Yes, Fox "News" is calling the ruling; the 'shot that could be heard around the nation', pretending to believe and spreading the lie that this attack on teachers and unions is anything but the ongoing assault on teachers and a furthering of the war on unions for the purpose of turning education into another commodity to be milked for profit, another avenue into the trea$ury for special interests; testing industry etc.
Calling it "ground breaking. You bet. Finagling a ruling that finds something, anything about unions as unconstitutional - yes that is the profiteers goal.
Fox actually attempting to have us believe it is a good thing for minorities; and that underfunded schools are a concern of these so called"conservatives". That this ruling is protecting minority families in poorly funded schools from "discrimination":
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu said that the laws governing job security were unconstitutional because they harmed predominantly low-income, minority students by allowing incompetent instructors to remain in the classroom.
The protections "impose a real and appreciable impact on students' fundamental right to equality of education," he wrote. "The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience."
Again yes, it does "shock the conscience",
though it probably shouldn't anymore, to hear this disingenuous concern coming from the right with
out-right joy, not because minorities and/or low-income area schools will be helped by this, but because they won't, special interest investors will. Public Education suffers another weakening blow and a teachers voice has been lessened again, and that usually means less pay soon to follow.
After the pounding Fox and friends/republicans have done to minorities for many years now taken with the slashing of funding for public schools, GOP presidential hopefuls vowing to end the Department of Education; this is sickening to witness. The privatization for profit greed driven hypocrisy and lying is beyond words.
The thrust of the courts decision which aligned with private for profit "interests" was that low income families and minorities were hurt by teachers union rules of tenure. That union rules produced unqualified teachers that were "grossly ineffective" - a lie. The expert cited in the judges ruling never made that statement or description.
Union leaders and other critics faulted the outcome.
"This is a sad day for public education," said Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers. No student should endure an ineffective teacher, "but in focusing on these teachers who make up a fraction of the workforce, [Treu] strips the hundreds of thousands of teachers who are doing a good job of any right to a voice."
(short ad - sorry)
link to MSNBC:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/...
This ruling is based on non-facts. A number pulled out thin air. Wrong information that the Judge cited in determining the basis of his/her ruling. A number it turns out came from..
Nowhere, it turns out. It’s made up. Or a “guesstimate,” as David Berliner, the expert witness Treu quoted, explained to me when I called him on Wednesday. It’s not based on any specific data, or any rigorous research about California schools in particular. “I pulled that out of the air,” says Berliner, an emeritus professor of education at Arizona State University. “There’s no data on that. That’s just a ballpark estimate, based on my visiting lots and lots of classrooms.” He also never used the words “grossly ineffective.”
Also. the expert who was cited in the ruling
(who I am not targeting here, nor the students or families who brought the case and maybe not even the judge - I don't know him/her) stated that low scores do NOT necessarily qualify someone as a
bad teacher.
So now teachers unions tenure rules have been ruled unconstitutional (pending appeal) on a fabrication.
The fact is teachers need better pay and schools need adequate funding from a single source spread evenly across the land where no one has to be rich to have access to the very best education, and why not, as it was in the past when the average person could go to school through college for very little money?
How about education through college as a right and for free? We'd be a better country - imo - if we made that move
With more information here: Will California's Ruling Against Teacher Tenure Change Schools?
Rep. Keith Ellison and others have been fighting back:
The Adjunct Revolt: How Poor Professors Are Fighting Back
P.S. I'm no teacher and don't know much about this topic, but I've heard and read Diane Ravitch and what is needed is adequate funding not privatization for profit. Nor private for profit schools with a curriculum determined by a f'cking corpo board of directors, teaching our children not to think and to be curious and intellectually adventurous, but to take tests and grow up valuing scores, profit margins, bottom lines like more corpo thieves.
This is what republicans do. Just like "voter fraud". A lie. The only fraud is themselves.
Republicans are constitutionally unfit to serve in any office requiring honesty, skill, or intelligence. That opinion of mine is far closer to fact than anything I've heard from most any republican in years
GOP, the party of talking parasites
- end of rant - and Thx for putting up with it - arrrgh
Update from Diane Ravitch Blog: GOOD NEWS: NC Court Overturns State Law Ending Tenure
North Carolina Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood ruled that the state’s effort to eliminate teacher tenure was unconstitutional.
So, once again it is the pseudo conservative RWNJ Fox crowd that is unconstitutional
- good deal :)
P.S. sorry I'm a bit behind on this Diary. I just heard the story and hadn't yet heard the news that another ruling that undermined teachers and unions has been overruled:
Superior Court Judge Robert H. Hobgood ruled this morning that the state’s repeal of teacher tenure, also known as “career status,” and the 25 percent contract system that would award temporary employment contracts to those who relinquish their tenure, are both unconstitutional. Hobgood issued a permanent injunction.
P.P.S. It's late now, so I won't be around 'til tomorrow - Thx for stopping by