Friday, February 18, 2011

Disruption in education

I'm cheering union supporters in Wisconsin who are protesting their governor's plan to strip public employees of bargaining rights. The excuse is the current budget crisis, but clearly public employees rights to collective bargaining are under attack. President Obama is quoted as saying that this legislation "seems like more of an assault on unions" in an interview on a Milwaukee television station. (http://usat.ly/eCvPV0) Without the right to bargaining workers have no say in working conditions - conditions that go beyond salary and benefits. Since Governor Scott here in Florida has been making the same noises about public employees, those of us in education are watching the Wisconsin situation closely. I'm putting this current climate alongside all of those who are calling for disruption in education. I'm wondering if in some cases "disruption" is code for "get rid of collective bargaining", "pay those teachers less money since they are all left-leaning Democrats anyway", "take out the public school system in the USA to get women out of the workplace and back in the home where they belong homeschooling their children..."

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