Oppose PA House Bill 855

Franklin Roosevelt said, "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future." This captures so much of what we hope to do as teachers and yet simultaneously absolved us of venturing into matters beyond the classroom. The great lesson of history is that groups endure the most severe injustices when good people fail to rise up or speak out.

PA House Bill 855 is not directly about reducing deficit/debt. This is about power. About taking power from workers, from the people, and placing it even more staunchly in the hands of politicians and corporations. This is not an assault on teacher unions - this is an assault on labor, on the workers who built this country, on the middle-class. It is part of a larger effort to reduce the expectations all Americans have for pensions, health care, and security.

Without seniority, a school that is trying to resolve financial issues could furlough one experienced teacher for every two novice teachers and save nearly equally in financial terms. In turn, schools are able to preserve moderate class sizes and programs which reduces resistance from parents. Governors and lawmakers argue that schools need to be able to adopt business-like policies to be more fiscally responsible. If we believe that assertion, then furloughing experienced teachers - regardless of their effectiveness, is the most cost effective solution with minimal impact on other metrics like class size and program availability. Furloughing any teacher is devastating, but without the security of seniority, experienced teachers will be the first to go and with them goes wisdom, influence, and stability.

We cannot guarantee what the future is like for our youth - but if we don't take action, if we don't cry out in protest, we bear the responsibility for the loss of the future that generations before us have fought so hard to build. This is not just about the loss of your job. This is about the extraction of power from the hands of the people and the coalescing of power in the hands of a few.

We can no longer resign ourselves to only preparing our youth for the future; we must also insure that the future is not stolen from our youth.

Please take action against House Bill #855.

Students Benefit From Depth, Rather Than Breadth, In High School Science Courses

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For years I wondered about my approach to Physics... only getting through mechanics during our block-schedule semester. But this helps support my approach, as does recent feedback from some former students. My only hope would be that more students took a second year of Physics :)

Is Michelle Rhee the new face of education reform? | csmonitor.com

Is Michelle Rhee the new face of education reform? | csmonitor.com

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There are two competing ways of looking at education that need to be reconciled. On one side you have the NCLB/PLC/LFS push for data, measurement, and accountability. On the other side there is Whole Child/Progressive/21stCentury demand for rethinking what really matters in education. Bottom line, we need to better define what success looks like in this massive educational endeavor that supports not only the individual but also democracy.

The key is to utilize teachers as professionals, to treat teachers as professionals, and to inspire great students to become teachers.