Education News Roundup for June 21, 2012

By Mark Peterson, on June 21st, 2012

Today’s Top Picks:

State Auditor’s Office releases its report on Timpview High football program.
http://goo.gl/0YsZ5 (SLT)
and http://goo.gl/NxXaq (DN)
and http://goo.gl/1AA7b (PDH)
and http://goo.gl/SC6gE (KSL)
or a copy of the audit
http://goo.gl/1lRSj

Census report out today leaves Utah dead last in per-pupil funding in the U.S.
http://goo.gl/vblEv (SLT)
and http://goo.gl/o7cq7 (Syracuse, NY, Post-Standard)
or a copy of the report http://goo.gl/034xi

Happy birthday, Title IX.
http://goo.gl/9W2Zh (USAT)
and http://goo.gl/JlPYq (AP)
and http://goo.gl/bN6cN (CSM)
and http://goo.gl/fdoLi (ESPN)

International Baccalaureate program creates a career pathways initiative.
http://goo.gl/UTuV0 (Ed Week)

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TODAY’S HEADLINES
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UTAH

Bill to fix $25M budget error passes; uncertainty over high school assessment remains

Audit: More inappropriate practices, funds missing at Timpview Football » State auditor’s office anticipates more reviews of school athletics finances.

Utah may take its lands battle to Congress, not courts
HB148 » But state is getting its legal team assembled just in case.

Rampton: “To Declare War on the Federal Government” Not the Best Way to Settle Public Lands Issue

Utah still ranks last in per student spending Education » In 2010, Utah spent $6,064 per student, less than half of top spending U.S. district.

Utah companies renew plea for more skilled workers Jobs » Manufacturers tell lawmakers shortage is obstacle to success.

Utah Regents to select new higher ed boss

Weber School District seeks support on bond issue

Pay, teacher morale issues for Ogden School Board candidates

‘Green Speedo’ officer reinstated in Provo as patrol officer

WVC files charges against mother who prompted Amber Alert

Police, school faculty conduct drill with armed intruder scenario

50 worst-scoring high schools in Utah

Two Sanpete youth attend boys state

OPINION & COMMENTARY

An auditor without aggression

Education should be based on research

Legislature fixes error

Capitol Daily Memo: “backwater” – Utah public lands bill or “extreme” environmentalism?

STEM: Why It Makes No Sense

Notes From the Education Underground
A ‘radical’ reform goes mainstream, but New York State retreats.

Title IX at 40 needs more work

GAO and George Miller Don’t Understand How Special Education Works

Freakonomics Goes to School and Teaches Us the Right Way to Bribe Kids The case for putting $20 bills on the desk of every standardized test taker

NATION

40 years after Title IX, women still lag in tech fields

IB Program Adds Career-Pathway Certificate Initiative geared toward diverse student population

Supreme Court Says Unions Can’t Bill Non-Members For Political Spending

21 Idaho districts unilaterally set contracts for teachers

Orleans Parish school firings after Hurricane Katrina were contract violations, judge rules

Video of bus monitor Karen Klein being bullied goes viral, raises thousands of dollars

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UTAH NEWS
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Bill to fix $25M budget error passes; uncertainty over high school assessment remains

SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to fix a $25 million error in the public education budget blew through a special session of the Legislature with near-unanimous support Wednesday.
SB4003 received only one opposing vote, clearing the House 65-0 and the Senate 26-1.
Lawmakers also abandoned efforts to address two other education bills that would have dealt with early intervention and college-readiness testing.
Amendments to the 2012-13 education budget was the first item on Gov. Gary Herbert’s call for a special session. In April, education officials discovered that an accounting error had resulted in the budget being underfunded by $25 million dollars.
Sen. Aaron Osmond, R-South Jordan, sponsored SB4003, which addressed the budget shortfall by using leftover balances from previous academic years, as well as unappropriated funds from the 2013 General Fund and Education Fund. The bill called for $16 million of unused funds from 2011, $4.5 million from 2012, $2.9 million of unappropriated funds from the 2013 education fund and $1.9 million from the 2013 general funds.
http://goo.gl/APYZS (DN)

http://goo.gl/L0LXC (SLT)

http://goo.gl/NANfp (DN)

http://goo.gl/DCl88 OSE)

http://goo.gl/ps8xj (PDH)

http://goo.gl/6hk6N (UPD)

http://goo.gl/vg4kv (CVD)

http://goo.gl/lVssJ (SGS)

http://goo.gl/K9E23 (SGN)

http://goo.gl/EEF8z (KUTV)

http://goo.gl/TCZxx (KTVX)

http://goo.gl/L7RHd (KSL)

http://goo.gl/o1nNb (KSTU)

http://goo.gl/P7tzq (KCPW)

http://goo.gl/jdHCK (KUER)

http://goo.gl/nAkvl (MUR)

Audit: More inappropriate practices, funds missing at Timpview Football » State auditor’s office anticipates more reviews of school athletics finances.

Another state audit into Timpview High School’s finances has discovered thousands of dollars in unaccounted football revenue, inappropriate use of school funds, and a lack of oversight by the Provo City School Distict on major school construction projects.
The Utah State Auditor’s Office released the report Wednesday. It casts as much of a harsh light on Timpview and Provo district policies as on ex-football coach Louis Wong, who resigned earlier this month after being suspended and going through a lengthy appeals process.
The auditor’s primary findings, based on records between May 2006 and February 2012, included:
• At least $8,953 in football revenue was never deposited with the school.
• More than $60,000 was inappropriately mixed in Booster Club accounts, and the school still is owed $2,900.
• Wong held a football camp at Timpview and received $1,060 for the cost of food, although the school itself received no revenue.
• The school district did not properly apply regular procedures and oversight to four major construction projects, including the $400,000 football turf and the $750,000 weight room projects, deferring to donors.
• School district procedures vary widely throughout the state, which leads to confusion.
The audit recommends that the school, district and the Utah State Office of Education strengthen their financial policies and procedures for more oversight.
http://goo.gl/0YsZ5 (SLT)

http://goo.gl/NxXaq (DN)

http://goo.gl/1AA7b (PDH)

http://goo.gl/SC6gE (KSL)

A copy of the audit
http://goo.gl/1lRSj

Utah may take its lands battle to Congress, not courts
HB148 » But state is getting its legal team assembled just in case.

Utah is assembling a team of legal experts to plan its potential court battle for control of federal lands in the state, the governor’s top public lands adviser told lawmakers Wednesday.
The Herbert administration is assembling a round table of the “best and brightest” to discuss legal strategy and will seek to get other states on board with similar efforts, Public Lands Policy Coordination Office Director Kathleen Clarke told the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee.
The result could be an effort to sway Congress to cede lands before a court battle, and Clarke said some of the state’s team will travel to Washington next week to address the Congressional Western Caucus.
http://goo.gl/Xkm6m (SLT)

Rampton: “To Declare War on the Federal Government” Not the Best Way to Settle Public Lands Issue

State lawmakers received an update today on the progress of a study required by House Bill 148, a law passed this year calling for the federal government to relinquish control of its public lands to Utah by the end of 2014. Attorney Vince Rampton, who’s the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor this election year, told the committee the legislation is a violation of the constitution’s supremacy clause, as well as the state’s eminent domain code.
“I’m not quarreling with the idea that federal lands could be better managed, state lands could be better managed, trust lands could be better managed, all lands could be better managed. That’s not a question,” said Rampton. “The question is how we go about it in the best way. I believe the best way is not to declare war on the federal government, draw a line in the sand, and say by the end of 2014 you hand these back or you get sued.”
Rampton called on lawmakers to continue to take a “rational and measured approach” with their counterparts in Congress. However, some lawmakers, including Republican Representative Mike Noel, took exception to Rampton saying the federal agencies that control public lands take their responsibilities seriously.
http://goo.gl/jXqiz (KCPW)

Utah still ranks last in per student spending Education » In 2010, Utah spent $6,064 per student, less than half of top spending U.S. district.

A U.S. Census report released Thursday ranked Utah dead last on money spent per student in 2010: $6,064.
Washington, D.C., by comparison, was the top spending district at $18,667.
For years, Utah has consistently ranked among the states that spend the least per student. According to the new report, the state was more than $1,000 below the next lowest spender: Idaho ($7,106). Arizona ($7,848) and Oklahoma ($7,896) were the other lowest spending states.
After D.C., the highest ranked states were New York ($18,618), New Jersey ($16,841), Alaska ($15,783), Vermont ($15,274) and Wyoming ($15,169).
http://goo.gl/vblEv (SLT)

http://goo.gl/o7cq7 (Syracuse, NY, Post-Standard)

A copy of the report
http://goo.gl/034xi

Utah companies renew plea for more skilled workers Jobs » Manufacturers tell lawmakers shortage is obstacle to success.

Representatives of three manufacturing companies told a legislative panel Wednesday that although their industry is making a decent turnaround from the recession, the biggest hurdle they continue to face is finding skilled workers.
An interim committee of the Legislature had asked the officials to appear to address steps the state could take to remove barriers and encourage success and growth. In general, it was told that Utah is an attractive place to do business but that there are obstacles.
Spencer Eccles, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, said Utah’s manufacturing industry has been on an upswing, citing data from the National Association of Manufacturers that show 118,900 workers are employed this year in the sector (9.4 percent of Utah’s total workforce), compared with 111,100 in 2010.
The number will grow, so long as businesses can find skilled labor in Utah — or get it elsewhere.
Paul Whitlock, director of planning for IM Flash Technologies in Lehi, said his company hired 59 percent of about 100 new workers from outside Utah last year.
“Kids in school don’t aspire to do this,” Whitlock said. “We need to inspire them and make them excited.”
http://goo.gl/53b9a (SLT)

Utah Regents to select new higher ed boss

Members of the Utah State Board of Regents on Thursday are privately interviewing finalists hoping to succeed William Sederberg as commissioner of higher education.
The governor-appointed panel, which oversees higher education policy in Utah, is expected to convene in public at 2:30 p.m. to announce who will guide the state’s eight-campus system of public colleges and universities. Under a recently enacted law, the appointment is subject to the approval of the Utah Senate.
Regents launched a nationwide search in January for a new commissioner shortly after concluding their search for a new president for the University of Utah. Regents also have a nationwide presidential search for Weber State University underway.
The number and the names of commissioner finalists have not been disclosed, but they were selected from a short list of nine candidates from around the nation, including Utah, according to Regents spokeswoman Pamela Silberman.
http://goo.gl/832W7 (SLT)

Weber School District seeks support on bond issue

OGDEN — The Weber School District’s proposed $65 million bond issue, which would allow the district to build five new schools and update two existing schools, hasn’t drawn much opposition.
The district scheduled two public hearings, but no members of the public showed up to ask questions or share concerns. District officials have spoken about the bond proposal with about 50 community groups, drawing only a handful of negative comments from those in attendance.
http://goo.gl/fGTpv (OSE)

Pay, teacher morale issues for Ogden School Board candidates

OGDEN — In Ogden School District precinct five, incumbent Shane Story faces three challengers in the primary election — J. Scott Handy, Clark Hogan and Jim Hutchins.
Story has been on the board since 2009. Handy, Hogan and Hutchins do not have public service experience, but say they bring fresh ideas to a school district that has struggled with controversy and low student test scores over recent years.
http://goo.gl/YGMMr (OSE)

‘Green Speedo’ officer reinstated in Provo as patrol officer

A Provo City school resource officer terminated for stripping down to a green Speedo at a school birthday party has been reinstated and will now be wearing a holster and a gun around his waist instead.
Former Provo High School resource officer Cody Harris took off his pants during a female co-worker’s birthday party at the school on May 2 to show off green Speedo-style underwear and a green hoodie, according to a hearing report from the Provo Civil Service Commission. Harris wore the outfit to play the part of the frog for the “Princess and the Frog” theme party.
Harris walked to the vice principal’s office and dropped his pants to reveal his backside in the Speedo to the vice principal.
Harris returned to the party. When the principal of the high school walked in, Harris dropped his pants again. That’s when the principal ended the party and told Harris to return to his office, the report states. Harris continued to open his office door to reveal himself wearing only the Speedo and a bulletproof vest throughout the day. At least 10 students and several adults saw some portion of Harris’ actions that day, the report states.
Harris was fired May 10 from the Provo police force for his actions.
http://goo.gl/ZbyvE (SLT)

http://goo.gl/6QkzV (PDH)

http://goo.gl/YC9an (OSE)

http://goo.gl/ZmoR2 (KUTV)

http://goo.gl/VHjuQ (KTVX)

http://goo.gl/OqE1s (KSTU)

http://goo.gl/xl9CA (USN&WR)

WVC files charges against mother who prompted Amber Alert

WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – A Utah woman has been charged after allegedly taking her daughter from a West Valley City elementary school in March.
38-year-old Venus Barker allegedly walked into Silver Hills Elementary in West Valley City on March 9, grabbed her 10-year-old daughter Aliyah Crowder – Barker is Crowder’s non-custodial biological mother – and left the school.
The incident prompted an Amber Alert. Barker, Crowder and another person were found in northern Utah and Crowder was safely returned home.
http://goo.gl/f09wo (KSTU)

http://goo.gl/MTNCP (DN)

Police, school faculty conduct drill with armed intruder scenario

SANDY — Every school conducts drills to prepare for a fire emergency. But not many schools go through drills like the one Monday where the scenario of a gunman inside a school was played out.
The Canyons School District invited police and school employees to Alta High School to participate and coordinate themselves as a team in the event of a Columbine-like crisis.
http://goo.gl/ce3IO (KSTU)

50 worst-scoring high schools in Utah

Here is a look at the lowest-scoring high schools in Utah, according to the state’s criterion-referenced tests, or CRT.
The CRT tests gauge student performance and shows which schools are performing better than others in scores.
The rankings are based on the percentages of students who have passed CRT tests proficiently. The Deseret News averaged language arts, math and science scores together weighed by total students tested in each category to get an overall percentage.
http://goo.gl/8ywzE (DN)

Two Sanpete youth attend boys state

MT. PLEASANT– Two Sanpte County boys, JD Roundy, son of John and Tanya Roundy, Manti; and Garrett Crosby, son of Brian and Cheri Crosby, Mt. Pleasant; attended Utah Boys State, at Weber State University, Ogden, sponsored by the American Legion.
http://goo.gl/0dbEa (PDH)

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OPINION & COMMENTARY
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An auditor without aggression
(Provo) Daily Herald commentary by columnist Randy Wright

Who would have thought that the most interesting and locally important race of the 2012 political season would be … State Auditor? That’s the one between Auston Johnson (a CPA first elected in 1995) and his challenger, state Rep. John Dougall (an MBA). What makes the race interesting and important is the unfolding financial scandal at Timpview High School (Link to latest story and related stories here). It’s a colossal case of auditing failure whose tentacles now appear to engulf schools across the whole state.
Bottom line question is whether the State Auditor should sit back and wait until scandal breaks to get involved, or whether his constitutional role requires him to intervene early to identify — and solve — problems in the handling of public money. Case in point: Timpview. On the State Auditor’s website (sao.utah.gov) you will find rows of neatly finished independent audit reports relating to Provo City School District that include a lot of unchallenged boilerplate. Over and over again, the reports include rubber-stamp statements like, “In our opinion, the Provo City School District, complied in all material respects” with good financial practices and “No instances of non-compliance noted” in categories like cash management, purchasing and public debt.
Don’t choke on your Cheerios. The statements are laughable.
http://goo.gl/MmOky

Education should be based on research
(St. George) Spectrum op-ed by Glenn Mesa of St. George

There are several things upon which any Utahn can count: travel delays due to road construction or repairs, 80 percent of registered Washington County Republicans voting straight party and Utah politicians will attempt to solve problems by looking either to business for answers or following national trends.
One such trend is the effort to dismantle public education, using teachers as whipping boys. Who is leading this charge?
In Utah, teacher seniority is gone. Tenure (which only ensures due process) is dangling. Vouchers merely found back-door entry through its surge in new charter schools, draining the General Education Fund. Union-busting efforts erupted last July in Ogden. Then there’s the “grading” of public schools and teacher evaluations based on test scores.
http://goo.gl/kDDqS

Legislature fixes error
Commentary by Charter Solutions President Lincoln Fillmore

In a special legislative session called for the purpose, yesterday the Legislature increased funding for public education by $25 million. The increase was necessary because of an error in data provided to the Legislature by the State Office of Education that understated projected enrollment.
But I wonder how big of an error this really was. In order to plug the “hole,” lawmakers took “$16 million of unused funds from 2011 [and] $4.5 million from 2012.” So, 80 percent of the “error” was fixed because of what can be considered an “error” from previous years’ appropriations.
http://goo.gl/qSJhZ

Capitol Daily Memo: “backwater” – Utah public lands bill or “extreme” environmentalism?
Sutherland Institute commentary by Matthew Piccolo, policy analyst

Today, a legislative committee received an update on the state’s progress in implementing H.B. 148, a bill passed this year with the goal of giving Utah greater access to its public lands in order to maintain state autonomy and increase funding for Utah schools.
As part of debate in the meeting, Vince Rampton, Democratic candidate for Utah lieutenant governor, argued that the Legislature’s efforts to take back public lands represent a “backwater” approach. According to Rampton, the state needs to use a “constructive” approach by engaging in a true partnership with the federal government rather than “drawing lines.”
http://goo.gl/MCz6N

STEM: Why It Makes No Sense
Education Week commentary by Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy

Of course you know what STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. It’s an acronym, signifying a program and a national priority. The argument for its centrality is simple. Our economy is technology-driven. The strength of that economy depends on our ability to turn out an endless bag full of technological triumphs. Our capacity to fulfill that promise in turn depends on the skills of our people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But we are swiftly falling behind a growing number of other countries with respect to both the quality and quantity of people with the needed STEM skills. So, inevitably, we place a high priority on the production of more people with higher quality STEM skills. The logic is ironclad, isn’t it? Or is it?
Here is an interesting fact. The countries that are producing more people with higher skills in mathematics, science, engineering, technology, and science don’t have STEM programs. When we do benchmarking research in those countries, we don’t hear their educators talking about STEM priorities. We don’t hear their industrial leaders doing that either. The term is not used. The programs don’t exist.
What is going on here? How come they are doing better at this when we have STEM programs and they don’t?
http://goo.gl/VUlOi

Notes From the Education Underground
A ‘radical’ reform goes mainstream, but New York State retreats.
Wall Street Journal editorial

The U.S. is stress-testing Herbert Stein’s law like never before, but maybe the economist’s famous dictum—trends that can’t continue won’t—is being vindicated in education. Witness the support of America’s mayors for “parent trigger,” the public school reform that was denounced as radical only a few years ago but now is spreading across the country.
Over the weekend in Orlando, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously approved a resolution endorsing new rules that give parents the running room to turn around rotten schools. At “persistently failing” institutions, a majority of parents can sign a petition that turns out the administrators and teachers in favor of more competent hires, or dissolves the school, or converts it to a charter. Teachers unions loathe this form of local accountability.
The mayors note that this reform is targeted at the 2,000 or so high schools that count as “dropout factories,” where more than 40% of the freshman class fails to graduate. Most are in poor or minority zip codes where kids and parents have no other options. These 2,000 schools produce—if that’s the word—51% of U.S. dropouts.
http://goo.gl/opXjD

Title IX at 40 needs more work
USA Today op-ed by Angela Hattery, professor and associate director of Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University

Americans overwhelmingly approve of the purpose and enforcement of Title IX, the 1972 federal law requiring women to be given equal opportunity in education, including sports. What happens in reality, in the sports world anyway, is quite different.
Most people miss the deeper implications of Title IX and the dueling that goes on inside of high school and college athletic departments for scarce resources to fund a growing number of sports.
Reflecting on personal experiences with Title IX, most women are grateful for the opportunities it created: the chance simply to compete. And as scholars Vivian Acosta and Linda Carpenter have documented across the 40 years since Title IX’s passage, the number of girls and young women competing in sports has grown exponentially. That’s progress.
http://goo.gl/vQeQd

GAO and George Miller Don’t Understand How Special Education Works Huffington Post commentary by Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Today’s “exquisitely-timed” GAO report has set off an avalanche of accusations at charter schools for “discriminating” against students with disabilities. George Miller, who requested the study, told the Washington Post that the news was “sobering.”
Everyone already knows, as Eva Moskowitz told the Wall Street Journal, that the best charter schools try to help students with mild disabilities shed their labels (and Individual Education Plans) by improving their math and reading abilities. That could explain a significant part of the discrepancy.
But there’s another point that’s overlooked entirely: No single public school is expected to serve students with every single type of disability. In fact, traditional public schools regularly “counsel out” students with severe disabilities because they don’t have the resources and expertise to serve them. Many school districts operate separate schools (or programs) precisely for those kids.
http://goo.gl/bsP6m

http://goo.gl/jUloR (Paul Bruno via Scholastic)

Freakonomics Goes to School and Teaches Us the Right Way to Bribe Kids The case for putting $20 bills on the desk of every standardized test taker Atlantic commentary by columnist Derek Thompson

A brand new study by Steven D. Levitt (of Freakonomics fame), John A. List, Susanne Neckermann, and Sally Sadoff finds that Chicago students in low-performing schools did better on tests when they were promised money or trophies for their good grades. But it wasn’t as simple as writing a bunch of checks and and waiting for the A’s to pour in. How much money and how you present the rewards makes all the differences.
Without instant money and rewards, many students in these Chicago schools had put forth “low effort on the standardized tests that we study,” the authors write. Why didn’t the students care about good grades? It’s all about the timing of our rewards.
Let’s imagine a man bursts through your nearest door in five seconds and says: “Quick, do 20 push-ups and I’ll send you a check for $20.” Will you ask how long it will take for the money to arrive?
Classical economics would suggest you shouldn’t. All things equal, $20 today is worth $20 in a week or so. But in fact, we’re much more likely to do things — large and small, easy and difficult — when we can see the immediate benefits. If I hold a $20 bill in front your face, you’re more likely to finish a push-up set than if I promise you’ll get the money wired to you in a month.
http://goo.gl/2KXe5

A copy of the study
http://goo.gl/gYIAW

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NATIONAL NEWS
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40 years after Title IX, women still lag in tech fields USA Today

WASHINGTON – Legendary tennis pro Billie Jean King showed up at the White House on Wednesday to mark the 40th anniversary of Title IX. So did astronaut Mae Jemison.
You thought Title IX — the federal legislation that prohibits sex discrimination in all educational programs that receive federal financial aid — was about sports, didn’t you? Contrary to popular belief, athletics is not mentioned in the landmark legislation enacted 40 years ago Saturday.
On Wednesday, a White House conference celebrated the gains women have made in 40 years. The number of college female athletes has increased from 30,000 to 190,000. The number of girls participating in high school sports has increased 1,000%.
On the academic side, women earn the majority of degrees at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels.
Yet their numbers lag in what are known as the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math. Education Department data show, for example, that just 17% of engineering and 18% of computer science-related bachelor’s degrees in 2009-10 were awarded to women. Women make up 25% of the STEM workforce.
http://goo.gl/9W2Zh

http://goo.gl/JlPYq (AP)

http://goo.gl/bN6cN (CSM)

http://goo.gl/fdoLi (ESPN)

IB Program Adds Career-Pathway Certificate Initiative geared toward diverse student population Education Week

The International Baccalaureate organization, best known in the United States for its prestigious two-year diploma program for juniors and seniors, will enter new terrain this fall as it formally rolls out an initiative centered on a variety of career pathways that includes engineering, culinary arts, and automotive technology.
The move comes as the IB presence in U.S. public schools rapidly grows and as the organization has made a concerted push to expand access to a more diverse student population.
Billed as blending academic and practical skills, the IB Career-related Certificate has been piloted at eight U.S. schools. They include Binghamton High School, in New York state, which this month is graduating its fifth group of students to complete the program.
Principal Albert Penna said he believes the new offering may eventually eclipse the flagship IB diploma program in popularity.
http://goo.gl/UTuV0

Supreme Court Says Unions Can’t Bill Non-Members For Political Spending Forbes

The Supreme Court today rejected, on First Amendment grounds, the idea that government-employee unions can charge non-members for political activities, even if they refund the money later.
The Court, in an opinon by Justice Samuel Alito, held that employees can be required to pay dues in exchange for the benefits they get from collective bargaining, but can’t be forced to effectively lend money to the union for political activities they disagree with. It was a blow to the Service Employees International Union, which first tried to make the case moot by offering refunds, and then argued it would be too difficult to get the assent of non-members before launching a campaign to defeat legislation it considered a threat to its existence.
All the judges joined in the final judgment in the case, although Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor said the majority went too far by ruling that government unions must use an “opt-in” system for collecting special assessments, instead of the traditional “opt-out” system where the onus is on non-members to tell the union they don’t want to pay. The ruling applies only to public-sector unions, presumably because they use the power of the government to compel all employees covered by a collective-bargaining agreement to pay dues.
The decision, coming a short time after Gov. Scott Walker survived a union-led recall campaign in Wisconsin, further undermines the power of public-sector unions.
http://goo.gl/l8te1

http://goo.gl/a4CAC (AP)

http://goo.gl/AdMRE (Ed Week)

A copy of the ruling
http://goo.gl/0Vpe5

21 Idaho districts unilaterally set contracts for teachers Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review

BOISE – At least 21 Idaho school districts are unilaterally imposing contract terms on teachers this week, after failing to reach agreement with local teachers unions – an option for districts under the state’s controversial “Students Come First” school reform laws.
In the Lakeland School District in Kootenai County, 96 percent of members of the Lakeland Education Association voted “no” on the district’s last offer on salaries and benefits for the coming year. That offer, like the past four years, includes no base salary increase but some small thaws in the multiyear pay freeze.
“The law is pretty strict now,” Lakeland business manager Tom Taggart said. “So pretty much what they rejected, we just turned around to the board and the board approved it.”
http://goo.gl/81xAU

Orleans Parish school firings after Hurricane Katrina were contract violations, judge rules New Orleans Times-Picayune

The Orleans Parish School Board and the state wrongfully fired thousands of the city’s teachers and other school employees after Hurricane Katrina, a New Orleans judge ruled Wednesday. The decision in the class-action suit could potentially mean the employees are owed hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wages and benefits, although the losing side is expected to appeal. Civil District Judge Ethel Simms Julien issued her ruling a year after she held a monthlong trial on the suit, in which seven individuals sued the board and various state agencies on behalf of about 7,000 dismissed employees, from teachers and principals to janitors and bus drivers.
Saying the employees were deprived of “the vested property interest held in their tenured or permanent employment positions,” the judge awarded the seven more than $1.3 million in lost wages and fringe benefits, plus interest. The individual awards ranged from $48,000 to $480,000.
Julien wrote that the Orleans Parish School Board “violated the contractual and/or state-mandated and OPSB-mandated due process and property/employment rights” of the plaintiffs.
As the board’s “partner” in running the local schools after the storm, the state Department of Education also is “answerable … for the damages caused to the plaintiff class from the wrongful termination which occurred during their partnership,” Julien wrote. She added that the state agency “intentionally and tortiously interfered with the employment contracts and/or legally protected employment interests of the plaintiff class.”
http://goo.gl/Gbwjn

Video of bus monitor Karen Klein being bullied goes viral, raises thousands of dollars Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle

An online fundraising effort to assist a Greece bus monitor verbally abused by students raised more than $187,000 in less than 24 hours.
The effort was set in motion by a video of 10 minutes of profane taunting endured on Monday by bus monitor Karen Klein. The Greece school district is holding a news conference with police at 1 p.m. to provide updates on the case, which has gained worldwide attention.
Klein didn’t report the behavior and said she figured she had just ended the year on a bad note.
But one of the kids on the Greece Athena Middle School bus captured the incident on a cellphone camera. The video got pulled off of Facebook late Tuesday and was posted to YouTube. By early Wednesday, it had gone viral across the world. By Thursday morning, it had been viewed more than 1.5 million times.
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