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Stay on top of all the legislative actions regarding education going on in our state!
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October 7, 2010
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October 7, 2010
Real Facts NC Reveals Real Truth About Real Jobs NC
Trinket magnate Art Pope's anti-public education agenda revealed
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October 1, 2010
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October 1, 2010
Rick Glazier to Receive NCAE President's Award October 7
Sheri Strickland & Governor Hunt Invite You to Join NCAE in Fayetteville on Thursday
NCAE
President Sheri Strickland & Governor Jim Hunt travel to
Fayetteville on Thursday, October 7 to honor Rep. Rick Glazier for his
valiant & innovative work in the 2010 legislative session to provide
funding for every K-12 educator this academic year.
"Every
educator in North Carolina who is employed in 2010-2011 owes it to the
legislative work of Rep. Glazier. Many in the General Assembly wanted
to cut K-12 education to balance the $1 billion deficit. Rick worked on
a solution and he persisted until every K-12 job was saved."
- NCAE President Sheri Strickland
Please Join President Strickland & Governor Hunt
4 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
R. Max Abbott Middle School
590 Winding Creek Road
Fayetteville, NC 28305
Light food & drink will be provided by the Cumberland County Association of Educators.
The
Cumberland County Association of Educators & Cumberland County
Superintendent Dr. Frank Till will also honor the finance work of Ricky
Lopes, Cumberland County Schools Associate Superintendent of Business
Operations.
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September 30, 2010
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September 30, 2010
Senate Majority Leader Nesbitt Warns of Anti K-12 Takeover
Asheville legislator recalls how he lost his seat in 1994 to Charlotte Observer
Sen.
Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt (D-Asheville) is the son of
former teacher & NCAE field staff Mary Cordell Nesbitt. Nesbitt is a
longtime champion of K-12 education in NC, however he warns of
anti-public school forces aiming to take over the General Assembly.
Written by Jim Morrill, Charlotte Observer
He
told the Charlotte Uptown Democrats that changes in election law could
help his party avoid a GOP sweep like the one that surprised Democrats
16 years ago.
"We
know it can happen now," he said at the Levine Museum of the New South.
"That's probably the biggest thing that's different."
Nesbitt,
an Asheville Democrat, also touted new figures that show North Carolina
led the nation in job gains from July to August and ranked fourth in
the country in gains over the last 12 months - numbers that he said
argue for continued Democratic leadership in Raleigh.
Nesbitt
is the second-ranking Democrat in a Senate where Democrats now control
30 of 50 seats. But seven Democratic incumbents are either retiring or
already have gone.
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September 28, 2010
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September 28, 2010
News & Observer Profiles Anti-K-12 Duo Vying for Speaker
Either Thom Tillis or Skip Stam will lead the NC House if GOP gets the majority
According
to the state's political newspaper of record, Representatives Thom
Tillis (R-Mecklenburg) & Skip Stam (R-Wake), both supporters of
privitizing public education in NC, are working to be Speaker of the NC
House.
DPB dug through some of the anti-education/educator legislation sponsored by Representatives Tillis and Stam (click to visit their list of introduced legislation) last session:
HB443 Increase Class Size in Public Schools (fires at least 6,000 teachers from public schools)
HB 831 Oppose Employee Free Choice Act
HB 856 Modify Charter School Law (lifts cap on charter schools)
HB 1116 Home Schoolers Participate in School Sports
(allows home schoolers to play sports at public school without enrolling in that public school)
HB 2068 Repeal Executive Order 45/Employee Reps
(disallows employee representation with management in state government agencies)
The article below, written by Charlotte Observer writer Jim Morrill, was published in the News & Observer/Charlotte Observer on Saturday, September 25.
Rep.
Thom Tillis' cell phone rings to the tune of "Sunshine," an old '70s
protest song that could be the anthem of his campaign to make N.C.
history.
"This old world, she's gonna turn around," sings a voice. "Brand new bells'll be ringing."
The
world Tillis and other Republicans are trying to turn around is the
state legislature. Few are more single-minded in that effort than
Tillis, the second-ranking House Republican.
Seventeen
months ago, the Cornelius businessman quit his job as an IBM management
consultant to devote himself full time to the effort. Since then he has
worn out a set of tires on his Toyota pickup, traveling the state
recruiting candidates and helping them hone issues and raise money.
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September 20, 2010
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September 20, 2010
Anti-Public Schools Trinket Tycoon Hiding Real Truth
Don't let cheap, dollar-store ads fool you, NCAE
Former
GOP legislator Art Pope turned Tea Party benefactor, who acquired his
wealth peddling cheap trinkets, is now trying to sell North Carolina
voters half-truths about legislative friends of K-12 public education.
Anti-public schools advocate
Art Pope has amassed a fortune selling gaud that may shimmer in his
discount stores, but doesn't hold up to the test of time. The same
could be said for his brand of political advertisements, which in this
General Assembly campaign season, includes distorting the truth about
friends of K-12 public education.
"NCAE
is disappointed that Mr. Pope is using NCAE in advertisements to
criticize legislative friends of public education," said NCAE President
Sheri Strickland. "His ads are misleading, untrue, and have gross
omissions that seem to imply that his failed plans would somehow
strengthen public education in North Carolina."
Strickland was
particularly troubled that Pope would criticize Senators John Snow
(Cherokee), Joe Sam Queen (Haywood), Tony Foriest (Alamance), and Rep.
Hugh Holliman (Davidson) for K-12 job loss in 2009 after these budget
writers went to such lengths to save jobs in the 2010-2011 school
year.
The
ads (sponsored officially by the political action committee Real Jobs
NC) also criticizes these legislators for their revenue reform actions
on cigarettes, tobacco, and other temporary taxes to save
18,000 teaching jobs.
"It
is no secret that Pope is opposed to public education and public
educators in North Carolina," said Strickland. "This political
operative has a long history of supporting vouchers, undermining due
process rights for employees, and promoting budgets that would
automatically fire thousands of teachers to balance budgets."
Strickland pointed
to Pope's backing of education voucher interest groups in North
Carolina, and his opposition to a modernization of the North Carolina
tax system.
"Art
Pope would like to do for public education what his chain stores have
done for manufacturing in North Carolina," said Strickland in referring
to the wares Pope sells that were produced outside of the United
States. "He would like to kill K-12 jobs, play partisan politics with
public education, and keep his taxes low so that he can bankroll his
friends' political campaigns."
NCAE
concedes that K-12 education has suffered cutbacks over the last two
years, and many of those cuts were directly targeted in the classroom.
NCAE worked with legislative leaders this past session to put more
resources into the K-12 system and to limit the cuts local
administrators could make to the classroom. "Our
friends in the General Assembly protected K-12 education jobs by using
innovation, creativity, and revenue reform," said Strickland.
Coming Up: DPB Explores Art Pope's Legislative Leadership Dream Team
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September 16, 2010
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September 16, 2010
What's on Your Plate, Educators?
Visit www.ncae.org to learn how you can be a part of the NCAE ESEA Reauthorization Action Day for Change.
We need you to tell your Member of Congress what you want taken off
your plate & changed in this bill, (commonly known as No Child Left
Behind.)
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September 9, 2010
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September 9, 2010
State Board of Education Discusses New Accountability Model
NCAE
President Sheri Strickland and Center for Teaching & Learning
Manager Angela Farthing represent K-12 educators at the State Board of
Education meetings. Click SBE Review to learn about the State Board's discussion of new accountability model, RTTT, and more.
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September 7, 2010
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September 7, 2010
Meet the Governor's New Teacher Advisor: Dawn Shephard Pope
 "Humbled,
inspired and valued," is how Dawn Shepard Pope said she feels about her
new role as Governor Perdue's Teacher Advisor.
She
also says it's her colleagues – particularly NCAE members – who have
provided invaluable background knowledge on which she can base her
conversations and actions when working in this advisory capacity.
A
member of the NCAE and NEA Boards of Directors, Pope admits she is
younger than most who have taken on this role, but said she feels as
though she's been preparing for it all of her life.
"I
remember as a child sitting in the back of Association, school board,
and county commission meeting rooms with my mother," Pope said. "So I
don't feel young in the world of policy and public service." |
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September 2, 2010
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September 2, 2010
Correction: The article featured in DPB today should have been credited to Durham Herald Sun writer Matthew Milliken. DPB appreciates the Durham Herald Sun for bringing this oversight to our attention, an oversight that this writer takes seriously. DPB's policy is to attribute all outside articles, and apologizes for today's error, which was done in haste and while traveling.
-- Brian Lewis
'There are still Durham educators without jobs.'
Durham Association of Educators continues the fight for K-12 jobs
DAE
Pres. Kristy Moore (center) led hundreds of K-12 educators through
downtown Durham this summer to protest pink slips
to local teachers. Days after the rally, the General Assembly found
$129 million to restore K-12 jobs. Not all riffed Durham teachers have
been called back.
DURHAM
-- The head of the Durham Association of Educators publicly criticized
the school system Thursday for rehiring too few teachers who were laid
off earlier this year.
"Though
this new school year brings excitement, it also brings heartache,"
Kristy Moore, the association's president, said during the public
comment period at Thursday night's school board meeting. "There are
still Durham educators without jobs."
Jacqueline
Ellis, the district's assistant superintendent for human resources,
said Tuesday that 102 of about 185 full-time teachers who were laid off
this spring had been rehired. Layoff notices were issued in the spring
due to anticipated cuts in state and local revenue.
Thanks
to lobbying of the Durham Board of County Commissioners and the state
General Assembly, however, the county ended up increasing its school
appropriation, and the county and state both diverted some construction
and capital equipment funds to pay for classroom teachers.
Together,
those budget maneuvers resulted in money for about 185 Durham
instructors. Another 50 or so teaching positions were irrevocably lost;
they mainly involved individuals who had retired or otherwise left the
school system voluntarily. In addition, some 67 full-time central office
workers were cut for budgetary reasons.
Moore's
concern, however, is the more than 80 laid-off teachers who had hoped
to be rehired, if not at their original schools, then somewhere else
locally. She said teachers with clean records have not been able to get
jobs and asserted that principals have not followed the procedures the
district set up for hiring.
Unemployed elementary school teacher Bethany
Banks spent a week this summer in Washington, DC, successfully lobbying
Congress for $300 million in K-12 jobs money. Banks' lobbying will
bring over $6 million to Durham Public Schools this fall yet Banks is
still unemployed?
Bethany
Banks, who was laid off from Y.E. Smith Elementary, spoke after Moore.
"I plead and I stand before you and ask for understanding as to why
displaced teachers have not been hired over new hires," she told the
school board. "I am a dedicated teacher and would like nothing more than
to return to Durham Public Schools."
There was no direct response to either Moore or Banks during the meeting.
Afterward,
Superintendent Eric Becoats said that the district had followed the
hiring procedures it had set forth. Not all schools were given the same
number of teachers as they had lost and principals were given the
discretion to hire different types of teachers as they saw fit, he
noted. That meant some positions had to be filled with individuals with
different qualifications than at least some of those who had been laid
off.
Becoats
said that the district had met with the Association of Educators to
explain the situation and would be happy to meet again if clarification
were needed.
In
July, Moore said she had been told that laid-off teachers would get
first dibs on jobs with Durham Public Schools. At the time, Ellis said
laid-off teachers were not guaranteed re-employment but she expected
they would get most available jobs.
The
district has reserved some teaching positions to be filled around the
beginning of September, after school enrollments and course demands have
become clear. Minnie Forte-Brown, the school board chairwoman,
suggested Friday that Banks might be able to find work in the next round
of hiring.
"We
have to make sure that we supply the district with the teachers that
are needed," Forte-Brown said, "and that comes after the 10th [school]
day. ... Teachers are going to be hired."
But
even if virtually all of the remaining jobs go to laid-off individuals,
40 or more former Durham Public Schools educators would remain out of
work.
***
Editor's Note: DPB spoke with DAE President Moore yesterday.
This is a fast developing story and DPB will keep you posted.
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August 30, 2010
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August 30, 2010
Superintendent, Administrators Took Pay Cut to Save Jobs
Iredell-Statesville
school superintendent Brady Johnson, an NCAE member, took a 2% pay cut
along with all principals and assistant principals to save jobs. The
article below was originally published in The Learning Curve, a new publication for NCAE Association Representatives.
Written by Karen Archia, NCAE Public Relations & Media Coordinator
As
superintendent of Iredell-Statesville schools during these tough
economic times, Brady Johnson has made lots of difficult decisions. But
he wants educators to know that he sees real human beings behind the
budget numbers and recognizes the central importance of the classroom
teacher. He’s a former teacher in the Iredell-Statesville school system –
a 20-year veteran.
So
when it came down to crunch time for the 2009-10 school year, Johnson,
along with all principals and assistant principals in the district chose
a 2 percent pay cut to help save jobs. "Our goal was to have minimal
impact on the classroom," Johnson said. It wasn’t a lot of money, but we
felt like it did two things: it put emphasis on teaching positions and
was leadership by example.
In
the end, Iredell-Statesville ended up cutting 145 positions, but we did
it all through attrition; we haven’t laid off a single person. I’m
proud of our team effort." Overall, Johnson emphasizes how teamwork and
authentic relationships help students and the school system succeed.
DPB to be Published Twice a Week (ok, maybe 3 times)
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