by Jesse Hagopian
“Raise the threat level to a code red,” they cry out.
From Baghdad to D.C., a growing chorus of a-tonal anti-union executives around the world (the only choir that may be left after all the public school budget cuts) are asserting that the teacher union menace must be neutralized.
In Iraq, Paul Bremer (as former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority) threw out most of Saddam’s legal code but kept the 1987 Decree No. 150 that made it illegal for employees in the public sector to have a union or negotiate over the terms of their labor. This opened the door for the Iraqi government’s inharmonious announcement at the end of March, 2009 that it intended to dissolve the Iraqi Teachers’ Union (ITU)-a move sure to make Washington, D.C. public school chancellor Michelle Rhee’s cheeks flush with excitement.
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Washington lawmakers absent on school support
Special to The Seattle Times – by Jesse Hagopian
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009167556_opinb04jhagopian.html
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NO one ever said teaching middle school would be easy.
Last week, however, truly tried my patience. You’d think, by this time in the school year, they’d know not to fabricate elaborate excuses for incomplete work.
No, I am not ranting about unruly students in my third period.
I’m referring to delinquent Washington state lawmakers who approved a two-year operating budget in this past legislative session that fails students and teachers by cutting a staggering $800 million from a school system that already ranks 45th in the nation in per-pupil spending. The bulk of the cuts come from voiding Initiative 728, the voter-approved class-size-reduction initiative designed to address our class-size ranking of 46th in the nation.
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