Anonymous wrote:
"New post please! What is Cate Reed up to?
https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/new-pac-descends-on-pittsburgh-public-schools-to-charterize-and-take-over-school-board/ "
Questioner: Are they supporting the existing Board members who are coming up for reelection (Thom, Cynthia, Sylvia, Terry, Carolyn)?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
29 comments:
Not unless Sylvia, Thom, Cynthia, Terry and Carolyn want to close schools and hire TFA teachers who have 5 weeks of training to become teachers.
If you can't get in the front door, try the back door...
The sad part is that if people like this get their way - more charters - fewer inner city public schools - it will hurt a certain portion of the population. There will always be public schools. The students who don't have the wherewithal to get out, will be the ones left behind. They are the very ones who need help the most.
Hopefully the new Superintendent will have ideas how to better our schools - not allow outside groups to diminish them. If these outside groups really wanted to make our schools better, (not bring in TFA) they would put their time and energy behind our school system. It seems they have their own hidden (or not so hidden) agendas.
Let's face it, TFA looks good on a resume for many and that is my problem with it. If a young adult gets out of college with any non-teaching degree and decides teaching is going to be their life-long passion, welcome to the classroom. If it is something to do until a real job comes along or they can commit to something else, or it gives them an opportunity to explore a new community...I am sorry.
"Please see the attached invitation for more details and drop Cate or I a quick email..."
Poor grammar in above comment.
The comment is a direct quote from the email mentioned in the link. It sure would be great to know what motivates these individuals to be so against public education. Jake Wheatley? i am stumped.
7:53
Drop Cate or the'me' of the quote a quick email and ask them.
Ask the same of Jake Wheatley.
7:53
Are you serious? You're stumped? Money is the answer to your question. Ask Jake Wheatey or Esther Bush about the Gates money that went to the Urban Leauge. Then suddenly Wheatley and Bush were going around saying "teacher seniority hurts black children" Follow the money trail.
Public Education is riding the back of the bus. We all know what it takes to not sit there.
The question is whether the next Superintendent can motivate change and make public education front and center.
Wheatley makes $83,338.65/year with a $159/diem. What a gig! The primary is 4/26/16 and his term ends 11/31/16. He has been in there since 2002. Maybe just maybe he won't get reelected.
The Pittsburgh Public Schools should be shut down. It is a wretched environment. Where else do people earn $80,000-$100,000 and feel horribe about themselves, what they do, and how they are treated on an hourly basis? Shut the Union down first. That thing is a McDonald's without buns.
I agree about shutting the Union down. The next step is to clean house at Bellefield. Do away with all the consultants and let the people in the trenches who work with our students on a daily basis run the schools.
Speaking of the Union, what's going on with the contract? Is the Union going to roll over and play dead and just let Bellefield hand them a new contract? We know there is a money surplus so the Board can't use that we're broke card again. What excuses will the Board use this time for taking something away? Meanwhile, Nina and the gang fiddle while Rome burns again.
Post Gazette published an endorsement for Wheatley and mentioned his commitment to education, lol
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2016/04/15/Veteran-choices-Wheatley-and-Gainey-for-the-Dems-in-state-House/stories/201604150043
Okay, first of all, doing away with the union is foolish. I assume whoever wrote that is an anti-union, pro-privatization plant. Without a union l, we'd be in even deeper sh*t than we are now.
Weatley is anti-PPS after the hill district got burned by Roosevelt and Lane. They were all suckered into believing Schenley sucked and they needed a top-notch Hill District school. And what they got was Prep. I'd be disillusioned and pissed too.
It's hard to imagine convincing Hill District leadership that PPS is going to do right by them without a LOT of work on the part of the school district.
I'm not anti-union, but why pay dues and get absolutely nothing in exchange? What exactly is our union doing for its members?
As far as Wheatley is concerned, be part of the solution and not the problem. Work to better PPS, not align with groups to privatize schools. Fight to strengthen public schools.
Hill District leadership is not going to criticize Linda Lane. Period.
They don't have to criticize her. She's leaving. The question is whether or not the next superintendent can bring them around and my guess is that it'll be a challenge.
And to 6:59 who's not anti-union, take your own advice. Be part of the solution. Go to union meetings. Be involved. Voice your dissent. I did and saw change on a fairly big issue a while back. I also was targeted by more than one principal and if it wasn't for the PFT I'd have lost my job. They're not perfect, but they are a reflection of its membership -- us, you and me and the other couple thousand teachers. No one is going to get everything they want. I'm lucky -- I got a couple things over the course of my career, so I can't complain too much.
To 11:50:
You were ONE of the lucky ones regarding the union going to bat for you. Many others weren't so lucky. Has the union been fighting for a new contract or sitting and waiting for whatever the Board offers? I suspect it is the latter. All the targeting, seniority issues, etc. wouldn't have come into play if the union had taken a stand and stood their ground in the beginning. The horse has left the barn and now it's too late - the union is ineffective and in the Board's pocket.
The challenge for the next superintendent and PPS is to educate our kids.
Jack Wheatley does't carry significant enough influence to be a factor one way or the other on the education of the Hill District community and it's children;his tenure can attest to that.
The PG's endorsement of Wheatley was weak and shallow.
oops. Jake not Jack.
Linda Lane is about to retire. She's punting the contract to the next superintendent. That should be obvious.
is Sylvia Wilson up for re-election? what has she done for Westinghouse School students and families of Homewood she failed the district represented never talks about what good things happen at Westinghouse yet always give praise to good things of other school board members that's a shame yet have Homewood Children Village there do she know what they do for students at Westinghouse NOTHING but yet support paying them
with Homewood residents TAX PAYERS DOLLARS $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
YES!!! Follow the money!
PACs are routinely used to help influence issues relating to schools- and have been for years. For example over $4M was collected and spent in the 2014 election by cycle by the following Political Action Committees from taxpayer funded public unions:
Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA-PACE) $2,711,333
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) $288,676
American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania (AFT-PA) $33,300
American Federation of Teachers (Washington, DC - National) $1,057,315
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers (PFT Pol Action Fund) $56,438
Total $4,113.762
Cate Reed is truely the wrong person to be involved in anything to do with education. At a meeting, several years ago, she all but snapped when I asked her to explain the educational plan she was there to explain. After she talked around a non-answer, three separate times, she became furious and claimed I was badgering her. Several parents thanked me after the meeting because they had no idea what Reed was saying either! Soon after, I was 'mysteriously' shut out of the district's email system!
Several years ago Reed snapped at a group of Schenley teachers who pressed her about unfair and not sound decisions about placement of Schenley teachers as Obama grew. Her lack of professionalism and lack of respect for teachers made it impossible to work with her in any constructive way.
https://dianeravitch.net/2016/04/26/tfa-goes-global-destroying-the-teaching-profession-and-unions-worldwide/
Yes TFA is invading other countries- cause torturing America is not enough!
Post a Comment