tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post5117621770636911469..comments2023-12-24T05:39:44.753-06:00Comments on Mike Klonsky's Blog: More unqualified teachers assigned to schools serving poor and minority studentsMike Klonskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02017021676773731024noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post-28641093645095208692014-12-25T06:50:17.992-06:002014-12-25T06:50:17.992-06:00Mike,
The AFT just spent $450,000 to help win the...Mike,<br /><br />The AFT just spent $450,000 to help win the December 5 2014 Jefferson Parish School Board election for a set of pro-union candidates. <br /><br />Jeff Parish is the suburban region that surrounds New Orleans. This parish-wide school district is actually a larger school district than NOLA's public schools, and has become considerably more diverse in the post-Katrina period. It has a booming Hispanic population, and is struggling to put together stronger ESL services to meet the needs of that population. (Latinos are 22% of the district v. 5% in NOLA's public schools.) <br /><br />Here is some coverage of Randi's successful electoral effort in Jeff Parish that might be of interest:<br /><br />http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/12/teachers_union_runoff_candidat.html<br /><br />http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/10/national_teachers_unions_pouri.html<br /><br />Most of the cities have organized teachers, and a good number of the larger suburban parish districts do as well. As a right-to-work state negotiations are more difficult, to be sure, but the idea that there are no unions in LA is incorrect.<br /><br />And organizing is ongoing. Two charter faculties in New Orleans voted to affiliate with teachers' unions recently -- in 2013, progressive Morris Jeff charter school (a teacher- and parent-led charter) voted to affiliate with the Louisiana Association of Educators, the NEA affiliate in the state. <br /><br />LAE represents 20,000 educators in Louisiana, and are based in Baton Rouge. http://www.lae.org/home.aspx<br /><br />The other charter school to unionize is the fairly traditional charter secondary school, Benjamin Franklin High School. BFHS is a highly regarded selective admissions school, not unlike Whitney Young in Chicago. Their faculty vote took place this year and they are going to affiliate with the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO), which is part of the AFT and was the affiliate decimated by the firing of 7,000 unionized teachers and staff after the storm. http://utno.la.aft.org/about-us<br /><br />You should know that AFT has a set of full time organizers in New Orleans working to get more charter faculty members into the union. I've heard there were always 3-5 organizers working here this year. They work out of the UTNO offices.<br /><br />UTNO is part of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, which represents 21,000 teachers across the state and is also based in Baton Rouge. http://la.aft.org/<br />Crescent City Joenoreply@blogger.com