Week in Review – June 16, 2017
ABCFT This Week –
End of School Year for Students and Teachers
Congratulations on the closing of another academic year! Today marks the end of the school year for teachers and nurses in ABC. Thank you for all the hard work you do throughout the school year and even in the Summer. Now is the time to reconnect with family and friends, regain your sanity, and prepare mentally for the coming school year. Relax and have fun!
Have an awesome Summer Vacation!
ABCFT Finalizes MOU for CTE Teachers
The ABC Federation of Teachers has been working with District to transition ROP teachers as they become ABC employees. Career Tech Educators (CTE) teach vital strands for ABC students at the secondary level and help to provide pathways to many careers. This week ABCFT leadership and ABCUSD Director of Secondary Schools met with CTE teachers to discuss an MOU that address salary, summer school, health benefits, and scheduling. This agreement is a one year bridge agreement with ABCUSD as we work to put new language in the ABCFT/ABCUSD Master Contract covering specific issue for CTE teachers. Please welcome our new CTE brothers and sisters to the ABC Federation of Teachers.
President’s Report
I attended/worked with members on representations, contract resolutions, site concerns and mediations. I attended a meeting with CTE teachers on Monday to present a MOU that covered transitional bread and butter issues. The negotiating for a new set of unit members is an ongoing task and ABCFT will continue to work on contract language that addresses their working conditions.
This has been another exciting and challenging year for me as president of ABCFT. I would not be able to be effective without the leaders on the ABCFT Executive Board and ABCFT Site Representatives. The huge amount of hours these people donate for the common goal of protection and voice for teachers are countless, thank you. A special note of thanks to all of the members of the ABC Federation of Teachers for your guidance, input, critical voices, expert voices, and wisdom. I know that next year ABCFT will continue to provide even better services for the members of Local #2317.
This will be the last Week in Review for the 2016-17 school year. We will resume with our weekly reports in August.
In Unity!
Ray Gaer
ABCFT President
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(ABC Federation of Teachers)
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On our Blog Site @ http://abcteachernews.blogspot.com/
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
AFT on Stanford University’s CREDO Study of For-Profit Charter Schools
WASHINGTON—Statement by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes study, finding that students attending for-profit charter schools have significantly lower academic gains than those attending non-profit charters:
“When you let the market control education, profit wins and children lose. It’s what we’ve seen with vouchers, and this CREDO study confirms that for-profit charter and virtual schools serve the interests of corporations—the CEOs, the shareholders, the owners and those seeking to profit off education. That is fundamentally different from creating opportunity for children, regardless of their needs. Public dollars need to be devoted to public education that is accountable, transparent, and ensures equity for all children.
“This study is consistent with the poor performance of for-profit charters Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pushed in Michigan. Even the CREDO approach, which exaggerates the effects, correctly identified the worst performers. It’s just more evidence that DeVos is pushing an agenda that is fueled by ideology rather than facts and what works for kids.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten on Trump’s Apprenticeship Announcement
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Washington—AFT President Randi Weingarten on President Donald Trump’s executive order and announcement on apprenticeships:
“We believe strongly in apprenticeship programs. They give Americans the opportunity to develop the technical skills and hands-on knowledge they need for the good jobs of today and tomorrow. While we don’t know the contours or details of this order, we are ready to work with anyone, including this administration, to ensure apprenticeship programs—like the ones the building trades have modeled—are high-quality and prevent bad actors from preying on students, and that real investments are made in career and technical education in high schools and community colleges.”
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Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
NATIONAL NEWS
Trump announces expansion of apprenticeship programs
President Donald Trump is to place the expansion of apprenticeship programmes at the centre of his labour policy as the country seeks to fill a record level of open jobs. The administration is committed to “supporting working families and creating a pathway for them to have robust and successful careers”, Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and assistant, said Friday, adding “There has been great focus on four-year higher education, and in reality, that is not the right path for everyone". Nine in 10 Americans who complete apprentice training succeed in gaining employment, and their average starting salary is $60,000 a year, according to the Labor Department.
Two Obama-era student protection rules dropped by Trump administration
Two key rules from the Obama administration that were intended to protect students from for-profit colleges have been suspended by the Trump administration, claiming it will soon start the process to write its own regulations. The move ends changes that would speed up and expand a system for erasing the federal loan debt of student borrowers who were cheated by colleges that acted fraudulently. It also freezes the implementation of key parts of what is known as the gainful employment mandate, which cuts off loans to colleges if their graduates do not earn enough money to pay off their student debt. Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey called the delay a violation of federal law and a “betrayal of students and families across the country who are drowning in unaffordable debt”.
STATE NEWS
California 46th in per pupil spending
According to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, California’s public elementary and secondary schools spent $75.1bn in 2015, well ahead of the $64.8bn spent by New York. Per student, California spent $10,467.. After New York ($21,206) and Alaska ($20,172), the District of Columbia came in third, at $19,396 per student, Connecticut fourth, at $18,377, and New Jersey fifth, at $18,235. Utah spent the least amount per student, at just $6,575. Total U.S. spending on public school education in 2015 was $639bn, according to the data, up from $613bn in fiscal 2014.
Torlakson visits Mexico to promote closer ties
California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson met Mexico’s Secretary of Education Aurelio Nuño this week in an effort to promote closer ties and friendship between the two regions. The two also discussed expanding teacher exchange programs and efforts to help California students if their parents are deported to Mexico. “The national political atmosphere at this time makes it especially important to reiterate the bonds of friendship between California and Mexico”, Torlakson said. About 54% of California students are Latino, and nearly 1.4m are English learners.
The Reporter
DISTRICTS
LAUSD set to have pro-charter majority
A pro-charter majority is set to take over the governing board of the Los Angeles USD. Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez, will ally with two other charter-friendly members on the seven-member board that manages a structure containing 1,300 schools and 735,000 students. The district counts more than 107,000 students enrolled in independent charter schools. Melvoin said: “I’m school-model agnostic,” but countered, “When you have more charters in L.A. than anywhere else in the country, it’s an indictment of a failed status quo.”
The Washington Post
SOCIAL & COMMUNITY
The decline of student summer jobs
The number of US teenagers who have some sort of job while in school has dropped from nearly 40% in 1991 to less than 20 %, an all-time low. Jobs that were once taken by teenagers are increasingly going to underemployed adults, while employers are also unwilling to set work schedules far in advance, making it difficult for teenagers to plan a job around other summer activities. Meanwhile, in upper-middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods, students are doing other things, like playing sports, studying, and following a full schedule of activities booked by their parents.
HIGHER EDUCATION
UCSD science education program to launch this week
A science education program that couples students and faculty from San Diego and Baja California will launch this Friday at UC San Diego. The CaliBaja Education Consortium "will allow researchers and students to work together across borders”. Olivia Graeve, a UC San Diego professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who is leading the effort, said: “Building this connectivity on both sides of the border can promote economic development for the entire region.”
The San Diego Union-Tribune
OTHER
Many feel buyers’ remorse about college experience
A new Gallup report highlights the 'buyers’ remorse' many people in the US feel about college - this despite policymakers' longstanding advocacy of the experience citing data showing that college graduates earn more money over their lifetime, pay more taxes, enjoy better health and are more likely to vote.
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