Rank and file educators will gather outside of the DCPS central office on Thursday, September 24, starting at 4:00 p.m. to protest teacher layoffs. We request that other laid off and terminated government employees, parents, students, city workers, residents, community activists, local leaders and the media join us in taking a stand for our teachers, students, and schools. We are baffled that Chancellor Rhee hired over nine hundred new teachers this summer, and that only one month into the school year announced that — due to a budget shortfall — she will make imminent teacher layoffs prior to the start of the fiscal year. Please join the rank and file this Thursday as we protest Rhee: The Teacher Terminator.
Posted by The Washington Teacher
Posted by The Washington Teacher
13 comments:
My teacher colleagues and I will be there!
I am applauding this effort! I am so glad that an organized stand has been planned! I really want to be there but I am on medical bedrest. I will be there in spirit and my prayers will go out to you all!
Great idea to stage a protest. Keep up the hard work. I know you may think it is a thankless job but many teachers are noticing what you are doing.
I really do not think all this is necessary. If you are doing your job then, you have no reason to be laid off. I work in a DCPS School and there are several teachers that do absolutely nothing all day. They are doing the students a disservice and then you wonder why the the kids can't read. If I were to be RIF'd tomorrow, I would say ok and move on with my life. I know I am doing the best possible job a qualified teacher can. I am so tired of this we going to get RIF'd. I think those are the teachers who have sat on their behinds and collected a big fat pay check to sit back and ridicule the students. I find it rather humorous that you now have teachers in the classroom that can't even put a lesson plan together after 2o years of teaching. They should have left the system 2o years ago and for that matter not even hired. I am not going out there to PROTEST if I don't have a job, then I must not have been effective. This is just the beginning, so for all those who are not following DC policies and procdures, that's where you are going to get hit next. Use of the computer, not entering STARS, not using the recommened assessments and a plethora of others things that the lazy ones refuse to do because they are against change. I would love to see the day when I walk into any DC school and the kids are actively engaged in the learning process. I work my butt off everyday with my students and yet you have some teachers- In CORE CONTENT AREAS that don't even identify or make the connect to teach. It's a shame and it's about time the system changes. That's just my two cents.
I will be there, and am spreading the word.
Great job Candi. If there is anything that I can do to assist please don't hesitate to ask. You should run for President as you have the knowledge, savy, and werewithall, to take WTU back to its prior prominence. If only we could get teachers to ban together and be like-minded in some areas, we could get our foe to retreat. There must be U-N-I-T-Y.
I will be there and am spreading the word.
Hope others are doing the same.
As a NYC public school teacher and parent, I want to commend you for your courage in informing people about the crimes that are taking place in DC, and helping to organize resistance.
What Rhee is attempting to do to teachers, students and public education in Washington is the point of the spear of what all of us will be facing soon: the privatization and commodification of everything, schools, Social Security, water, and even the gene pool (check out The Nation's recent article about the Gates' Foundation's efforts to make the world safe for Monsanto and GMOs).
Unfortunately, the AFT is hopelessly compromised at this point, so we must lead on our own. This blog helps show the way.
I hear now the union wants to have a rally after hundreds a few thousand teachers have been fired. And there were some Idiot teachers who agreed. May as well have a party after everyone is fired. A rally after the firing. WTU is a joke.
Responding to Now You Have To Do Your Job> Obviously you don't have a clue as to what's going on. It appears that you are going along with the establishment. Blaming teachers is always a cop-out for those who don't have the answers as to why "Johnny Can't Read" The reasons are many, some of which have nothing to do with a teacher. Understand that in the DCPS arena, it doesn't matter whether you're great or not. However, it does matter if you're a TFA person. If teaching is all a person has done for the majority of their life, what do you mean "move on"? Let the record show, that reform is needed. However, firing a "significant number of the teaching workforce" is not the answer. Before you give your two cents worth, have ALL the facts.There are LOTS and LOTS of teachers who "Bust their butts"
To "Now you have to do your job" --
If it were a simple matter of competency vs incompetency I wouldn't be going out to protest and I doubt many would.
There are ways to fire the incompetents in your school without calling an across the board RIF in the middle of a school year.
Dear Now You Have Do Your Job
I am glad to hear that you are doing such a fine job. Perhaps you should replace Dictator Rhee.
Keep patting yourself on the back and you will go far in Rhee reign of terror.
There is a major rebellion against the Race to the Top policies in the teachers' union in Detroit, led by BAMN (see bamn.com) member teachers.
The president of the DFT , Keith Johnson, has been working hand in hand with Robb Bobb (appointed pro-charter Czar over DPS) to ram through all the revisions in the teachers' contract required to attract charters and qualify for Race to the Top, and he prevented a traditional vote at the December mass meeting attended by 3000 teachers on the tentative agreement because the majority was against it.
Johnson then basicly cheated to get the contract passed, and as a result we have had about 80 teachers attending weekly caucus meetings to plan how to recall Johnson (we've got about 1400 signatures on a recall petition so far - 400 more than required). The last two DFT membership meetings have had over 400 teachers attending, and Johnson was forced at both meetings to surround himself with gang squad cops, turn off the lights, etc. because the rank and file was demanding that he step down and let them run a democratic meeting. The Feb. 11 mtg should be the trial on the recall charges.
The caucus is running a full slate for convention delegates to challenge Randi Weingarten's leadership of the AFT nationally and bring down the pro-Duncan policies she is advocating. Please email me for the most recent flyer that gives a general description of what is happening and what the caucus stands for and the particular strategies we are using to unravel the contract. Even if we don't succeed at this or that tactic, the overall rebellion is sure to make any charter company think 2,3,4 times about investing in Detroit.
We want to encourage like-minded teachers in AFTand NEA to run for convention delegate (nominations are due next Thursday for AFT delegates) so that we can have a national, united attack against Arne Duncan's policies at this summer's conventions.
For more information see:
www.bamn.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/DFTmembers
Defending Public Education in Detroit
Sincerely,
Donna Stern
BAMN National Coordinator
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