina has joined seven other states in getting a "waiver" from NCLB. This is bad news for students, parents, and teachers. Wholesale age discrimination under the guise of saving money will be the rule in states that have "waivers." That's because states would have to adhere to the guidelines set forth by Arne's bribe, also known as "Race to the Top."

North Carolina is in the process of gutting its "tenure" law. "Tenure," of course, is NOT lifetime employment in public education but merely civil service protections the same as police and fire personnel.

Nevada has to reapply for the "waiver." Idiot state, but Sandoval's regime has truly been a disaster for public education.

Kenny Guinn must be rolling over in his grave.

The Education Wars

As if we didn't know this would be one of the results of No Child Left Behind.
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Some sage advice from a Nevada educator talking about the absolutely shitty school system there. It isn't just confined to Clark County or even to Nevada: bad administrators and ineffective unions are rampant throughout the United States.

It is indeed a crapshoot whether a teacher survives in public schools. One rotten, sociopathic principal, and it's all over, not just in Nevada but in every school district in the entire United States. You are blackballed and prevented from ever teaching again.

A snip:

First, the average annual teacher salary, roughly $46,000, is about half what police officers and firefighters make. In the first three years of this decade, as prices were tripling here, teachers received 0 percent (zero) in cost-of-living increases. In fact, teachers' cost-of-living raises for the entire decade have totaled only 16 percent, while police and firefighters have gotten between 35 and 45 percent.

In this derelict academic climate, psychopathic principals have frequently run rampant to create "lasting wounds and damaged schools," to quote Jo and Joseph Blase, co-authors of the book Breaking the Silence. According to one study cited by the Blases, 40 percent of principals nationally are knuckle-dragging troglodytes. In Vegas, this figure is probably closer to 60 percent. Hence, getting in a school here with a good principal is a crapshoot. The odds are stacked against you.

In a revealing speech to our school board recently, Ruben Murillo, president of the local teachers union, said, "We ask teachers to speak up [about working conditions], and they can't because they're afraid of retaliation." Sadly, Murillo's statement was a tacit admission the union has consistently failed its job of protecting teachers from unethical administrators.

One must understand, however, these "unions" aren't real unions at all and are nothing more than subsidiaries of school districts. And the problems with teachers' unions are the same all over the United States.