One of the most important things we can do is get our message out to the general public. That means getting people who care to write letters and make calls, and it also means spreading positive information to counter all the misleading anti-teacher propaganda being spread. Here are two articles that help do just that. Please share these links on Facebook and Twitter. And if you’re not on Facebook, email them to your friends and relatives who are.
- From the Charlotte Observer: Evidence that public schools AREN’T failing
- From the “Round the Inkwell” blog – Where our schools would rank if Long Island were a state.
- From the Nation: Andrew Cuomo’s “Cure” is worse than the disease
We’re loathe to send traffic to Newsday’s website, but if you haven’t already, you should read these articles for yourself.
- On Sunday, Newsday featured a breathless cover story claiming that most Long Island school district’s evaluation plans were skewed toward teachers. It was a shocking expose in the sense that it was shocking that a supposed news outlet can publish an expose with no evidence to support its primary claim.
- The next day, Newsday announced that, based on it’s own brilliant reporting (hello Pulitzer Committee, are you paying attention?), the Governor is requesting a review of the obviously flawed Long Island teacher evaluations. No word on when he’ll be requesting a review of how teachers also managed to take over the Governor’s body a year ago when he praised the evaluation system, or how these same all powerful teachers managed to infiltrate the State Ed department when they certified the rubric in question as one of the only ones that districts were allowed to use. Not to mention when the State Ed department APPROVED EACH AND EVERY ONE of these supposedly skewed evaluation plans.
- NYSUT president Karen Magee responded quickly to what she referred to as the Governor’s “cluelessness.” With all due respect, though, this isn’t about cluelessness on the Governor’s part. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
And speaking of the Governor, for those who wanted a little more information about New York State’s insane budget process (and why the Governor has so much power over the final budget), this website provides a pretty good summary.
Finally, if you haven’t sent your message to your representative regarding H.R. 5, please do it now.
