Brian Calle, Orange County Register:

The 340,000-member CTA – the state’s largest labor union and an affiliate of the nation’s largest union (the 3.2 million-member National Education Association) – is far more than an advocate for teachers; it is an instrument for political dominance across a spectrum of issues in California and elsewhere. Senik’s characterizes the CTA as “a political behemoth that blocks meaningful education reform, protects failing and even criminal educators and inflates teacher pay and benefits to unsustainable levels.”

[...]

They are “the highest-paid teachers in the nation,” at an average of $68,000 annually, according to Senik. And that doesn’t take into account pension benefits, which typically allow teachers to retire after 30 years with 75 percent of their salary.

The transcript follows after the YouTube audio.  This is from the Darla Jaye program on Kansas City’s KMBZ 980 AM.  Originally aired on Friday, May 28, 2010.  Four parts, total length 32 minutes.

To learn more, visit Red County.

The transcript follows after the fold:

(more…)

AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Hoping to make history, the Senate set off on its major overhaul of the nation’s health care system Wednesday, but its first steps were quickly overtaken by fresh cost concerns and partisan anger. An ambitious timetable that called for completing committee action in early summer seemed in danger of slipping away. (more…)

CS Monitor:

Our current private health insurance system is the most costly, wasteful, complicated, and bureaucratic in the world.

Bagyants.com:

In this lesson we’ll look at a poll sponsored by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. The poll’s objective was to gauge support for the construction of the Holcomb coal plant expansion. Let’s look at a few of the questions:

1. What is the most important issue facing Kansas today?

• Economy, 30 percent
• Jobs/Industry, 18 percent
• Budget, 10 percent
• Moral issues, 5 percent
• Health care/Insurance, 5 percent
• Leadership, 4 percent.

For the sake of argument, let’s accept the notion that the chamber wants the coal plants to be built (crazy, I know). What does this question accomplish? Well, it shows that most respondents care more about the economy than anything else. This fits nicely with the argument that the coal plant expansion will create jobs. But wait a second. Do you see anything significant missing from the list? Perhaps the issue that nearly all Americans rank as the most important by far, on every poll since the beginning of time? Education. These results may have been very different, had it been part of the equation.

City Journal:

With two wars to fight and a reeling economy, the Obama administration wasn’t supposed to be about education policy at all. The stimulus bill, and now the omnibus spending bill before Congress, change that, however. The vast new resources that they shovel into public schools are sure to have an enormous and lasting impact on education. Unfortunately, though he keeps issuing encouraging sound bites, President Obama’s actions so far mostly continue the Democratic Party’s tired practices of subsidizing ineffective education policies and killing effective, cost-saving ones whenever they might threaten the adults who run the public schools.

Rasmussen:

Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans agree with President Obama’s proposal to require all schools nationwide to follow the same standards for curriculum and grading.

Thirty-five percent (35%) oppose the president’s plan, and 21% are not sure which is best in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Sixty-five percent (65%) favor merit pay, saying excellent teachers should be rewarded with extra money. Twenty-two percent (22%) disagree, and 13% are not sure.

The Heritage Foundation:

With the 111th Congress scheduled to consider its reauthorization, the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) may be in jeopardy. But a new evaluation highlights how the DCOSP is benefiting families, adding to the reasons why Congress and the Obama Administration should continue this successful program.

Program Background

The DCOSP was passed by Congress in January 2004. The program, which provided more than 1,700 children with scholarships of up to $7,500 in 2008 to attend a private school of their choice, has repeatedly shown improved family satisfaction and increased parental involvement. Since 2004, approximately 7,200 children have applied for spots in the program, or about four applicants for each available scholarship.[1]

The program has served as an alternative for families with children underserved by the D.C. public school system. Although the District spends far above the national per-pupil average ($14,400), D.C. students lag well behind the academic achievement of their peers nationwide, and only slightly more than half of students graduate.[2]

American Enterprise Institute:

Today, the notion that turnarounds constitute a new, better way to solve the countless problems facing America’s schools is gaining immense popularity among reformers of all stripes. Roughly 3,300 schools are estimated to be in turnaround mode in 2008-2009, and approximately 4,900 are projected to be in 2009-2010.[1] Approximately 90 percent of these schools are in large urban districts.[2] (more…)

Congressional Democrats continue to show more concern to teachers unions than the cycle of poverty resulting from DC’s government-run schools.

Cato:

…it puts the program on life support, and it suggests that Congress is hoping the DC Council will pull the plug for them, so that they can’t be directly blamed for kicking 1,900 children out of private schools that they have chosen and become attached to.

Critics of the program complain that, after its first two years, it had still not raised overall student academic achievement by a significant margin (though parents are happier with their voucher schools). What is less well known is that the program has proven to be dramatically more cost effective than the DC public schools. While voucher and non-voucher students are performing at about the same level, DC public schools spend more than four times as much per student. Total per pupil spending in DC was $24,600 in 2007-08, while voucher schools receive an average of less than $6,000.

If you could save 75 percent on a purchase, get the same quality of service, and know you’d be happier with the result, wouldn’t you do it? It seems Congressional Democrats would not.

On paper, Wichita governnment-run schools don’t discriminate based on “culture” or “socioeconomic status” — that won’t affect the wealthy, because they can afford private schools.

From KSN in Wichita:

The Wichita school board adopted three new diversity policies that now include sexual orientation in its language.

One policy reads: “The Wichita public schools shall ensure that there is no discrimination based on but not limited to race, ethnicity, culture, age, gender, sexual orientation, language, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, or skill level in the placement, instruction, and guidance of pupils.”

“It’s the first step to change everywhere,” said Keynon Tucker after the vote.

Keynon’s with the group Student’s United who first approached the board on the subject back in 2007.

“The young men continued to yell such things as fags and then grab sand and threw it in our faces, and I was gay bashed,” Jasmine, a North High Senior told the Board at that 2007 meeting.

The students wanted sexual orientation added to USD 259′s anti-discrimination policy. But the district’s legal council warned such a change could set them up for lawsuits.