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The June Newsletter
Despite the end of school and the onset of summer, June proved to be a jam-packed month with lots of exciting developments for teachers and support staff across Louisiana.
Tell Your Legislators To Give Teachers and Support Staff a Raise!
On March 13, 2019 the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) approved a K-12 funding plan that designates $101 million dollars to reoccurring pay raises for teachers and school support employees. This could mean an extra $1000 for teachers and $500 for support employees and a first step towards getting Louisiana to the Southern Regional Average, but it isn't over yet: This legislative session our representatives and senators will vote whether or not to approve this funding plan.
EdWeek blogger: NAEP must get standards right
Here’s a damning report from Education Week blogger Marc Tucker that rings true in Louisiana as well as many other states: “From the beginning, the leaders of our state education systems have invited testing experts to help them set the cut points for passing or not passing the state tests. They listen gravely to the advice of the experts, then ask them how many students will fail at the recommended cut point and set a new one at a point that is politically tolerable.”
Tucker writes as the Nation’s Report Card’s governing board sets out to write new proficiency standards. He is president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, and he believes that current NAEP standards do not align to real-world college and career readiness. That, he says, must change.
Appeals Court okays union recognition in charter schools
(New Orleans – September 25) Louisiana’s charter schools must recognize and bargain with unions if that is the desire of teachers and school employees, according to a unanimous ruling by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The September 21 ruling by a three-judge panel affirmed a decision by the National Labor Relations Board, asserting that the International High School of New Orleans violated the National Labor Relations Act when the group holding the school’s charter refused to recognize the school’s bargaining unit.
Billionaires and privatizers hijack Louisiana elections
In the last two election cycles, out-of-state billionaires, hedge fund managers and school privatizers have poured millions of dollars into Louisiana school elections.